Mystic & more: small Connecticut coastal towns offer a bounty of big-time attractions and plenty of Yankee charm

Travel America, Nov-Dec, 2004 by Randy Mink

ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS about touring New England is that worthwhile sights are bunched together, a result of towns being close to each other. Nowhere is that notion truer than in compact Connecticut, our nation's third smallest state.

The southeastern corner of Connecticut is maritime New England in a nutshell. Base yourself in the historic town of Mystic, and you've got a whole raft of sightseeing pleasures within easy driving distance. The border of Rhode Island is only eight miles away.

Not only do you encounter coastal scenery, seafood eateries, and salty slices of Connecticut's seafaring heritage, but you find the storybook New England of town greens, clapboard homes, and white-steeple churches. Inviting boutiques and antiques shops abound.

A focal point of American maritime history, the Mystic area enjoys a national prominence far out of proportion to its size. Few places in the 19th century rivaled this Connecticut enclave as a center for sea commerce. Whaling, seal hunting, fishing, shipbuilding, and the China trade all made Mystic a magnet for swash-buckling pioneers.

Mystic Seaport, the world's largest maritime museum, is the area's signature attraction. Minutes away are a world-class aquarium and one of the country's best Native American museums.

You easily can spend a day at Mystic Seaport, a replica 19th century village spread across 17 acres along the Mystic River. The fleet of vintage ships includes the 1841 Charles W. Morgan, last of the nation's wooden whaling vessels. In the blubber room below deck, guides explain how whale blubber was sliced, diced, and boiled into oil (used in lamps). The Sabino, a coal-fueled steamship built in 1908, takes passengers on a cruise along the Connecticut coast.

Among the buildings at Mystic Seaport (many were moved to the site from other places) are an oyster culling house, a tavern, chapel, lighthouse, and one-room schoolhouse. Craftspersons demonstrate the skills of the shipsmith (blacksmith), cooper, and shipcarver, who carved the elaborate wooden figureheads on ships of the day.

Horse carriage tides and a planetarium provide other diversions at Mystic Seaport. Special events include December's Christmas-themed Lantern Light tours and October's Chowderfest.

Save time for exploring downtown Mystic, buzzing with pubs, galleries, boutiques, bookstores, and antiques emporiums. The town's 1922 drawbridge on the Mystic River opens hourly in summer to let boats through. From a table at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, you can watch the river action as you enjoy homemade flavors like creamy coconut, ginger spice, pumpkin pie, Mystic mud, and Kahlua mocha fudge.

At Mystic Pizza, made famous in the 1988 Julia Roberts movie of the same name, savor a "Slice of Heaven" and pick up a souvenir pizza cutter, yoyo, mug, or T-shirt. The restaurant also sells videotapes of Mystic Pizza (filmed in Mystic and neighboring towns), a story about the lives and loves of three young waitresses.

From spring through fall, schooner cruises ply the Mystic River and some go out into Long Island Sound. The windjammer Mystic Whaler features lobster dinner outings.

Olde Mistick Village, away from downtown, is a colonial-themed shopping center with more than 60 specialty shops and free entertainment in a garden setting with duck ponds, a gazebo, and waterwheel.

Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration, near Olde Mistick Village, is one of the nation's finest aquariums. Besides viewing penguins, a sea lion show, and the world's largest outdoor beluga whale habitat, visitors can immerse themselves in underwater archaeology at the Institute for Exploration, a major expansion to the aquarium in 1999.

The Institute is the head-quarters of Dr. Robert Ballard, best known as the marine scientist whose expedition discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. Exhibits focus not only on the ill-fated ocean liner but on other famous vessels, such as Lt. John F. Kennedy's PT 109, which sank following an enemy attack in the South Pacific during World War II. Ballard's team found the boat in 2002. "Noah's Flood & Ancient Shipwrecks" looks at Ballard's expeditions to the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Institute visitors can walk the deck of a replica of a scientific support ship and learn about remotely operated robotics systems that have revolutionized deep-sea exploration. Two spherical theaters provide a seven-minute video descent into the ocean.

Mystic Aquarium's Immersion Institute theater offers live views of California's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary via a web feed using robotic vehicles and underwater cameras. The hookup even includes live explanations from a diver.

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the world's largest Native American museum, is another must-see in southeastern Connecticut. Tucked amid wooded hills and marshlands eight miles north of Mystic, the museum chronicles the Mashantucket Pequot tribe from prehistoric times to ownership of a wildly successful mega-casino on the reservation near Ledyard.