Coastal Daytrip

It has been a while since we’ve had a daytrip excursion and around noon today we decided it was too beautiful to stay at home so we hopped in the car and headed to the coast. One of the benefits of living in central Connecticut is that you are no more than an hour or so to almost any location in the state.

Sarah has wanted to visit Fort Trumbull ever since she read about the state park in a visitor’s guide to Connecticut. After finding out on the internet that the park closes for the season after Columbus Day, we knew this was the weekend to go.

Fort Trumbull is about an hour from Bristol in the coastal, naval community of New London. The original site consisted of a simple earthen mound fort that was used in conjunction with Fort Griswold to protect the Thames River from British invasion during the Revolutionary War in the late 1700s. However, the forts were both overrun and taken by British troops under the command of Benedict Arnold in September 1781 when the British raided and burned the town of New London. New London was rebuilt, and at the turn of the century, was one of the largest ports of commerce in the colonies. The fort as we see it today was built from 1839 – 1852 and is one of a group of 42 forts which were constructed for the defense of the coast of the United States. This group of forts is called the Third System of Fortifications. The fort has been used as a maritime center for the United States up until the early 1990s housing such notables as the first Coast Guard Training Academy and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center which was instrumental in developing the sonar technology used to defend naval ships against the U-Boats of World War II.

After getting our history lesson for the day, we then headed west to Old Saybrook and enjoyed a seafood dinner at the Saybrook Point Dock and Dine. We watched the moon come up over the colorful horizon and then traveled further west to Branford – Justin’s favorite Connecticut coastal community. By the time we reached Branford, the sun had already set and the moon was well above the water. Justin drove us through some of the beautiful coastal neighborhoods where we watched the waves and moonlit waters of the Long Island Sound. We couldn’t have planned for a more picturesque end to our day!