July, 2019

We went to the Mystic Aquarium, which is nice but expensive. Their animals seem happy and well-cared-for, and there were plenty of interpretive staff, so I think admission dollars are going to the right places. Here’s a picture of a penguin under water, and another of a fur seal. Did you know fur seals are actually not seals, but closely related to sea lions?

On another nature walk, we came across a pond, and wondered what lived in it. Then we saw the 18″ snapping turtle. We named him Hector. This is his nose & eyes, peeking out of the water.

We went for a nature walk in a small park near our inn, expecting to find some shore birds. That’s not what we found at all.

Click through for some other shots from this walk.

In Mystic, CT for a long weekend. After we checked in to our inn we went to have a look at the local beach. It turned out to be a pathetic excuse not worth swimming at, but did have a nice view of the setting sun.

When life gives you raspberries, you eat them. But the ones that are past ripe, maybe you should crush them and put the pulp in a mixture of white wine vinegar and unfiltered apple cider vinegar and let it ferment for a week. Then you’d have a nice bright red raspberry vinegar with which to make salad dressings.

Our raspberry bushes are out of control this year.

As someone who considers myself a serious photographer, it’s vexing that my phone takes a better fireworks photo than I have the skills to produce with my big camera. But there you have it.

I also uploaded my phone’s video of the finale: https://youtu.be/LIFWV4kjzuE

My train was significantly delayed this evening — a previous train hit someone in Newtonville. Fortunately for me, Lis was on the same train as me and we were stopped at a station when the announcement came on, so we got out and grabbed some dinner to let the situation clear. I had never been to Lansdowne station (née Yawkey) before.

The ceiling in the nook at Lolita where we had a work celebration lunch today.

This is the best food-truck food I have had all season, and that’s saying something. Seared sea scallops, bacon jam, griddled brioche bun, chipotle aioli, token lettuce leaf. Courtesy of Shuck Food Truck.

(Note: this pic is actually from Friday but I forgot to post it so I’m cheating.)