My Story Part 128 – Staycation

Yesterday I met a friend down in New London and we went to the Lyman Allyn Art Museum to see an exhibit on the battles of Stonington and New London during the war of 1812. It was the first time I went to that museum, although it is a small museum they had a number of works by artists like I like from the Hudson River School and impressionist painters. They have such Hudson River School painters as Cole and Church and impressionist painter Edward Potthast. But the main reason why went was to see the War of 1812 exhibit.

The Rockets' Red Glare: The War of 1812 in Connecticut focuses on important local events including Commodore Stephen Decatur's naval squadron taking refuge in the Thames River to avoid the British, the bombardment of Stonington, the raid on Essex, and the effects of the British blockade on New London and the region. The 16-star American flag that flew over the defenders of Stonington will be a stand-out component of the exhibition.

The museum also had an exhibit of costumes and set designs from five Broadway shows The Producers, FELA!, Hairspray, Young Frankenstein, and Memphis. I was never really a fan of Hair Spray because of the way the play and the movie portrayed trans-people; however, it was interesting to see all the planning that went in to the designing of the stage and the costumes. One thing that was interesting was the colors of the set and costumes were based on the color scheme of NECCO candy wafers.

After we left there we went over to Noank to have lunch at Abbotts that is located on one of the bays on Fisher’s Island Sound. It is a touristy restaurant that is known for its lobsters and I had lobster salad roll. If you are wondering what the difference between a lobster roll and a lobster salad roll, it is the lobster roll is with butter while the lobster salad roll is with celery and mayonnaise. I also had Rhode Island clam chowder because they didn’t have any New England clam chowder :(  Just because they are only a couple of miles away from Rhode Island, they are also part of New England you would think they would have New England clam chowder. The restaurant also has a dock for boats to tie up and get take-out and is surrounded by sail and power boat moorings in the harbor.

When we left there we went over to the University of Connecticut’s Avery Point campus to take some photos of lighthouse (Click on the photos for a larger version). It turns out that from the campus you can see three lighthouses and one of them is on the campus, the Avery Point Lighthouse. I was a little disappointed in the photo of the other lighthouses, but I expected it because I was shooting into the sun. I should probably go back and shoot them in morning light some day because the photos have a bluish tint from the telephoto lens and shooting into the sun.

New London Ledge Lighthouse with the Orient Point ferry coming in to New London harbor.
f6.3 1/2500 sec 300mm

New London Harbor Lighthouse
f8 1/1600 sec 500mm

Avery Point Lighthouse
f13 1/640 sec 48mm