Portsmouth in a Flash

Saturday, May 29 - All reports said that Portsmouth was a great little town, but since we were on a schedule, we had to keep our stay to only about an hour and a half. First stop: Strawbery Banke Museum - an open air museum of a few blocks of Portsmouth with preserved old buildings. We got there about 40 minutes before closing, and the nice lady taking tickets couldn't believe that we wanted to pay to enter with only a few minutes left. When she hesitated, Sandy said, "Come on, Edie, let's go!" No time to waste. I told her we're happy to support the local ecomomy, and she said, "OK!", smiled, picked up the pace, and sent us on our way. Those crazy city kids...

Several of the buildings are open to explore, with their "residents" to tell you about their daily life in the olden days. We had a nice conversation with "Mrs. Shapiro"...

We then swung through downtown Portsmouth to see the town and get a snack. Great place. Picture perfect. However, Parking in a spot with a 15-minute time limit kept us on schedule. Next time we'll have to spend a bit more time...

Plymouth. Home of The Rock.

Thursday, May 27 - We were very fortunate that Charlie was at his summer house on the ocean in Plymouth, and even happier that he asked us to stay for the night. So great to have wine and cheese on the porch looking at the ocean while the sun set.

We couldn't make a stop in Plymouth, aka "America's Hometown", without visiting its namesake rock on our way to get some dinner. The rock itself is a little sad and lonely. It's a rock in a cage with a Roman-style gazebo built over it. And with strangely groomed sand surrounding it. But it's part of the foundation of American history, and must be seen.

Lunch at Yale

Wednesday, May 26 -- As we were about to pass by New Haven, we decided that we should make a quick stop to see Yale University, since neither of us had been there before and it was listed as one of the 6 highlights of Connecticut in one of our guide books. It was the state's first university, founded in 1716. As we were sitting on the Green having lunch, I remembered that the two oldest buildings on the campus of my alma mater, Miami University of Ohio (Elliott and Stoddard Halls), were modeled after Connecticut Hall at Yale. Connecticut Hall is also the oldest surviving building in New Haven, built in 1750. Turns out that CT Hall is also modeled after Massachusetts Hall at Harvard. Guess there was a lot of copying going on back then...

I was trying to figure out where the hall was, and realized that we were sitting there looking at it. Of course.