We started our third morning by getting up really super early to meet the Qin family at Groton Town House for breakfast, their Saturday morning tradition. Andrew and Ada are early risers, and so the rest of the family must be, as well! We remember those days, when we didn't need an alarm clock because a baby was always screeching for attention! Anyway, breakfast was worth the early morning, it was really good.
After breakfast, we went over to the Qins' house for a while. They have a really nice yard and garden, and a beautiful home as well. Ada was napping but Andrew showed us around his room, and "Dr. Q" showed us all the improvements he's made in the basement and outdoors, too.
Michael took us over to the submarine museum, an attraction we all really enjoyed. Outdoors the kids got to sit on opposite sides of a deck gun to raise and lower it, and there were several pieces of other outdated submarine equipment that really helped us appreciate the scale of submarine construction and operation. We also toured the U. S. S. Nautilus, which is (I think permanently) moored to the dock right outside the museum. Climbing through the teeny doors, checking out the crew quarters, bathrooms, mess... all of it was really fascinating. The whole time we were right by the Navy base with real submarines and everything, where Q works. I think the kids' favorite part was when they looked through the periscope inside the museum and found our car in the parking lot!
After the sub museum we headed over to Mystic Seaport, which, yes Mom, it really is the "Greenfield Village of the Sea". We learned lots about oyster harvesting, blacksmithing, barrel making, and whale hunting. The kids played nineteenth century games on the green, we visited a period schoolhouse, church and apothecary, and spent some time in the "Children's Museum," which had lots of sea-themed games and toys. We had lunch at Schaefer's Spouter Tavern, where us parents ate what we ordered, Aidan ate some of the chicken salad that he ordered, Esme ate the rest, and I also ate Esme's clam chowder, for which she had an almost immediate distaste.
We happened to be right on time for the pick-up production of Tale of a Whaler on the Performance Stage...and both kids ended up being in it! Esme volunteered right away to be a "green hand" - an inexperienced sailor. She got to do all sorts of things, including pretend to vomit when the "sea" got rough. When Aidan saw how much fun she was having, he later volunteered to be "rain" during a storm. It was great fun.
We were thoroughly tired and hot by this time, so we stopped in the gift shop and headed back to the hotel to rest for a little while. For dinner we joined the Qins (thanks, you all!) at the Seahorse Restaurant, which was also super good. I ate more seafood on this vacation than I have eaten in probably six months here at home! After dinner we went to UConn Avery Point, which was beautiful and the kids' first real experience on the ocean. We climbed down on the rocks so they would have a chance to touch the Atlantic Ocean. Esme took several cups of ocean back to the hotel with her inside her shoes, but the rest of us stayed pretty dry!
All in all, a beautiful third day of vacation and no rain in sight. Also, except for a few very small violations of the "no whining" rule, we got along pretty well and everybody mostly listened.