Wendi {at random}

 Some days it really does pay big bucks to be a teacher.

Mystic Seaport is hosting Educators Weekend today and tomorrow, allowing teachers and their families free admission to The Museum of America and the Sea. We saved more than $100 today (and spent only half as much in the book store. Don't judge.)

Benjy and I ran to our first photo op.

The museum is actually an entire village of shops, houses, school, church, bank, publisher, and all the trades necessary for a thriving ship building community.

Our wheels are spinning as to how to reproduce this backyard garden at our house.

Despite the sunny day, the air was nippy.
Benjy wanted to swim anyway.
We spotted jellyfish swarming near one dock.
The french fries at The Galley were delicious.
The landscaping borders were giant links of iron chain.

One of the many ships we boarded - check out the living quarters of that ship. 15 bunks crammed in there. I was claustrophobic just looking at it.

Lots of cannons both on land and ships.

The boys got to help build a barrel.
Coopers, they're called, the folks who make these.
Master craftsmen.

See above re: cannons.

This was one of my favorite ships - it was a blockade runner for Georgia during the Civil War. I swear, I could see the ghost of Rhett Butler on board. The Union Navy eventually captured the ship, presumably after Rhett  returned to Scarlet. ;) The museum built a ramp system over, into, and back out of the ship so you can tour the whole thing without risking bodily harm.

These deck prisms are one of my favorite ship details.

Of course the famous Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaling ship in the world, is the poster child of the museum. She's currently being restored, and tourists can walk through an exhibit overlooking the restoration and right into the actual ship. Wood from all over the United States is being used to restore her decking, hull, mast, and other parts I have no names for.

But the ship that stole my heart was the Amistad. 

In 1839, kidnapped Africans staged a revolt against their captors aboard La Amistad. The US Supreme Court - on appeal - ruled that the Africans had been captured and illegally moved and held as slaves. The surviving Africans returned home in 1842.

While the fate of the original La Amistad is unknown, this ship is a reproduction built at the Mystic Preservation Shipyard. It is currently in dry-dock, but has toured the Atlantic in recognition and commemoration of the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.