Connecticut

Sunday we stayed put in Massachusetts where we were boondocking away from the brunt of the storm. We still had a lot of rain.

Monday it rained and rained, we were able to find a campground that was open in Connecticut, we drove south in more rain.

Saw some pretty waterfalls

Had a horrible time trying to take a photo of the state line sign through a rainy windshield

Tuesday we headed to Hartford, Connecticut! The first stop was the Hartford Connecticut Temple

I'm sure it was very on purpose that this looks so much like a New England meetinghouse in design and style

Then we went to the state capitol building, which looked like a castle to me except for the dome

It was so tall! Not as vertical feeling as the one in Pennsylvania though

We were only allowed on the first floor, which was disappointing. I heard the Senate has a funky round desk/table set up!

This was a cool angle looking up into the dome

A better look at the statue underneath it, Genius of Connecticut

Beautiful details

A statue of Nathan Hale

(Not really related but Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales are graphic novels about history that have been a huge hit with J and S, well, except for Donner Dinner Party....

Super cool find: a folding camp bed used by Lafayette during the American Revolution. Folds right up into the trunk!

We went to walk along the Connecticut River and see some sculptures about Lincoln

We learned from this one that Lincoln was the first president to give a presidential pardon to a turkey because his son begged him to not have the pet turkey served for dinner.

Wednesday we headed to Weir Farm National Historical Park where we learned it was the site on the 2020 quarter! We loved the sign, looked like an easel with a canvas on it!

Check out this stone picnic table! We learned that they have a Scottish craftsman come every so often to repair or rebuild the stone walls and foundations, since that is still a practiced skill there.

We had quite a surprise! J. Alden Weir, artist in his own right, had a son-in-law, Mahonri Young, also an artist. Young was the sculptor of the This is the Place monument in Salt Lake City (which we know VERY well) and also the Brigham Young statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Young was the grandson of Brigham Young. In the Young studio, they had one of the molds for the monument on display.

Most of the items here, except the painting, are original to Weir

Check out his well used palette!

We checked out some of the farm's outbuildings, in its day it was a working farm. Super cool: all the sketches or paintings of animals depicted in the buildings were done by either Weir or Young.

I had to get a close up photo of the contraption on the stool--it was a calf weaning ring! It keeps the calf from nursing while not having to separate the calf from the cow.

The area is known for lots of butterflies and I managed to snap photos of two species, plus got some video of both of them flitting about.

The Junior Ranger badge was super cool! We were so glad we stopped there and experienced the site.

Look closely, we drove past this small airplane airport right as one was coming in for a landing

We loved the sights of New England, this one was a little more just England than New England...

The architecture + so many buildings were painted white. Against all the greenery it made for a pretty picture

I like signs, so I had to snap a photo of this one. In case you didn't know... This is how you use the lanes on the freeway!

Thursday we went to PEZ! We loved the PEZ theming everywhere

When we walked in, there was this display wall of dozens of PEZ dispensers

Including some Hello Kitty ones, to the delight of S

We got a PEZ smashed penny too

They have the world's largest PEZ dispenser that you can push the button to make it work

We learned that PEZ are originally from Austria, marketed as a breath mint and smoking cessation aid. PEZ didn't come to the U.S. until the 1950s

So many PEZ dispensers to see in the displays!

Check out this incredibly oversized Hello Kitty one!

We could peek in the production room to see them packaging up the dispensers, but not making the actual candy

We watched a video on PEZ about making the dispensers AND the candy

You could purchase and fill up one of those pails with different flavors of PEZ, your choice

This PEZ dispenser was several feet tall, taller than the stanchions around it!

A PEZ-themed motorcycle was on display

It had PEZ candy shaped mirrors!

Super cool souvenir--we got to keep the PEZ lanyards that had our entry tickets on them.

We made a brief stop to Evergreen Cemetery

We have been to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. We came to see Sarah Winchester's grave

We also made a stop to see the Amistad memorial. It is located where the Amistad enslaved were kept imprisoned during their trial.

Friday we headed up to Springfield, Massachusetts.

The first thing we saw was a Dr. Seuss Sculpture Garden, all the sculptures were done by his stepdaughter!

There is a Dr. Seuss museum nearby, in fact, the sculpture area is surrounded by a bunch of museums. We didn't go in the museum.

The Thing One, Thing Two footprints for social distancing out front of the museum was a cute touch.

We were headed to the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

Longfellow saw rows and rows of these muskets racked up at the Springfield Armory and wrote Organ of Muskets about it.

There were machines in the museum, showing all the different ways that making guns became automated at Springfield. Harper's Ferry and Springfield Armory were the two national armories that produced firearms so that the U.S. did not have to buy armaments from a foreign power.

We drove back into Connecticut and headed to Mystic, Connecticut.

So beautiful there! (Also, hordes of people, seeing as it was a Friday night in a tourist town)

We got dinner from THE Mystic Pizza

Then we headed into Rhode Island!

We got a rainstorm, a rainbow (double, if you can spot the second one, it was really faint), and a beautiful sunset!

Saturday we headed back into Massachusetts

We were headed to New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park

The visitor center was previously a courthouse, then a bank

Check out the cobblestone roads!

These two weathervanes were fun to see. The town is very much a sailing town, we could see all the ships and boats in the harbor and marina, heard lots of sea birds. (The second weathervane is a whale, but it was hard to find an angle to get a photo of it not obscured by the roofline)

Lots of Moby Dick references in this town

This was the church, Seamen's Bethel, that Herman Mellville mentions in Moby Dick

There was also a memorial to the 54th Massachusetts in the town, this is the all black regiment featured in the movie, Glory

Our next stop was Cape Cod National Seashore. Boy, this was one of those places where you could spend a week and soak up the beauty and it wouldn't be enough time!

I scared off a great blue heron on a hiking trail, twice! I came around the corner to hear him squawking and flying away, then as I got too close, he took off again and flew REALLY far away.

They had another trail that was set up for the visually impaired (the rope and the buoy signaled there was a sign to read, the bottom of the half was in Braille) and also had stops for younger kids

We drove out to see the Marconi station site--this was the guy who invented "wireless communication" or what we know as radio today. The station doesn't exist anymore, it's succumbed to the elements.