Fri June 11 - Sat June 12: Branford/New Haven Hiatus

 In which we totally overeat ...

We were excited to see New Haven, and, since we hadn't been confused by anything in the last 24 hours, Rick wanted to see if he could get us there by commuter train. We walked to the train station with plenty of time to spare, which was good as we had to walk back and forth over the track several times, trying to figure out what train would come on which track.  Let me assure you that NO WHERE was that info spelled out. We finally stood on the sky bridge waiting to see which track, and then sprinted down the stairs.  It was a fun time ...

Our only goal in New Haven was to try what some people call the best pizza in the world. We had no idea that New Haven was the mecca for this kind of pizza. It's very thin, not round and burned around the edges. All the BYC members on our dock had to weigh in on where one should go to get this delicious goodness.  Pepe's is the one featured on Netflix, Sally's is maybe better, Modern should be considered.  They almost came to blows over it... We went to Sally's because it was the first one we came to and we were starving...

Was it good, you ask?  Well, it was great up until we had eaten half of it.  But then we kept eating, and you know one of the rules of life is that you should never eat anything bigger than your head.  And we did.  Groan.....

And THEN, we walked around the corner to Libby's and got a chocolate filled cannoli, and some cookies.  I started to put them in the backpack and Rick said 'what are you doing?!  We need to eat that cannoli'.  And we SOMEHOW managed to find room....  If we keep eating everything recommended to us on this trip, we are going to need some serious belt extenders. 

Our next stop was Yale.  See, we did get into Yale!

 

We stayed late to see if the famous carillon in Harkness Tower would play, but were disappointed.  So we watched them play Gaston from Beauty and the Beast on YouTube, when we got back to the boat! That's the kind of carillon hymn we can get behind!

Serious Harry Potter vibes.

The university wasn't open, so I didn't get to go into the Beinecke Rare Books Library - so that was sad. I always like a book pilgrimage. We couldn't help but notice that the area around Yale is pretty urban, and we had been told not to dock in the downtown area due to crime.

Back at the boat a certain number of our yacht club fellows were a bit salty that we had gone to Sally's instead of Pepe's, but the other half were happy we had taken their recommendation.  It seemed politic to turn out the lights and pretend we were asleep.

We had been looking forward to Sat, as my cousin Sarah and her family were coming to visit!  Rick cleaned the boat, and then fixed the toilet as I stayed helpfully out of the way - - in bed.

Our toilet is a vaccu-flush, so it holds all the 'black water' in a holding tank until we pump it out.  Unfortunately the vaccu seal had been leaking since we bought the boat, with the result that a, shall we say, distinctive odor would occasionally waft delightfully through the boat.  Some of us have been lobbying hard to get this fix to the top of the to-do list, and it finally got there.  The results were LIFE-CHANGING.  By which I mean I will now agree to continue to loop on this boat.

We were SO happy to see Sarah, Frank, Liam, Molly and Clare!  It's been many years since I have seen them all, and they are just delightful company. We treated them to lunch at the grilled cheese sandwich truck, and they brought us a TON of food provisions.  Sadly, I'm still too full from yesterdays pizza - I may never eat again.  I feel like a python who is still digesting a hippo.

I love family!  And how great it was to hug again.

It was just like the Featured Boat Name - family really is the Holy Grail!