Mystic, CT with Kids- Mystic Seaport

When our kids were little they were both at a daycare that was basically always open- we never had to use our vacation days to stay home with them unless they were sent home with the dreaded fever and we'd maxed out our sick days.  Two years ago we moved them to a preschool that we LOVE but that has SO. Many. More. Days. Off.  UGH!  And now our son is in elementary school which has a similar calendar.  Holidays that the kids get off but we don't at work, teacher training days, parent-teacher conference days, extended Christmas vacation and awkward weeks at the end of the school year and the end of the summer.  We call in Grandma to pinch hit some of those days, but it still takes a serious toll on our paid time off.

This year I vowed that if I was going to use perfectly good vacation days when the kids had a random day off, then we would make the most of it and book some mini vacations! So this past Monday was Columbus Day (we haven't officially switched to Indigenous Peoples' day here in Massachusetts) and we used our extra day off to book a long weekend in Mystic CT.

Mystic is a little under 2 hours from Boston.  We drove down midday Saturday, after little girl's ballet lesson and big boy's soccer game.  During our drive down, the cloudy morning faded and the sun started to peek out, so we were excited to get out of the car and poke around the Fort Rachel Marina, which is where we initially *thought* we were supposed to meet the charter boat tour I'd pre-booked.   (Totally random: we happened upon a super neato grasshopper in the bushes while we were poking around the shore).  

Oops, actually, we were supposed to meet at the marina across the river, which I fortunately figured out just in time to get over there.  Our tour was with Captain Eric of Mystic River Cruises.  His 1947 classic wooden boat fits 6 people, so we shared our tour with a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary (hopefully they didn't mind the kids on their romantic boat ride?!?).  We enjoyed a 2-hour tour of the harbor; Captain Eric provided hot cider for the kids and Mohit and I shared a bottle of wine (with the anniversary couple, who'd forgotten their beer at their hotel).  The kids got a bit restless toward the end but luckily Captain Eric was happy to have them exploring the boat's cabin (which does have a restroom, BTW).

The boat returned to dock right next to a restaurant called Red 36 which looked lively with a great deck over the water, and with good Yelp reviews, so we decided to stay and have an early dinner.  It was getting a bit chilly outside and we could have used more heat lamps (or blankets!) but I enjoyed my tuna poke bowl and a nice glass of rose while the kids painted jack-o-lantern sun-catchers (dollar store craft projects are our go-to lately for well-behaved kids at dinner!).

Finally we headed to our AirBNB, which was a pleasant surprise all around.  First, it was in a great location, on an adorable and quiet street which was an easy 3-minute walk into town (just around the corner from the famous Mystic Pizza and many other shopping and dining options).  It was super clean, attractively and comfortable furnished, and perfect for a family (2 bedrooms, sleeps up to 6).  The thoughtful host had left fresh milk, OJ, coffee, bagels and cream cheese for us.  The kids were thrilled to discover a HUGE bin of legos and a Monopoly game to play with.  And the final bonus, it is located around the corner from a playground, at which the kids enjoyed some downtime later in the weekend!  We highly recommend the Mystic Harbor House AirBNB for your family stay in Mystic!

We planned to spend the next day at Mystic Seaport, and we decided to walk (a little under a mile) through town, over the cool drawbridge in the center, and along the waterfront to the museum.  It was nice to explore the cute little seaside town on foot and I couldn't have been more thrilled at the progress we've made getting our 3-year old to walk everywhere this year.  Not to jinx ourselves, but I think our stroller days are officially over!

Mystic Seaport is part a museum of seafaring history, part active shipyard, part preserved 1800s village, plus a few other exhibits thrown in.  With the kids, we probably saw about half of it in about 5 hours.  They didn't have much interest in the historic village, even with live demonstrations of things like black smithing, a printing press, and wood carving.  The kids' favorite parts of Mystic Seaport were (in this order): building a toy boat ($5 cash per kid at the John Gardner Boat Shop Annex), exploring onboard the Charles W. Morgan (a circa 1841 whaling ship...or a pirate ship, if you ask my 3-year old), craft projects at the Children's Museum, and exploring nautical physics at the Discovery Barn.

We bought our lunch at the Galley, a cafeteria style spot for casual food, and one of several dining options inside the museum.  Little girl ordered the hugest foot-long hot dog I've ever seen and ate THE WHOLE THING!  We tried to eat on the village common outside but got chased back inside by persistent yellow jackets.  After lunch we headed over to the working shipyard, where you can peek in on the restoration of the Mayflower II, which I thought was pretty cool.  (But then again, as a civil engineer, I work on building things as a profession!).

Mid-afternoon, we walked back to our cottage, figuring everyone could use some down time after a LOT of walking all day.  The kids pulled out the Monopoly game (which 6-year old suspiciously always beats his little sister at...) and Mohit and I put our feet up for a bit.  It had been cloudy all day but when the sun finally came out, I took the kids around the corner to the neighborhood playground for a bit.

For dinner, we walked back into town and decided on S&P Oyster Co., which we chose mostly for its adorable patio on the water.  They did have a kids menu (I was impressed with the pasta alfredo with chicken and broccoli option), and Mohit and I both had delicious seafood meals which were made even more enjoyable by unusually well-behaved kids (of course we'd brought craft projects/ books to entertain them).  After dinner we rewarded the kids with ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream. We walked back to our AirBNB in the dark and admired Halloween decorations already out. We all slept well after a busy day!