Yale and Mystic

 On the third day of our Connecticut vacation we continued our cultural exploration of the CT coast with a stop at the Peabody Museum of Natural History on the storied campus of Yale University.  It was a beautiful sunny day as the coeds biked and walked along the walkways that have been used by students for more than 300 years, which is pretty incredible when you think about it.

The description of the museum was pretty impressive and the real thing did not disappoint.   We got there just as the doors opened, paid our $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for our son.  We immediately headed for the third floor since most of the people coming in went directly to the exhibits on the first floor.

The Hall of Minerals and its rainbow of colors.

Our first stop was the Hall of Minerals with a colorful array of minerals rivaling the colors of the rainbow.  I believe the museum claims to have one of the largest private mineral collection in the world, and I don't doubt it given the sampling we viewed.  It included a reproduction of the largest gold nugget ever discovered, weighing in at 150 pounds.  At today's prices, that would net you close to $4,000,000 if you found that today.  Other exhibits on the third floor included geology, solar system, atmospheres, oceans and climates, ancient Egypt and a labyrinth of dioramas of North America.

Apparently this is an Apatosaurus, not a Brontosaurus.  Who knew?

On the second floor was the Discovery Room with various snakes, lizards, and insects in glass encased homes. From the windows of this room, you could see the full scale models of an Apatosaurus, which to me looked like a Brontosaurus, so we didn't linger long before heading downstairs for an up close a personal look at the big dinosaurs.  Apparently what distinguishes one from the other is the number of vertebrae on the hips.  Apato has three vertebrae and Bronto has five.

The last exhibit on the first floor was a temporary exhibit about "Big Food".  If you ever wanted to see a visual representation of what the average American eats in a year, you could see that here.  It included a little test that showed you some ingredients and you had to guess what the food was and whether or not it was good for you.  The more ingredients, particularly the ones you couldn't pronounce, the worse it was for you.  Another display showed how much sugar is in some everyday beverages.

Sugar content of everyday beverages.

We departed the hallowed halls of Yale en route to Mystic and the Mystic Aquarium.  Since it is the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, there was a Titanic Exhibit that drew equally titanic crowds.  We paid the general admission of $29 each for my wife and I and $21 for our 9-year-old son.  It had been a few years since we last visited and the place had expanded, but given the crowds during April vacation it was a bit of a challenge to get close to many of the exhibits.  We watched the Beluga whales for a bit, then moseyed over to the penguin tank.

Penguin exhibit at Mystic Aquarium.

Inside, the Titanic exhibit was a sea of bodies.  It would have been far more enjoyable if we weren't dodging people, but we wandered through anyway.  There were many exhibits and photos including a big replica of an iceberg.

That's a healthy chunk of ice!

 There were tanks all around with colorful fish, ugly fish, pretty fish, eels, sharks, stingrays and many other underwater species.  Again, we would have lingered longer had it not been for all the people, so we took a few photos and headed for the door.  I imagine it would be a completely different experience if we went any time other than spring break.

 
Our last stop before heading out was the gift shop.  The place was absolutely packed.  We stood in line for probably 15-20 minutes to buy rock candy, which is one of Ashton's favorite treats.  In retrospect we should have just hit the road, but it was vacation and all we were going to do at this point was head to our hotel, so we stuck it out.

Our hotel was the Comfort Suites in Norwich, CT.  The building was a bit "tired" and it sat right next to an industrial park, so "scenic" and "convenient" were not two words I'd use to describe it.  Many of the rooms were booked by shipbuilders who worked in the shipyards, so I think we were the only family there.  The indoor pool was quite nice, heated to a comfortable temperature and we had it to ourselves.  The hot tub, on the other hand, was more like a warm tub, making it difficult to distinguish between the pool temperature and the hot tub temperature.

For dinner we went to a take out place called Buddy's Dugout where we enjoyed burgers, fries and shakes while sitting outside at their picnic tables.

Certainly Coastal Connecticut had some interesting places to visit, but the parts we saw were too congested four our taste and lacked the scenic qualities we're fortunate enough to experience everyday in Maine, so we were happy to get home.