I am home and feeling so incredibly grateful to have had the chance to go to visit my grandson at the US Coast Guard Academy. It was the first time I have seen him in person since before his "swab summer" which started in June. Even though I have seen every photo of him ever posted by the Academy photographer and felt as if I know the campus by heart, it could not compare to being there with him in person!
My daughter (his mom) and I landed in Hartford and headed straight to the Academy in New London to pick him up and then we were off to Mystic where we found a wonderful restaurant where we had a fabulous meal and planned out the next two days to come.
After we dropped Har back on campus we headed to our hotel. We were up pretty early because we wanted to get some stuff for our tailgate-which in this case became a literal "tailgate" because we only had the back of the rental car-no chairs, grills, etc-but we were good with that. My son-in-law purchased us a tailgate pass so we were right in the middle of all of the fun! Everyone near us made sure we had everything we needed and it was fun to meet other football families.
The weather was picture perfect for a football game and the trees still had some of their beautiful color.
I was very lucky to be there for the "big rivalry" game against the Merchant Marines. Even though it didn't end quite as we would have hoped, it was an incredible day as it was Veterans' Day weekend and there was much done to honor all vets.
The team got new uniforms-different than their usual orange and blue-to honor the only Coast Guard recipient of the Medal of Honor, Douglas Munro, who lost his life at 22 years of age. Both schools had a "march-on" of their complete corp...so impressive to see all of these young people in uniform down on that field! This is just the CG side.
Our seats were on the 50 yard line so we had a perfect view of all of the festivities.
If you look carefully in this picture, you can see us...I'm surprised we're not standing and yelling. Lol
After the game, some of the school joined the team on the field again for the alma maters of both teams.
And then it was our turn to get on the field!
Once he was out of one uniform and into another (which he has to wear off campus), we were headed back to Mystic to find another restaurant where, once again, we had an incredible meal and watched some college football games before heading back to the hotel...and because Har now had liberty, he could come with us.
The next day,we grabbed a little breakfast before heading to Fort Trumball where the Eagle is currently docked. That is the ship that Har sailed on this summer and I got to see in person just how enormous it is-almost 300' long. I also got to see those masts that he had to climb and I am glad I am seeing them now and not before I knew he had to do all of that craziness. Lol
The views from the ship and the fort were absolutely beautiful!
Yikes! That mast!
Harrison is trying to explain the two different types of compasses used for navigation and I pretended to understand it all. Lol
He was reflecting on the time he spent on this ship...and the times to come...he loved every minute of it!
And, of course, I had to try my hand at the wheel.
After all of the walking that we did, we had worked up an appetite so we headed into New London and found The Blue Duck. Jen had been trying to find me an authentic lobster roll but many of the places recommended close for the season-which must have ended in October.
The Blue Duck is on the water and was supposed to have one of the best in town. So, off we go to get there only to find we were there for the brunch menu-which did not have the lobster roll on it. Luckily, Jen talked to the owner and he was only too happy to make one for me-and, I will say, it did not disappoint! It was so delicious and full of lobster drenched in butter...and the roll was grilled in butter as well-to perfection! I was one happy camper.
Harrison is in the Academy skeet shooting group so, after lunch, we took the scenic route up into the mountains to the Mystic Gun Club and spent the afternoon watching them shoot and talking with and getting to know the other kids on the team. It was definitely chilly as the sun set but the boys kept a fire going and we had a wonderful time!
And all too soon we were dropping Har back on campus and heading to our hotel in Hartford. We had a pretty early flight so we wanted to be close to the airport. We awoke on Monday morning to grab a quick breakfast and then headed out to the car only to find it entirely covered in ice crystals-luckily the rental company provided an ice scraper in the back of the car-guess they looked at the forecast. It was a nippy 22 degrees but I would have taken that over the HOT, muggy weather we hit as we stepped out of the airport in Orlando!
So I think I am done traveling for a long time. I have much to do to catch up on things before Thanksgiving arrives-one of those being finishing our tour so I will get back to that tomorrow.
Until then, thanks for sticking with me through this long post...if you're still here. lol Stay safe and stay tuned.
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