Part 25: Waterford, CT to Melville, NY

20171016-20

The Trip

Many thanks to Mike and Barb for hosting us at their home in Waterford.  Our plan was to take the Cross Sound Ferry over Long Island Sound to Orient, NY and then travel the main roads to Melville, NY, Kathleen's childhood home and current residence of her mother.

The Photos

The photos below are what we saw.

We left Mike and Barb's place with the intention of catching the 1200 ferry, but we early enough to be allowed onto the 1100 run.  We were the last vehicle on the boat and we cast off within seconds of driving aboard.  As we got underway we could see the high-speed trimaran passenger ferry at the dock.

From the stern of the ferry we could see the wharf portion of Waterford.

The I-95 bridge spanned the Thames river.  Both the vehicle and railroad bridges are visible above.

The ferry path goes past the General Dynamics Electtric Boat facility at Groton, CT.

Electric Boat is a major prime contractor for the construction of nuclear submarines.

In the river we spotted this quaint cottage on a small island.

The waterfront was studded with nice (and presumably expensive) homes.

One of the navigational lighthouses in the Thames.

Further downriver there was another lighthouse and more nice homes.

These houses actually have a sand beach.

No crossing of Long Island Sound is complete without a passage by the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center.  The PIADRC is supposedly responsible for the introduction of Lyme disease in North America via deer swimming across Long Island Sound.

We passed another cross-sound ferry, this one likely for passengers only.

The Jones family home in Melville.

Some of the houses in the neighborhood really get into Halloween.

This fellow went way, way overboard.

While in Melville we decided to visit the Hecksher Museum.  The museum is in a city park and the grounds were rife with geese.

Despite being late into fall, there were blooms on some of the plants.

Sadly, the lighting did not do the color justice in the photo.

These blooms were bright red.

The Heckshcher Museum was small but had some nice works.  The treatment of light in this photo is first class.  Venice has always been a popular subject for paintings.

Another nice work.

Despite the dim light in the museum, the camera did a great job of capturing the subtle colors in this work.

This painting made me do a double take as I originally thought it was a photograph.

Another nice work with great representation of lighting.

We left the Hecksher and headed across the park to a nice lake.

Kathleen was surprised to see live turtles in the lake begging for food.

There were a number of turtles of several species.  Note the fish under the turtles.

The lake had a viewing dock and ducks, geese, fish and turtles figured out if they were close to the dock and visible they would be fed.

This turtle, and several others, had weeds growing on their shells.



There were some big fish in the lake, also good at begging.



I never really considered what in-the-wild ducks eat.  It seems that they really like the surface algae on the water.  This pair swung their bills to and fro like harvesting machines gobbling up the algae.



We left the park and got a sandwich at a very funky "bistro" and then headed to Cold Springs Harbor.  There were a number of boats moored in the shallow water of the harbor.

Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2017, all rights reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.