On the Road...Part I

Well, my family and I are here in Mystic, Connecticut. It's almost midnight and my sister is asleep, so I'll try to make this as quick as possible. We're in a Best Western just off Exit 90 on I-95, about a five minute drive from the Aquarium and the Sea Port. It's a nice place, pretty quiet, much like most Best Westerns across the United States. It's also pretty full since it's tourist season, so if you travel to Mystic, I would advise either reserving a room beforehand or making sure checking in is your top priority when you arrive here in Mystic.

We left Staten Island around 11 this morning, under cloudy skies. The roads were mostly clear until the inevitable back up at the George Washington Bridge. We inched along and my mother decided to play a game--a good tip for anyone of any age stuck in traffic in a car. We kept a list of the different license plates we saw, each taking a guess at how many states we would see. I lost out pretty quickly with my guess of 12. We kept track until we stopped in Connecticut for lunch. My dad eventually won with a guess of 20--our final total was 19 states (plus 2 Canadian provinces). After a rather delicious Subway's lunch at a truck stop, we got back on the road. The traffic on I-95 wasn't as bad as it was when we were driving through the main part of Connecticut (past Stamford, Hartford, etc), so it was good we were still playing that game.

So five hours after we left Staten Island, we pulled into Mystic and had checked in. Unfortunately, most attractions here in Mystic close at 5, so we didn't have much to do. This boggled my sister's mind, but I'm pretty used to it. The attractions closed at 5 when we were in Williamsburg, VA. And while I was in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, it seemed the entire city shut down at 5 PM! The only things that remained open were the theater and McDonald's, though the pubs did seem to reopen by 7 PM. It seems bar-crawling is the great English pasttime. Fortunately, we didn't have to do that here (especially since my sister is underaged) as old Mystic Village is opened past 5. It is a series of different stores, something for everyone. My parents went into the Grey Goose Cookery while my sister and I hit Irish Eyes. There was something for the Irish-Italians (Irish Temper and Italian Attitude--Paging Staten Island) and Irish-Germans, but nothing for us Irish-Greeks!

After I showed the store to my parents, we met up with my rather impatient sister in the Christmas shoppe. There were ornaments off all kinds--traditional, Family Guy, Simpsons, M&Ms, Hershey chocolate, etc. We hit the general store, which smelled like popcorn, and browsed for a bit. Afterwards, we got pulled into the chocolate store and showed great self-discipline by not buying anything, no matter how GOOD that fudge looked. For you shopaholics or those who love quaint specialty shops, this place is for you! TIP: Go to the Tourist Information center in the village. You can check out different hotels, look at menus from Mystic's restaurants, pick up guide books, and buy discount tickets for the aquarium and seaport. Also, you will get a piece of paper that will save you 10% on any purchases in the shops in the village. In some stores, it allows for a free gift. And who doesn't like free gifts?

After chilling for some time in the hotel room (where you do not want to watch TV with my sister. You'll never know what happens on a show because you end up watching three at once!), we went to eat dinner in the Ground Round attached to our hotel. We used to have a Ground Round by us, but it's long gone so it was a trip down memory lane that crashed. It was more of a sports bar than the family restaurant we remembered, the one that played movies and gave you popcorn. However, the food was delicious and they gave generous portions. I had chicken tenderloins, though the baked potato fell flat. The mozzarella sticks were also delicious as well. Now, I'm never a member of the clean plate club--my appetite is a third of what they give you at restaurants--but even my father and sister couldn't finish theirs!

We spent the rest of the night watching TV and chilling out in the hotel room. Tomorrow: the Aquarium and arrival in Boston! Hopefully, I'll have pictures to show! And then I'll really have to figure out how the pictures on this thing work!