This trip combined the boy scouts (6) and cub scouts (3).
We started by visiting the US Navy Submarine museum in Groton, CT. We toured the USS Nautilus which was the first nuclear submarine. The museum has many interesting exhibits including hands-on equipment from submarine control rooms.
Then we went to Mystic Seaport museum and started with lunch from the cafe. The weather was sunny and mild, and we ate outside on a deck. We started our tour of the museum with the firefighter boat that was in service in NYC for 70 years. We went aboard the Morgan which was a whaling ship. We visited some of the shops including the blacksmith and went to the shipyard. Then we walked into town which was about 1/2 mile from the museum. Town was very crowded probably because of the Christmas light boat parade. We were stopped as the drawbridge was open to let in some boats for the parade. We went to Mystic Pizza for dinner which had a long wait to get in. We walked around town a bit during the wait. They seated us all on a long table upstairs. After eating our fill of pizza and sodas, we walked back to the museum.
The main museum event was the Anchor Watch overnight program. We met up with two museum guides who took us into the museum through the afterhours entrance. We got to watch the start of the Christmas light boat parade without the crowds because only a few people were on the museum grounds. Then we had a private show at the planetarium with an energetic guide who had lots of interesting information about astronomy and navigation. For the overnight, we slept on the Joseph Conrad in the mid-ship section that had bunk beds tightly stacked in columns of 3 beds. It was lights out by 10pm and then we were up early and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise.
The morning program stared with breakfast of waffles and sausages in the cafeteria. Back on the Conrad, we got to climb the rigging up to the first level. Then we carved our own scrimshaw on plastic ovals that looked like whale bone. Our guide then brought us to the museum exhibit to see real scrimshaw and other crafts that sailors made. By then, we had our fill of sightseeing and decided to head home and save the Mystic Aquaruim for another trip.
