Using Mystic as our home base, we spent four days exploring the Connecticut coast stopping in Old Lyme, Stonington and Newport.  In Newport, we visited two of the famous summer "cottages" built by the New England elite in the mid to late 1800s : The Breakers, a 70 room Italian Renaissance-style palazzo which was the Vanderbilt summer home; and the 1852 Victorian Chateau-sur-Mer, the first of the Gilded Age mansions built in Newport.  For rich New Englanders in the late 1800s, it appears that life was very much as described in The Great Gatsby. Mystic is filled with fine old homes built when it was a busy seaport.  The home of one our hosts  was built in 1860 for the Mystic Postmaster.  In Old Lyme, also known as the home of American Impressionism, we visited the Florence Griswold Museum.  Florence Griswold ran a boardinghouse popular with the artist community.  Many of her boarders (including Childe Hassan) used the house walls and door panels as their canvases.  The paintings are on view in the boardinghouse and definitely worth a visit.

Entrance to The Breakers, the Vanderbilt summer cottage in Newport.

Ruth's house, built in 1860 for Mystic Plumber and Postmaster, Parmenas Avery.

Stonington Harbor

One of many good restaurants in Stonington.

New York has come and gone

We are now into the heavy visiting part of our trip--visiting museums and friends. We stayed in Brooklyn in a nice one bedroom near the subway and went to museums during the day. Both of us fantasize that we live at the Freer gallery because it is such a beautiful mansion. If you only go to one museum in NY, go to the Freer.

Next stop Mystic, CT

Philly cheesesteak.  Oh yes.  There is a lot to see and do in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes Collection, the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc.  The City of Brotherly Love was the meeting place of the founding fathers of the US.  We get that and appreciate the important role the city played in US history.  Still, do not under rate that tasty emblem of Philadelphia, the cheesesteak, and the important decisions that have to be made when ordering.  Provelone or cheesewhiz?  It's not an easy decision my friends and we invite debate on the subject.

BJ, Marty and friend, Carolyn, having fun with Rocky

Leaders in the early laps of the Philadelphia International Cycling Championship

Elfreth's Alley,dating back to 1702, is the oldest residential street in America

Philadelphia skyline

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Marty and BJ having fun in Philadelphia

Harry Truman said "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."  I'm happy to report we had a much better experience than Harry.  We were well treated in our nation's Capitol and had a great time mostly viewing the impressive collections at the National Gallery, the Smithsonian (Freer, Sackler, Hirshhorn and Ripkin Galleries) and the Corcoran.  We strolled along the mall and stopped a the World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln Memorials.  We arrived shortly after Memorial Day and were moved to find the memorials covered with tributes, flags and bouquets of red paper poppies.  We also took time out to celebrate BJ's birthday at Brasserie Beck which we highly recommend to anyone visiting the Capital.

Marty in an interactive art exhibit at the Hirshhorn

Detail of Whistler's Peacock Room at the Freer Art Gallery

Girl in a Red Hat, one of four Vermeer's at the National Gallery

Calder mobile in the lobby of the National Art Gallery's East Wing

Detail of the Korean War Memorial

Michelle's and Barack's pad

BJ at 39+

We are now at the half way point of our road trip having reached the furthest Eastern point in the USA.  We are on the Outer Banks, a very long (approx 200 miles), very narrow string of barrier islands that run along the North Carolina Coast.  The width of the islands vary from approximately 5 miles to about 50 yards depending upon whether there has been a recent hurricane.  The coast is particularly prone to storms,  and a series of lighthouses was built along the coast in the 1800s, three of which we're showing below.  There's a lot of history here.  We are staying with an old friend in Kill Devil Hills, about a quarter mile from Kitty Hawk where the Wright brothers flew the first motorized air plane and within a few miles from Blackbeard's home base and where the first person of English descent, Virginia Dare, was born.

Currituck Beach Lighthouse (1875)

Ocracoke Lighthouse (1823)

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse (1870)

BJ and our hostess, Ann Pierce, on the Beach at Hatteras Island

Other less well behaved tourists

Howdy ya'll.  We've hardly stopped to catch our breath since leaving New Orleans. We are still having a great time and finding Southerners to be welcoming although we wish they didn't fry all of their food (we have had fried chicken 3 times in 3 days).  Besides eating too much fried chicken -we made a quick stop in Meridian, Mississippi, drove across Alabama and Georgia in one day and visited Savannah and Charleston in South Carolina.

 In Meridian, we toured the Merrehope and Williams Houses, two of the only houses left standing in that city after General William T. Sherman's Savannah ("March to the Sea") Campaign.

We had only one day in Savannah and took three separate walking tours that highlighted the city's historic houses, gates and gardens and ghost sites.

Savannah was full of beautiful architectural details

This is a 3-D modern garden gate

The Hamilton-Turner Inn had the first electric light in Savannah

 In Charleston we strolled through the  oldest neighborhoods and toured the Nathaniel Russell House, a grand "London Style" townhouse completed in 1808.  

It sure is hot here, and the plants that grow as shrubs in California are trees here. 

The gardenias are in bloom

Laissez les bon temps roulez.  It's the mantra in New Orleans and who are we to argue?  We have taken full advantage of the good music and exotic food and walked miles taking in the varied and unique architectural styles of the French Quarter and the Garden District.  Spent a few evenings at the Three Muses in the French Quarter listening to pianist Tom McDermott one evening and a wonderful jazz trio on our second evening.  We also joined in a "pub crawl" where almost everyone was made up as a zombie.  We weren't expecting it - just went out one evening for a nightcap and ran into hordes of zombies.  We love New Orleans!  Also want to mention that New Orleans has a wonderful museum, NOMA, and one of the best sculpture gardens we've ever visited.  The Sidney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden - don't miss it if you visit New Orleans.  Food is exotic and our fare included alligator sausage and bacon pecan sticky buns.

We Stand Together from George Rodrigue's Blue Dog Series - NOMA Sculpture Garden

Typical homes in French Quarter

Home in the upscale Garden District

BJ enjoying a beignet at the Cafe du Monde

They serve  25 cent martinis at Commander's Palace!!