A few weeks ago we visited Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. Earlier this year my husband read an article about the Seaport and since he loves ships he wanted to visit. I am not as interested in historic ships as he is, but I wanted to go someplace new and different on vacation, and since it is near the ocean the kids were game for it. So we planned a trip to Connecticut, to visit the Seaport and go to the beach. We discovered that Mystic Seaport is huge, much too big to see in one day. It has an enormous collection of sailing ships and boats, and a re-created 19th century seafaring village. There are over 60 original historic buildings and hundreds of ships.
We have been to historic villages before, so we decided to concentrate on the ships. There is so much to see it was overwhelming. One great thing the Seaport does is that they validate your ticket, so you can return for a second day within the week at no extra charge. This is nice, because I think the best way to see this would be to spread the visit out, with a few days in between.
The staff of the Seaport does demonstrations through out the day. These were very well done and interesting. We watched a Whaleboat demonstration, From “Whale Ho!” To “Fin Out”, and it was fascinating. From the demonstration you really got a feeling of how alone and how scary it must have been to be out chasing a whale. Another demonstration we enjoyed was the anchor and dory demonstration, where the staffers showed how the ship L.A. Dunton dropped anchor and launched whaling dories. These kind of activities really made the history come alive. And the Seaport has these activities all day long, literally from the time they open until closing. I wish we had done a few more of them, since they were unique and lots of fun. We had a great time at Mystic Seaport, and it was well worth the visit, although the kids probably enjoyed their days at the beach more.
Mystic was always a fun place to take our kids when they were young. It’s near my in-laws so we got a family membership an when we visited them we could go over there for as long as we wanted. The ships were great to be able to board and the kids liked all of the special activities for them. One of my memories is of my oldest son when he was about 4. He loves dill pickles and there were people in costume on the green selling big whole dill pickles out of a barrel. He got one and was so happy just wandering around chewing on this big pickle.
Sounds like wonderful place to visit.