My wife and I celebrated our 14th anniversary last week. We decided to go on a trip to Mystic, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island. My wife has always wanted to visit Mystic since we have been together, and we both have hoped to explore the New England coast at some point in our lives. Yes, we are old-ER now and enjoy some "leave peeping" during the fall. Our drive into Connecticut was full of trees with colors bursting of the fall season.
Mystic is a nice, small city on the coast of Connecticut. Yes, this is the place where the 1988 movie Mystic Pizza starring Julia Roberts was filmed. We did partake of the famous pizza, and it wasn't too bad. Oddly enough, we were there on the 37th anniversary of when the movie was released. We didn't know it until later in the day. We enjoyed walking through the shops along the main street in Mystic. Mostly your typical tourist stores. We enjoyed views of the Mystic Bay and walking the short boardwalk. A short drive from the downtown area was "Old Mystic Village" which featured more shops and restaurants which we explored and couldn't resist the temptation of making a few purchases. Next to the village is the Mystic Aquarium. The aquarium has an awesome Beluga Whale exhibit, and the keepers were eager to talk about them. We stood at the tank for a long time enjoying these beautiful creatures. We also enjoyed the seal/sea lion exhibit and the main gallery. We were disappointed that the penguin exhibit was closed during our visit, but we still enjoyed our time there.
We were in Mystic on Monday and Tuesday of our week so there were barely any crowds; however, we stopped back in Mystic on our trip home on Saturday and the crowds were overwhelming. It reminded me of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge crowds on a weekend.
Newport wasn't a planned destination. We were going to stop there on our way to Cape Cod, but we stopped in this Rhode Island city on the coast and loved it. My wife and I love water, and the harbor/ocean views were absolutely amazing. We are in love with this place now. Newport was an unexpected surprise. We stayed at the Brenton Hotel and had an amazing water view of the harbor. There were many streets of shopping, food, museums and history. We also toured three of the Newport Mansions. The tours of The Breakers, Rosecliff and The Elms was amazing. If you ever go to Newport, you need to tour The Breakers mansion which just totally blew us away. Millionaires built these mansions as their summer homes and spared no expense. Our favorite location was Brenton Point State Park where we parked and enjoyed the water view of the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped here at least three times on our visit. Just amazing views of the water, sail boats and waves crashing against the rocks.
If you are planning to visit either of these places, I will warn you that it is expensive for lodging and food. It was a lot more than we were expecting but we worked it out and enjoyed our visits. It was a very nice adventure for us. We also got a peek at Taylor Swift's mansion near Westerly, Rhode Island on a drive from Mystic to Newport.
Our adventure was an ideal fall trip to celebrate our 14th anniversary. Mystic was magical and Newport was an unexpected surprise.
