This year I wanted to take a little adventure. I found out Mystic, Connecticut is only an hour’s
drive from Ashford so my goal was to drive there. Why Mystic?
Why, “Mystic Pizza” of course!
It’s one of my favorite 80s movies.
My only problem?
Transportation.
Volunteers fly into Hartford Airport and someone
from camp arranges to pick them up. I
started chatting with driver Carly and mentioned wanting to drive to
Mystic. She immediately offered her car
on the days she was working. And
mentioned she has a Mini Cooper convertible.
Yes, please!
To work around her off days I chose the morning of
the first full day of camp (Thursday) instead of waiting for midweek to have a
true break. It turned out to be a
beautiful, sunny day. I grabbed her keys
from the table where she left them and walked to the parking lot next to the
horse barn. I didn’t bother to ask her
what color her car was. How many Mini
Cooper convertibles could there be?
Four. I walked up to the first
one – not it. Second, not it. Of course it was the last one I tried.
Once in the car, I adjusted everything. Seat back, top down (I figured out how to get
it partially back), radio. Took me a
while to find the gas gauge (had to make sure I had enough gas to get there,
and to fill her up on the way back). All
systems go.
It was a wonderful drive to Mystic, mostly on
two-lane, winding roads. The countryside
is beautiful! One unexpected sighting on
my drive was a sign at a country church that said, “Worrying doesn’t change the
outcome.” That was a message I really
needed that day to begin my week with the campers. The Lord is always looking out for me in
little and big ways, and sends me messages just when I need them the most.
I made it to Mystic with no problems. I walked around the shops and the river and
around 11 a.m. I stopped at Mystic Pizza for lunch. Nevermind that we had pizza for supper the
night before (and little did I know we would make pizza for supper that night
at Adventure). My first slice was the
standard pepperoni. Very good. Their daily special had white sauce, scallops
and bacon. Very, very good! I had a nice chat with a regular at the bar
who had lived there since he was four. (And
was really cute, by-the-way.) He gave me
more information about the movie when I mentioned my pilgrimage. I even drove a bit further to Stonington
Borough, where more filming took place.
After the movie was released, the current site of the original Mystic
Pizza was renovated to resemble the movie set.
There are photos all over the inside.
I only saw the bar area, but there is a restaurant area as well.
I wish I had more time to spend in Mystic and the
surrounding area. There is an Old Mystic
area and I didn’t go there at all. They
also have kayak rentals. Maybe next
year.
While walking around the shops I kept my eye out for
a nice souvenir of my quick time there. I
like to do that in certain places. No
t-shirts or hats, or any tchotchke. And if I don’t see anything that grabs my
attention, no big deal. I hit all the
main streets and I’d about given up.
Then I walked down a side street to The Art Garden. Lots of stuff. Jewelry, beads, scarves. LOTS of stuff. Then I spotted a silver bracelet of four fish
hooked together. Very unique. I tried it on (I always try on jewelry to see
how it looks and especially bracelets to make sure I can put them on by
myself). Hmmm. Very nice.
I asked about the metal – Turkish silver (or so she said). Very quirky designer the owner said. I asked his name but she didn’t know
(?). Not too expensive. I decided to get it. It hit the mark in several areas. Mystic is a seaport town so the fish were
appropriate. The camp theme for my week
was Cat In The Hat. One fish, two fish,
red fish, blue fish. Yes! And fish are a Christian symbol. Perfect!
After lunch I took a photo of the library for my
favorite librarian Mary, got back in my car, did a quick drive through of
Stonington Borough, and headed back to camp.
A lovely morning driving into the Mystic.
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