I can’t believe that April vacation is over. Too fast!
We’ve had a lovely time, having some chilled out days at home and taking a mini-break in Mystic, Connecticut with friends.
We spent Easter Sunday with the same friends, lots of good food, good wine and great chat before getting up early on Monday to head south to Mystic. And yes, that Mystic. The one of Mystic Pizza fame!
We had a lovely day exploring the Historic Mystic Seaport, so much to see and do. We will have to go back to do the bits that we ran out of time for. The Amistad is currently docked there and we watched them carrying out restoration work. Fascinating.
A lovely meal in a very cool bar/restaurant – yummy food! – was followed by a swim in the hotel pool for all the kids (probably the highlight of the day for them!).
The following day we headed to the Mystic Aquarium and promptly fell in love with the Beluga whales. Now, I’m not a huge fan of seeing large animals in captivity, but we were lucky enough to catch a wonderful talk by staff on the work that they do with the Belugas.
They explained how they take care of them and teach them behaviors (tricks), both as a way for them to bond with their handlers and have fun, but also to help with vets’ visits and safety measures/emergencies. For example, earlier that day a pacifier had been dropped into their (massive) tank and the staff had to move them into a gated area really fast, before either of them accidentally ate the pacifier. Without the learned signals and behaviors this would be very difficult, and stressful for the whales.
I would still rather see them in their natural habitat, but they are amazing creatures and we felt really quite privileged to watch them swim, and come up to the glass and *chat* with us!
We couldn’t leave Mystic without heading to Mystic Pizza. The pizza was really good, and the movie was running on a loop in the background :)
The rest of the week was spent relaxing (watching the rain!), going to the cinema to see Beauty and the Beast (wonderful!) and a completing a 5k run (me and the 10yo).
Back to school on Monday, when the countdown to summer begins!
Hope you’ve all had a lovely week. Head over to my Instagram feed to see the rest of this week’s 365 photos…
I love Mystic! Such a fun place to visit.
It was our first visit and we loved it :)
Gorgeous photo, what wonderful creaturesd they are, as you say I’d rather they were wild, but lovely to see them and it sounds like they are well looked after here.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Beluga and your girl looks fascinated. So cool you got to see Mystic. I used to love that movie but haven’t seen it in years!
I always think whales and dolphins are very magical and wise creatures, that is a beautiful picture of the whale. #mysundayphoto
It sounds like you had a lovely few days….What a great place to visit x
What a wonderful photo and the Beluga Whale is just beautiful.
So glad you had a lovely week with the children & the Easter/Spring break. Time has gone very quickly, I agree with you!
Hope you enjoy this weekend and Monday’s return to school isn’t too challenging
xx
#SundayPhoto
It’s nice to know they are well looked after. Beautiful creatures! #mysundayphoto
Hi Sara, what a lovely photo! The Beluga whale reminds me a little of Casper the friendly ghost. I remember having mixed feelings when we visited the Daniel Cheetah Park in South Africa but by the time we left the park I realised that what was going on there was necessary to help keep cheetahs on the planet. They also had a high success rate with releasing animals too.
How fun to visit Mystic Pizza? What came first the film or the place?
xx
The pizza place came first :)
It sounds like you had a lovely little break away… Aquariums are always a hit with little ones, and your child looks entranced by those beautiful creatures – great capture! #MySundayPhoto
Great capture! I know what you mean about seeing them in their natural habit though #Mysundayphoto
It sounds like a lovely place to visit. The belugas are beautiful x
Amazing photo, looks like you had a great time #MySundayPhoto
That sounds like a wonderful place to visit, it looks like whale is smiling at you
Thank you for linking up
Such a fab capture… #mysundayphoto
Great photo – very narrative !!
What a beautiful photo and it sounds like you’ve had a really good week. Well done to you and the 10yo on your run – I’m gradually getting my kids back into running too. Back to school for us tomorrow too. It will be summer before we know it!
What a beautiful photo – I love the silhouette of your girl against the glass x
Sounds like it was a lovely end to the Easter holidays. Love the photo of the wee girl looking at the whale :-)
Loved that film, how fab to be able to visit the area. The whale looks wonderful #365
Awww! This is lovely. They are beautiful animals x
I’m using the Baby Beluga book with my pre-schoolers at the moment, they are such beautiful creatures. I just googled Mystic I had never heard of the place before. I am also counting down the days until the summer break on the west coast, and hoping for some really nice summer weather!
That is such a beautiful picture of your child with the Beluga whale. Mystic seems like a great place to visit and get a pizza fix.
For some creatures their only chance of existence is in captivity, sadly as I agree this is no way for any wild creature to live.
Sounds like you have had a good time and nice to do something different.
Love the photograph.
Sounds like a lovely week. Such a great photo too #mysundayphoto
I’ve never seen Mystic, but have heard of it, never realised it was a real place
They are such beautiful creatures! Great photo.
Wow this looks like an amazing experience! #MySundayPhoto
Mystic sounds a lot of fun with plenty of things to see and do. I don’t know much about Beluga Whales, but my son knows so much about marine animals – he’d have loved it.
Sounds like a fab few days! The pic looks amazing. I think you’re right and they should be wild but it’s also such a beautiful thing to see up close
Sorry for the late comment. Hope to see you tomorrow #mysundayphoto