A Mystical Interlude

I must confess; I have never seen the movie “Mystic Pizza.” The Julia Roberts star-making role as a waitress in a small coastal Connecticut town had never interested me. Yet, when my family and I passed through the sleepy village of Mystic, Connecticut, I just had to visit the restaurant.

On the way from Plymouth, Massachusetts to Jersey City, New Jersey, we needed a place to camp overnight. Driving with two kids and two cats while towing a trailer, my husband and I try to avoid travel days longer than five hours. Any longer would result in tantrums and crying — and the kids would be upset as well.

During my planning, the name Mystic jumped out at me on the map. Located close to Interstate 95, it was a good halfway point. Beautiful and rich in history, it was a perfect interlude to our journey. Rows of Greek Revival, Italianate, and Queen Anne style houses instantly charmed us. The Mystic River bisects the historic village, a combination of the towns Groton and Stonington. Mystic has been an important seaport for centuries. Starting in 1784, more than 600 ships were built there. Masts of all shapes and sizes of boats still line the waterway.

Mystic is from the Native American Pequot term, missi-tuk, meaning large river with waves made by tides or wind. It is an apt name given that the river soon spills into a harbor and then into the Atlantic Ocean.

A year previously, my husband and I purchased our first home on wheels, a 32’ Forest River Grey Wolf. We thrived in the minimalistic lifestyle where confined spaces encouraged us to get outside and be explorers. Coming from Colorado, we had explored rust-colored mesas and canyons, Native American ruins, and historic pioneer trails. But we longed to show our children a different kind of history: how our country came to be and the journey of our European ancestors as they made their way to our shores.

We mapped out a plan to spend three months exploring the upper Midwest and East Coast. The idea was to visit friends, family, museums, historic sites, national parks, etc. We had a general idea of where to go, but shorter stops often happened serendipitously. We often heard of hidden gems on our travels, like where the largest Christmas store in the world was (Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan) or where we could bike across a spectacular three-mile-long causeway which was formerly a rail line (the Island Line Trail at Lake Champlain, Vermont).

Sometimes we simply looked at a map, picked a halfway point, and searched for a campsite. Our goal was to have something interesting to do at each stop. Not knowing if we would ever be in these places again, we strove to absorb as much as possible. Mystic was one such fortuitous location, offering rest and a variety of places to explore.

Our first stop while touring the town was the Mystic Seaport Museum, one of Connecticut’s most visited attractions. The museum is a beautiful replica of a 19th-century village and is the largest maritime museum in the US. With more than 60 historic buildings gathered in Seaport Village, we felt immersed in that time period. The village features costumed historians, craftspeople, and musicians to enrich the experience. Strolling down the charming street, the familiar smell of brackish water and squawk of seagulls told us we were near the river. We could visualize the sailors of the past getting ready for their long voyage or thankfully arriving home. The mariners would have left their families for up to five years on these grueling trips.

The crown jewel of the museum, the Charles W. Morgan, is one of four ships there designated as a historic landmark. Built in 1841, she is the only remaining wooden whaling ship in the world. The Morgan’s enormous coal-colored hull and towering trio of masts dominate the other nearby vessels. She was in service for 80 years, collecting blubber from sperm whales from nearby waters that was made into oil for street lamps. Our children exhaled in relief when we told them that the invention of the light bulb ended the harvesting of whales for oil.

Our family rarely misses an opportunity to get onto the water, but it was too late in the day for an outing on one of the museum’s many vessels. Visitors can charter a boat for a half- or multi-day trip. For shorter excursions, you can rent a rowboat, sailboat, or for non-sailors, a Yankee Peddler to cruise down the beautiful Mystic River.

A fascinating part of the museum is watching craftsmen work at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. Myriad sizes and shapes of watercraft are there in various stages of repair. Among them during our visit was the Mayflower 2, a re-creation of the ship in which the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic in 1620. She was temporarily docked for repairs in preparation for last November’s 400^th anniversary of the Pilgrim’s landing. Days earlier our family had toured Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts and we were disappointed to not see the Mayflower 2, so it was exciting to view it in person in Mystic. The original Mayflower was lost to history, likely sold for scrap.

We were amazed at how small the ship was. At 106’ from bow to stern, it was hard to imagine 102 passengers and 30 or so crew on the small vessel. Mustard yellow paint and colorful stripes adorned the short and squat ship. The ship’s appearance felt almost cartoonish compared to modern passenger craft. The sails were not up so we had to visualize the ship in its full glory at sea. The journey must have been awful, taking 66 days with the loss of five lives.

I felt queasy thinking of those brave souls spending so much time crammed into a small hull, hot and humid with so many bodies in a tight space. The Pilgrims must have had strong beliefs to muster the courage to embark on such a voyage. One woman even had a baby on the ship. We could not board the Mayflower 2, but it was enough for us to just see it in person. Our children vehemently replied, “no way” when we asked if they would have traveled in the small ship across an ocean.

From the museum, it was a short drive to the main street and dinner. I had talked the family into Mystic Pizza, although pizza is never a hard sell in our family. The smell of fresh-baked pizza and a variety of spices drifted outside the door leading into our destination.

Countless framed photos of the actors from the movie in familiar places around town adorn the walls. A TV in each corner of the room played the namesake movie, giving us views of the actors in the very room in which we were in. Sadly, Julia Roberts did not take our order, but a pleasant waitress made my day answering, “yes,” they did have gluten-free pizza. The taste of the melt-in-your-mouth pizza crust, a welcome change from the usual cardboard texture of gluten-free pizza delighted me.

An after-dinner twilight stroll past sinful-looking ice cream shops afforded us beautiful views of historic houses along the river framed by a colorful sunset. The water was calm enough to cast a mirrored vision of the many ships in the waterway. We took our time hoping that the drawbridge would heave its massive concrete counterweights down to allow a ship to pass through. Our kids grew impatient asking every minute or so when a boat would arrive, so we soon gave up and headed back to our trailer.

We continued our nautical-themed adventures the following day driving South down Highway 12 to visit the Submarine Force Museum in nearby Groton. The imposing view of the dark, T-shaped sail section of the USS George Washington made it obvious we had arrived at our destination.

The world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus is the highlight of the museum. Sharing a name with Captain Nemo’s ship in Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” it launched in 1954. Nuclear power allowed her to go faster and stay underwater for longer leading to Operation Sunshine’s mission attempting to be the first ship to sail under the North Pole. The difficult and successful traverse under the arctic ice in 1958 was the Nautilus’ biggest achievement.

On our self-guided audio tour of the submarine, we marveled at how cramped the living quarters were and how well they used what space they had. When in service, the 90-plus crew members crowded into tiny rooms with bunks stacked four high. Our seven-year-old daughter’s favorite part of the tour was showing us that she never had to duck when passing through the numerous oval bulkhead doors. She hoped the sailors who served on the vessel were short. My 6’1” husband and I were not so lucky and were happy to get out into the fresh air and stretch out our backs when we finished the tour.

We squeezed a lot of history and experiences into two days but left feeling that we had just scratched the surface of Mystic and her charms. What began as an overnight rest stop to break up a long drive turned into one of the favorite stops on our journey. Maybe I will watch “Mystic Pizza” after all.