Labor Day in the East

Usually for Labor Day we do a camping trip some where. Typically, we've been in Utah and this is a good chance for Brett to go scope for deer so we've usually planned a camping trip with all intentions of running into some wildlife (deer and elk). Unfortunately, we got a rude awakening yesterday morning when we awoke in our bed (it was the best night's sleep we've had on labor day...) but we were not camping and very, very far from anywhere really familiar.
What do we do now? 
After a little research online, we discovered that there is a submarine museum about an hour and half up the coast and even more importantly... it's FREE! We jumped in the car and were off.
Here's a few pictures of the sub and the museum....

Brett got to sit in the control seat of the sub that they had set up inside the museum

A telescope that really worked - You could see the actual sub sitting in the water outside the museum

The SSN 571 - Nautilus

A little fact about this big ship: they were the first to sail to the North Pole and actually do some research stuff there. They also had some North Pole water that they brought back on display. They did find Santa there... They had their pictures taken with him. :)

We also discovered that there is a really cool town called Mystic that has great shops and places to eat. There is lots of Maritime and in 'Old Mystic' there is a ship from like the 1800's that you can tour. We discovered that the tour and museum and all of that was like $50 for EACH of us.... YIKES! We are quickly realizing that everything in the New England area costs money - hopefully, we will be able to go back and take the tour.

Despite not getting to do the tour, we had a lovely day near the ocean. There is something about the ocean, the boats, the boardwalks, the ice cream, that is just relaxing. I swear I could stare and the water lapping the banks all day and be perfectly content.

Of course, here are some pictures of our time in Mystic...

We got to see the draw bridge come up! 

A better angle....

 There were some BIG sailboats that were cool to look at

 A view downstream with shops and boardwalks lining the way

The houses that lined the shores were AMAZING!

Needless to say, we are adjusting to the changes of not being in Utah and who would have thought that Labor Day would be one of those changes?!? All in all, we had a great day and I'm actually quite excited for our next (unplanned as of present) adventure.