Page 99 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - New England

Connecticut ❮❮ 97

main state-owned beaches, which A DRIVING TOUR FROM TALL
include the 2-mile (3-km) strand at SHIPS TO SUBMARINES
Hammonasset Beach State Park (see Submarine Force Museum
p53). Communities like Branford and Mystic
River
Clinton live for the sweet but brief Thames 12 95 Mystic
River
summer. Shops are often seasonal. Seaport
Mystic Pizza Mystic
New
Litchfield Hills
9 London 1 1
Stretching west from the
Maritime Museum
Connecticut River to the New York Custom House Stonington
border, the Litchfield Hills are
Connecticut’s proper, manicured MORNING
mountains. Model 18th- and
19th-century communities of white Begin the day by exploring the
houses and white churches cluster picturesque fishing and erstwhile
around tidy town greens. In spring, shipping village of Stonington.
waterfalls roar off the hillsides and Many a tall ship for whaling and
overseas trade was constructed
you’ll find hardy fishermen wading along the Mystic River here.
cold mountain brooks to cast flies To get more of a feel for those
for trout. In summer, the smell of maritime days, drive downriver
newly mown lawns and the sweet 4 miles (6.5 km) to the village of
scents of perennial flower gardens Mystic (which is half in Groton,
perfume the air (see pp24–5). half in Stonington). Spend the
rest of the morning exploring the
vessels and the re-created village
of Mystic Seaport (see p46). Make
sure you tour the Charles W
Morgan, the last surviving wooden
whaling ship.
AFTERNOON
Pick up some slices from Mystic
Pizza (56 W Main St) and follow
Rte 1 west through the coastal
plain to the Submarine Force
Waterfall, Litchfield Hills Museum (see p47)). This is where
the American nuclear-powered
Mystic and Stonington
0 submarine program unfolded
after World War II. Tour the first
MAP D5, E5
Small seafaring ports of the eastern vessel (the USS Nautilus) and try
your hand at the simulated
Connecticut coast, Stonington and controls of a complex modern
Mystic diverged when the latter submarine. Just across the
developed as a tourism center (see Thames River lies the historic
p46). Quieter Stonington, 4 miles town of New London (see
(6.5 km) away, retains all the p96), where you can
hallmarks of a 19th-century fishing continue your
maritime-themed
and ship ping port, and is dotted with tour at the
upscale boutiques, cheery cafés, and Custom House
bars where fishermen and antiques Maritime
dealers drink side by side. Museum (150
Bank St), which
also offers
visitors light-
house tours and
boat trips.
Pizza at Mystic Pizza
See map on pp94–5
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