A little bit of Mystic

I thought I had more photos of Mystic, but apparently I was having too much fun to even take the camera out.  Anyway, it was an incredible historical day full of masted ships, sea shanties, huge anchors, and very old houses and schools.

I snapped this shot of Sarah and Jenn walking and chatting from the second story of an olde homestead.  The lady of the house was in the kitchen cooking a berry pie in a dutch oven in a very large fire place and explaining the process patiently to a pair of Canadians.

There were many figureheads in the Mallory Exhibit Hall, but this one was my favorite.  Unlike many of the others, "The Woman of the Roses" is believed to be a carving of a real person.  It is believed that she is most likely a woman named Belva Lockwood, a suffragist, lawyer, and presidential nominee in 1884 and 1888!  Seems like a cool person to learn more about.

This was a picket fence that I found pretty impressive.  Dad pointed out what a pain it would be to repaint it!

Although there were huge masted ships of various sorts all over the place, and Sarah and I went on several, the only pictures I thought to take were in the small boats building.  I liked the lines of this one and could almost imagine sailing it around on a lake.

This is more my speed though.  Give me a paddle over a sail or a motor any day.  I'd rather be fully aware of exactly what I'm getting myself into.  Leave the gasoline and various pressure systems to the more adventurous and daring.

I believe there was a boat in this building as well.  

There are two moments from this day that compete for first prize.  One was the awesome chanteyman who we were lucky enough to hear sing twice.  Around noon we went to the "village green" where he held court at a gazebo and explained many different shanties, their histories, and various functions.  Of course, being a troubadour he had a great stage presence and a wicked sense of humour.  He ended his lesson with a jig doll he called Dancing Jack and a rollicking song to go with it.  Sarah and I were so enthralled we followed the chanteyman from the gazebo to the L.A. Dunton to watch and listen to the raising of the anchor, for which, of course, there was a sea shanty to get the work done.  Very cool.  The other prize encounter was in the printing shop where we met a man who was setting the type for the flyer for the Moby Dick reading later in the week.  There we got to see type set, pamphlets pressed, and amazing old machines in action.  We also learned about the origins of many common terms like "coining a phrase", uppercase, lowercase, "mind your Ps and Qs", and "out of sorts".  The last was the most surprising to me, and comes from the fact that a single piece of type was called a sort.  Thus, if you ran out of a certain letter or symbol, you were "out of sorts", and likely to be frustrated and desperately searching for a solution to your situation!

For a little bit of the mood, I submit the following!