It's Independence Day here in the United States. Or for our British home exchange friends, Uppity Colonials' Day. Or something like that. We went up the coast for a seaside vacation. Most New Yorkers who want a breath of salt air prefer to go "Down the Shore" to the beaches of New Jersey but we always have to be different.
We find ourselves in coastal Connecticut. There are lots of financially depressed former whaling towns here in Eastern Connecticut. Some of them have cute historical downtown areas and harbors with seafood shacks, but unfortunately few home exchangers.
We avoided throwing any tea into the harbor, but we did have a great seafood dinner at Captain Scott's Lobster Pot in New London, which is a classic New England fish stand. We don't eat lobster but if we did we would be amazed at how cheap and fresh lobster is these days. The Canadian lobster processing industry collapsed along with the Icelandic banks. It's complicated.
Anyway, the next day's dinner was some of the best Italian food we have ever had at Paul's Pasta Shop. We ate overlooking the Thames River. No, not that Thames, the one in Groton, Connecticut, but sunset over the River was pleasantly scenic.
The downer in our family get-away has been the lodging. No home exchangers here. Instead we are all stuffed into one bland hotel room. It's especially sad because after we arrived we had a kind last-minute offer from the folks with the amazing house just an hour's drive from our place in upstate New York. We used their home for our last swap and when they decided to go out of town they let us know but their vacation came together rather late.
There is nothing like staying at a hotel to remind me about how much I love home exchange., This July 4th I resolved that my future will include as much independence from hotels as possible. Now I'm off to dump some tea in the hotel bathtub.
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