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After most of a week in the wilds of New England, we have returned to the more genteel climes of the South.
We drove up last Wednesday, waking just after the Butt-crack of Dawn, and leaving shortly there after so as to not sit in DC traffic. Just to make things interesting, I got only the second speeding ticket in my life, just as I entered Delaware. The cop doing radar was sitting in an underpass, just on the DE side of the MD/DE border, and he radio'd ahead that I was doing 75mph. This is technically correct, as the speed limit on the MD side is 65mph, and I normally do 10mph above the posted limit when traffic and weather conditions are appropriate. The limit drops to 55mph as soon as you cross in to DE, so I dropped to 65mph. The officer who actually wrote the ticket wrote it for 64. I didn't complain, I was just shocked when they claimed I was doing 75 in a 55. I'm pretty sure this lead to his willingness to write it for less, since I was polite and cooperative, oh, and had a completely clean driving record (my only other speeding ticket ever was 15 years ago, long since gone from my record). Twenty over is reckless, and two hours away or not, you better damn well believe I'd have been more than happy to show up in a court and contest it had they insisted on writing it that way. Hopefully a ticket for 9mph over posted won't do much insurance wise (I'm not even sure if it will show up on my VA DMV record, since it was in another state, but I'll have to check). The rest of the trip was uneventful, save for a delay due to an accident about halfway up the Jersey Turnpike. We arrived at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robeli's childhood home in Orange, CT a little over five hours after our trip began.
Once we had a chance to relax for a bit, we then got back in to the car and drove in to New Haven to visit the Peabody Museum at Yale. Driving through New Haven is always an exercise in cognitive dissonance. It's the home of Yale, and it's otherwise a desolated urban blight on the landscape. One of the world's top, and most expensive, universities is in the middle of one of America's poorest cities. Yale is really nice though. Don't leave campus.
Then we drove up Whitney Ave. to North Haven and checked in.
Thursday morning, just to be different, we got in the car and drove for a couple hours to Old Sturbridge Village, in Sturbridge MA. Sturbridge is a nice view of how insane the Protestant Contingent in New England were. These people cooked in front of a massive fire wearing four layers of clothing in the middle of summer. All in the name of decency. Fuck that; I'd rather not cook my brain, thanks. Otherwise, it was really cool seeing the early 19th century Waterwheels of Industry. Steam was still just coming in to vogue, and couldn't be trusted, so everything was driven by the flowing waters of the river. They sell really awesome chocolate chip cookies there, too.
Friday morning, we once again went for different, and drove to Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, in Mystic, CT. Sturbridge is kinda nifty, but Mystic is cool. We've been to the Mystic Aquarium before (we're members of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and get in free, since they peer with each other, but this was the first time I've been to the seaport). It's a bit more modern than I was thinking, and not one map of the whole place had the location of a pizza joint or Julia Roberts on it, but it did have big wooden sailing vessels and the associated support structure that a port and shipbuilding industry required. It was done better than Sturbridge, and there was more of it. Not that you shouldn't go to Sturbridge if you find yourself in MA, but if it's one or the other, head to Mystic and visit the Aquarium and the Seaport.
On Saturday, we drove to attend the wedding which was the purpose of our visit. The wedding was in a little church in Bristol, CT that has banners with stylized doves that look like alien faces. It was kinda surreal. We then hit the reception, with an open bar and a dinner that consisted of half a cow each. It was a nice way to spend a day, if you have to spend a day in a suit and dress shoes.
Sunday we drove torobeli's Uncle's place on the beach in Milford, CT, for a birthday party for her grandmother. This was a more relaxed environment than the evening before, and had a large overlap of guests. There were Deviled Eggs in scores. I gained 5lbs. It was worth it.
Yesterday, we got in a car and drove some more. I'm tired. I think I need a vacation.
We drove up last Wednesday, waking just after the Butt-crack of Dawn, and leaving shortly there after so as to not sit in DC traffic. Just to make things interesting, I got only the second speeding ticket in my life, just as I entered Delaware. The cop doing radar was sitting in an underpass, just on the DE side of the MD/DE border, and he radio'd ahead that I was doing 75mph. This is technically correct, as the speed limit on the MD side is 65mph, and I normally do 10mph above the posted limit when traffic and weather conditions are appropriate. The limit drops to 55mph as soon as you cross in to DE, so I dropped to 65mph. The officer who actually wrote the ticket wrote it for 64. I didn't complain, I was just shocked when they claimed I was doing 75 in a 55. I'm pretty sure this lead to his willingness to write it for less, since I was polite and cooperative, oh, and had a completely clean driving record (my only other speeding ticket ever was 15 years ago, long since gone from my record). Twenty over is reckless, and two hours away or not, you better damn well believe I'd have been more than happy to show up in a court and contest it had they insisted on writing it that way. Hopefully a ticket for 9mph over posted won't do much insurance wise (I'm not even sure if it will show up on my VA DMV record, since it was in another state, but I'll have to check). The rest of the trip was uneventful, save for a delay due to an accident about halfway up the Jersey Turnpike. We arrived at
robeli's childhood home in Orange, CT a little over five hours after our trip began.Once we had a chance to relax for a bit, we then got back in to the car and drove in to New Haven to visit the Peabody Museum at Yale. Driving through New Haven is always an exercise in cognitive dissonance. It's the home of Yale, and it's otherwise a desolated urban blight on the landscape. One of the world's top, and most expensive, universities is in the middle of one of America's poorest cities. Yale is really nice though. Don't leave campus.
Then we drove up Whitney Ave. to North Haven and checked in.
Thursday morning, just to be different, we got in the car and drove for a couple hours to Old Sturbridge Village, in Sturbridge MA. Sturbridge is a nice view of how insane the Protestant Contingent in New England were. These people cooked in front of a massive fire wearing four layers of clothing in the middle of summer. All in the name of decency. Fuck that; I'd rather not cook my brain, thanks. Otherwise, it was really cool seeing the early 19th century Waterwheels of Industry. Steam was still just coming in to vogue, and couldn't be trusted, so everything was driven by the flowing waters of the river. They sell really awesome chocolate chip cookies there, too.
Friday morning, we once again went for different, and drove to Mystic Seaport: The Museum of America and the Sea, in Mystic, CT. Sturbridge is kinda nifty, but Mystic is cool. We've been to the Mystic Aquarium before (we're members of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, and get in free, since they peer with each other, but this was the first time I've been to the seaport). It's a bit more modern than I was thinking, and not one map of the whole place had the location of a pizza joint or Julia Roberts on it, but it did have big wooden sailing vessels and the associated support structure that a port and shipbuilding industry required. It was done better than Sturbridge, and there was more of it. Not that you shouldn't go to Sturbridge if you find yourself in MA, but if it's one or the other, head to Mystic and visit the Aquarium and the Seaport.
On Saturday, we drove to attend the wedding which was the purpose of our visit. The wedding was in a little church in Bristol, CT that has banners with stylized doves that look like alien faces. It was kinda surreal. We then hit the reception, with an open bar and a dinner that consisted of half a cow each. It was a nice way to spend a day, if you have to spend a day in a suit and dress shoes.
Sunday we drove to
robeli's Uncle's place on the beach in Milford, CT, for a birthday party for her grandmother. This was a more relaxed environment than the evening before, and had a large overlap of guests. There were Deviled Eggs in scores. I gained 5lbs. It was worth it.Yesterday, we got in a car and drove some more. I'm tired. I think I need a vacation.
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The one about What We Did On Our Summer Vacation...