New England

We left New York and moved into Connecticut last week as we continue our journey up the east coast.  We are in a little town called Chaplin, which is out in the middle of nowhere.  It is a very rural peaceful RV park and a great value compared to what we have been paying for sites on this trip.  The park is not that far from the places we wanted to see and the relatives we wanted to visit in Rhode Island.  As we could not find a decent park in Rhode Island we are staying at this park for two weeks to handle both states.

Here our activities for the first week. 

We drove to the coast of Connecticut to check out the towns of Mystic and Stonington.  Both are quaint little towns on the water with nice downtown areas to walk around.  You really get the feel of being in New England.  For you movie buffs there was a movie called Mystic Pizza which was the breakout role for Julia Roberts.  There really is a pizza restaurant called Mystic Pizza and some of the filming was done there.  We stopped in and bought a slice.

Mystic Pizza restaurant

View of the harbor with some sail boats

We had lunch at the next town over, Stonington, at a restaurant, Noah’s, recommended in our 1,000 places to see.  It was a very nice lunch. 

Noah’s restaurant

On Sunday we took a drive to see a couple of other little towns not far from here, East Haddam and Essex.  In East Haddam there is Gillette Castle state park which has a stone castle made at the turn of the 19th century by a man named Gillette.  He was famous for playing Sherlock Holmes on the stage during that period.  This house sits on a cliff and has amazing views of the area.  The amount of stone used is unreal.  Even the canopies over the windows are made of stone.

Gillette Castle

Stone canopies

The view

Part of the wall that surrounds the house

We had lunch in East Haddam at the Blue Oar.  This is right on the water and is a favorite place for boaters as there is a dock.  It was rainy and a little cold the day we went so no crowds.

Yesterday we drove to Newport, Rhode Island to check it out.  We ended up walking the downtown (wharf area), having lunch at the Black Pearl restaurant (fantastic clam chowder), driving on Bellevue Avenue (famous mansions) and Ocean Drive (more huge homes) and ending up walking on the cliff walk.  The town has built a nice walkway that extends 3 1/2 miles on the edge of the cliff and passes by many of the famous mansions.  About half the walk was closed when we visited but we did a little over a mile of it.

The cliff that the walkway follows

A small cottage!

Weekend retreat!

Newport was great and the weather was just perfect for the day.  The town was much larger than I had expected and I can see how it can get very busy on weekends and during the summer months. 

Next up is a visit to Hartford, Connecticut and a visit with relatives over the Memorial Day weekend.