Mystic, CT

Last weekend we went to Mystic, CT with our friends, Wade and Pat Daniel. Mystic is a little seaport town about 2 and a half hours out of the city. Think of it like downtown Homewood with a river running down next to all the shops. If you've ever seen the the movie Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts, it's based in this little town. We ate at the restaurant and it was good. Picture to the left for your viewing pleasure.

When we got in to Mystic, Wade had already done some research and found that there was a vineyard one exit up the interstate that does free tours everyday at 2:00. Although I'm slightly ashamed to say this, I'd never been to a vineyard and was very excited about doing checking this one off the to-do list. It was a small vineyard but still a very fun and educational experience. The process is very neat and intricate. A great takeaway: The Rule of 20 - if you are drinking red wine, put it in the frig 20 minutes before serving, and if you are drinking white wine, take it out of the frig 20 mins before serving.

After our vineyard experience we went back to Mystic and got prepared for a wonderful night at the Mohegan Sun http://www.mohegansun.com/, the 2nd largest casino in the world (according to our cabbie - strangely enough, they have normal American cabbies in CT - more on this subject later in the blog). The exterior of this casino is not at all like the Vegas strip. It is a beautiful building that is next to the Thames River on the Mohegan Indian reservation. The interior is beautiful as well and huge. Wade is an accountant and stumbled upon the fact that the Mohegan's don't have to pay tax on the revenue they bring in from business on the reservation. It's pretty amazing if you start to think about owning a gaming business that doesn't pay tax - I wonder how that compares to Vegas.. Oddly enough the ride home was one of the more memorable events of the night. We jumped in a cab and little did we know that our driver, Mike, was going to perform an incredible classic rock session the entire way back to Mystic (about 30 mins). I've never appreciated The Doors to the extent I should. I promised myself on the way home that I would download every Doors song I could find on the internet - I'm sure my father is appreciating that I'm saying this. This ride home is probably not going to be appreciated by our dedicated reader base but I wanted to share this experience with all of you.

Sunday we did alot of shopping and walking around in the seaport - pictures below. I bought a map of the state of Alabama from the 1800's that is worth around $400 - I got it for $72 (it had a tear in it that the shop owner is repairing). I'm really excited about it. On the way home, we discovered a Polo Ralph Lauren outlet store. I'm pretty confident that if I've ever met you, I bought you something at this store.