Day 3: Rhode Island

I had to write most of this blog post on my phone, so hopefully the formatting doesn’t turn out too weird…

Mystic/Groton

Before heading to Rhode Island on Monday, we had a few more stops to make on the Connecticut coast. The first was the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, the “submarine capital of the world.” Josh and Spencer, being mechanical engineers, were really into it! Spencer is also a big fan of the Navy.

The USS George Washington, the first ballistic missiles submarine.

Josh on a “ship-mounted, anti-aircraft gun”

(this is what Spencer, our military expert on the trip, says it’s called)

Best friends!

Informative.

While we were at the museum, a submarine returned to the naval base from deployment and we got to see it being pulled back to shore!

The highlight of the museum was going inside the USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine. 

Pretty small doorways!

A letter from President Eisenhower

Josh joining a work call from the USS Nautilus

After the submarine museum, we stopped by the Coast Guard Academy and saw their small museum. I learned that Alexander Hamilton came up with the idea of a coast guard and that their busiest period was enforcing Prohibition.

The Coast Guard Academy

An eagle figurehead from a German war ship, seized by the Allies after World War II and brought to the Coast Guard Academy

For our last stop in Connecticut, we went back to Mystic to see it in the daytime. It’s a beautiful town! We saw the Mystic-Noank Library, then walked down the hill to the main street and got ice cream. Mine was called “Mystic mud.” While we were ordering our ice cream, we got to see the Mystic drawbridge going up! 

The Mystic-Noank Library

Main street Mystic

The drawbridge

Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream

Watch Hill

We continued on to our next state, Rhode Island! The first stop was Watch Hill. We enjoyed the Cape Cod style shops, with the gray wooden shingles, and saw the flying horses carousel, which is called that because the horses hang from chains rather than being attached to a platform. It’s one of the oldest carousels in the country!

The flying horses

We then saw Taylor Swift’s mansion, Holiday House, which she sings about in “the last great american dynasty.” It’s very fenced off, but we were able to get glimpses, especially when we walked down to the beach. It was a nice beach (and empty because it was cold and a weekday), and we got to touch the Atlantic Ocean for the first time on the trip.

Taylor Swift’s house on the hill

Josh tried to help me touch the ocean without getting my feet wet. It didn’t work

Newport

We drove about an hour to get to Newport, another beach town in Rhode Island. We started out with a picnic lunch at Easton Beach. 

Peanut butter and jelly

After that, we planned to do the cliff walk, which is a trail along the ocean where you get to see some of Newport’s Gilded Age mansions. However, I got quite ill after lunch, so that part of the day was canceled. 

After that brief hiatus, we drove into town and walked around. Newport was established in 1639 and is very charming, with a lot of old houses and historic sites. On our way out of town, we drove down Bellevue Avenue, which has a lot of the Gilded Age mansions. They are huge and impressive.

Thames Street

St. Mary’s Parish, where JFK and Jacqueline Kennedy were married

The oldest synagogue in America

Rhode Island’s colonial state house

The oldest tavern in America, also a meeting place for Rhode Island’s colonial government

A charming minor league stadium in Newport. There was a baseball game happening while we were there

One of the Gilded Age mansions on Bellevue Avenue

We drove about two and a half hours from Newport to Provincetown, Massachusetts. We stopped for dinner at Raising Cane’s and checked into the Sunset Inn in Provincetown around 11pm.

Anne Hutchinson memorial in Portsmouth, RI. I wrote a report on Anne Hutchinson in fifth grade!

Third state of the road trip

Our room at the Sunset Inn. More on the inn tomorrow!