Blue! O how I have ignored you, taken you for granted! I learned today that blue makes all other colors possible. Yesterday, with the drab drizzles and grey skies, my formerly favorite color was muted, inconsequential. But today, the green was magnificent! But, only with the blue skies. 

I know some might think I mean sunshine makes the colors more vibrant, and that is true to an extent. However, I saw today that green was prettiest when blue was behind. Red, too. Even in sunshine, if the background was grey or white clouds, green was not the vibrant color that has always been my favorite. It wasn’t until today that I realized I have been exceptionally narrow-minded about my favorite color. I grew up in Southern California and have lived since in Colorado where blue skies happen 300 out of the 365 days of the year. OK, OK, that was a rant. But it was also how I was feeling!

Another driving day, but in character, we went to a park first. This one was called “Echo Lake” and it was a tiny park. We drove to the top of glacially scoured granite (like Yosemite Valley) and looked at an oval lake below us (Echo Lake). Beautiful!! I could not help but compare this to other places we have visited. The shear cliffs and rounded granite were like Yosemite but the trees were absolutely NOT! Most of the trees here were deciduous and a minute percentage of those were turning color. The overall view of the rounded knobs of granite with the deciduous trees was also like the Blue Ridge Parkway, a bit south of here.

Shear granite cliff at Echo Lake with a bit of red foliage

Some people put locks on the fence, near where rock climbers. I remember reading about a similar tradition in France that caused the government to take all the locks down because of the weight on the bridge.

Next we visited Augusta, the capital of Maine. Surprise! Three capitals in four days. A record for us.

The capital dome In Augusta was bronze, we think. And the overall ambiance was less affluent and ornate than the two capitals we visited so far this trip. But all three had replica Liverty Bells, complete with painted cracks. 

This one also had a display of flags.

And they had a kids handout to look for fossils in the stonework of the floor and walls – an activity after my own heart.

Our final destination today was Penobscot Bay, because Roberth McCloskey wrote a children’s book about it and won “The Caldecott Medal” in 1957, the year Brian was born. His mom read that book to him, and we read it to our kids. We just wanted to see, and here we are.

This bridge, actually a famous bridge with an observatory in one of the towers, is over the Penobscot Narrows. It also overlooks Fort Knox.

So we sleep on Deer Island, in Penobscot Bay, and we will read the book “Time of Wonder” to each other tonight. We will be here tomorrow night as well.

Happy!

Today was a big driving day. We went through three states! Starting in Connecticut, through Massachusetts (missing Rhode Island by about two miles) and ending in New Hampshire. It’s so weird! We are used to driving through three states in three days or more. But before we started we visited a submarine. 

The nuclear driven submarine Nautilus was built before either me or Brian was born. Radios still used tubes and batteries weighed a thousand pounds, at least the ones on Nautilus did. This submarine is one of the largest made at that time. But we still felt enclosed, somewhat claustrophobic. I can’t imagine what one of the smaller models would feel like.

This is Brian for scale on the ramp to the Nautilus.

Look at the difference in diameter between submarines! The Nautilus is the larger one. The smaller is only about six feet wide.

Clare for scale.

The museum is housed near a town called New London. And, yes we crossed the Thames River. Not the “New Thames” surprisingly.

The rest of the day, we aimed for scenic highways, as is our habit. Unfortunately, the weather was drizzly, blue sky rare. I bet the views will be astonishing in a few weeks when the fall colors come. We were amused by the exit numbers in Massachusetts because they are in the midst of changing them into the interstate system used in the west, miles from the borders. Many of the signs had two numbers, like “Exit 4, Old Exit 89”. Also mile markers along the edge of the road were set every 0.2 miles. Really? Are things so close together in Massachusetts that they need markers every thousand feet or so?

When we got to New Hampshire, “The Granite State,” we decided to visit the capital building in Concord. It was closed by the time we arrived,  but we wandered around anyway.

Capital Building in Concord NH.

Church near the capital.

You might be wondering about this obsession with capitals. It began when we were first together, exploring the western U.S. It is fun to wander around buildings housing such political power. Also, they are usually beautiful and free to visit. You can learn a lot about the state you are visiting at the capital. We did not go to Boston on this trip because we have already been there. We got to know the capital building in Denver well when Laura’s troop made the Colorado State Rock.

We are staying in North Conway, NH. We had hoped to see some mountains on the way here, but the weather did not cooperate. We hope for sunshine tomorrow.

We started the morning out right, by going to the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven. Tons of dinosaur displays, and what is unique there is mostly natural fossil bone in them. Most museums use bone replicas because they don’t break as easily and weigh a lot less.

Lots of paleontological history resides at the Peabody as well. The brontosaurus was denied as a scientific name for about two decades, then was recently reinstated. Brian for scale. 

Upstairs was a display on loan from the rare books library and we saw original Audobon drawings in books three feet tall!

The rest of the day was for the wedding. We were honored to sit at the bride’s family table so were right in the thick of the action. Lots of laughing and dancing! This is me in red, the bride’s mom Sue in blue and our friend Gail between us.

Our good friends’s (Sue and Don) daughter Laura is getting married to Zach at Zach’s uncle’s farm in Connecticut. We decided to attend the wedding then see some of New England. We’ve never been here before!

We arrived in Hartford around midnight Thursday and rented a little blue car Friday morning.

Since Hartford is the capital of Connecticut, we headed for the capital building. Along way was a grouping of large rocks on some grass. We have no idea why they were there, but Brian had to hop up. 

We went into an old cemetery right in the middle of downtown Hartford, which had gravestones dating from the 1500’s. Pretty old for us Coloradoans!  

The first park in North America was the 37-acres around the capital building (1636). That’s a lot bigger than Denver’s City Park! And the capital building itself has a much older architectural style. I really liked the bas reliefs on the outside of the building. 

About five miles south of Hartford is Dinosaur State Park founded in 1967 just one year after over 2,000 Early Jurassic footprints were discovered. That is quick work for a state park!

The footprints were sursingly similar to the Cretaceous ones at Dinosaur Ridge, 100 million years younger than these. Perhaps a higher percentage of theropods, but still. It gave Brian a better sense of just how long dinosaurs lived on this planet – and he once identified himself as a geochronologist! We all need to experience things to understand them. 

I loved walking on the paths at this park, just drinking in the green. 

We ate a lovely lunch in Middletown near this colorful mural.

And found a Brownstone quarry across the river. Connecticut is known as the “Brownstone State” and we thought Brownstone was the state rock of New Jersey (but not officially true). So, we actually sought this place out to see the rock. But they had turned the quarry into an adventure park, which had just closed for the season. Looks like it could have been fun!

We then drove to Milford, just south of New Haven to find our hotel. The evening was spent at “The Bar” meeting Zach’s family and talking with friends at the rehearsal dinner. (No pictures).