Wednesday Wanderings!

Well, it really was the weekend, but I had so much going on this week, that I saved some photos to share with you today. I needed a rest day Saturday, just me and Bill, no plans, just go where we want and explore.

Bean is doing well and fitting in with the family, even Moki loves him and the nuzzle and give each Bean loves to play and runs at top speed when I take him in the back yard. Of course, as with most Border Collies, sticks are too tempting to pass up, so we spend most of the time picking up sticks and chasing after them.

Saturday we went to Groton Connecticut. My husband is a test engineer at the Electric Boat, so he knows all about subs and I decided I wanted to go the the submarine museum. It is free to visit and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed all of the displays. They have a lot of history, as well as submarines through the years.

We were visiting inside the museum on the upper level and a real submarine was passing by. I was disappointed that we weren't outside but we got to enjoy watching it and the escorts as they sailed out of the harbor.

The treat was going inside an older submarine. My husband actually worked on it before it was decommissioned.

Inside was definitely close and the rooms are small, I cannot imagine having to be in one for long periods. Throughout the submarine there were rooms with mannequins, depicting the crew and how life would be for them on the boat. It was a bit unnerving since some were very realistic and I kept thinking someone was standing there, lol.

These guys were just creepy, not sure why they were playing cards with masks on and Bill explained it, but I forgot;) The funny story with this is, I kept thinking I was bumping into people on some of the displays and as I was looking at one side I turned and saw another on the other end, so I walked over to it. I was trying to figure out what the room was, when the mannequin moved, lol. It was a real sailor who was touring the boat in uniform and you could say it definitely startled me;)

After the tour, we went for a drive on the back roads and followed the Thames River up to the city of Norwich. The drive was relaxing and there were beautiful views of the river and foliage. We stopped at the park where the river diverges and enjoyed a stroll on the boardwalk.

We kept going on another back road and found another beautiful park in the town of Occum. We also found a nice boat launch, so a future paddling place. The foliage is still not full but it was still beautiful.

They had a walkway that we followed and were treated to a beautiful view of the dam. The areas and towns following the rivers in Connecticut have beautiful old buildings and river parks, so we will be doing more drives and exploring the back roads.