It was surprising that Jonny had never been there having grown up in New London. It was a beautiful setting overlooking the Thames River. The fort was built to protect the colonies from a British attack from the river during the Revolutionary War but it was never actually engaged in defense maneuvers. Instead it served in various capacities over the years as a training center, a supply center, and the Navy’s underground sound lab doing top secret work (and the reason Jonny never went there growing up). The fort was open with descriptive signs and recreated spaces throughout giving the interesting history of the fortification.
After our interesting walk, we left our slip at the marina at 11:40 for the short cruise to Stonington, the easternmost town in Connecticut.
It was an absolutely beautiful day - the high temperatures and humidity had abated and Long Island Sound was calm. We went up the Mystic River to get fuel passing by the charming villages of Noank and Mystic. The harbor was filled with boats of all sizes on this gorgeous weekend day.
By 2:25 we arrived in Stonington. Our choices were to spend $100 on a mooring ball (the highest we’ve ever seen) or anchor in the same area for free. Guess which option we choose! Stonington Harbor is stunning and our anchorage was filled with sailboats. As the afternoon progressed, many of the sailboats left and we had plenty of open space around us.
The first thing we did was to take Archie into town to do his business. Stonington is a historic Connecticut village and is considered to be one of the prettiest coastal towns in New England. Originally part of Massachusetts, it officially became part of Connecticut in 1662. One of its historic claims to fame is that it repelled British attacks during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Pretty impressive!
The town is lovely with many old homes and churches that have been kept in great condition. We enjoyed strolling through the shady streets and along the waterfront where there is a tranquil small beach. Even the new construction is in keeping with the historic look of the village.
That evening we planned to celebrate our upcoming 35th wedding anniversary with a dinner at Noah’s Restaurant. We were searching for a nice place to eat and this one seemed to fit the bill. It wasn’t until after we made the reservations that we realized that we had been there before. On our first big trip on Zendo when we did the Down East Loop in 2015, our good friends Addie and Lange joined us for the cruise from Sandwich, MA to New London. It was September and we stopped in Stonington to celebrate my birthday. We found this cool, friendly pub to have beers that day and we were having so much fun that we stayed and ate their excellent happy hour offerings for dinner. Noah’s now has an excellent Sunday dinner menu so it was the perfect choice for us to relive a fond memory and celebrate our special event.
After a delicious dinner including the famous Stonington scallops we took the dinghy back to Zendo and savored our brief sojourn in this charming New England town.
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