Hectic day today. The usual Saturday morning frenzy running around all over town for Matthew's activities. We arrived home just in time to pack up the car, close up the house, and head up to Mystic, Connecticut to get him to the Daughters of American Revolution State Award Ceremony Dinner. Of course, Murphy's law. You've got to be someplace, there is
ALWAYS an accident on I-95. There was a 10 mile backup that caused major mayhem. I thought I would be smart and get off the highway and take Route 1 up. Yeah, no way. That was even worse. Hopped back onto the highway and just gritted my teeth all the way up. The trip shouldn't have taken more than 1.5 hours. It took us almost 3.5 hours to get there. We arrived just in time to get dressed and barrel out the door for the dinner reception.
We met up with the Stamford Regent for the Daughter's for American Revolution, Mr. Fox, Matthew's principal and the Stamford Chapter Member for the award dinner. It was an honor to be in attendance at the dinner since it was filled with lots of pomp and pageantry. We found out that Matthew beat out 43 other entries for the 7th grade category. That was pretty special. Matthew was getting nervous since he was supposed to read his speech to the whole entire room. There must have been about 250 people there. Due to the tight schedule, all the kids who were the first place winners got a reprieve. Matthew was
so happy that he didn't have to get up and do his first public speech.
The evening ended with Matthew chatting with a representative of Sheldon's Horse. We learned that Sheldon's Horse is a re-established military and historical organization. The unit participates in a lot of ceremonial, educational, civic, and historical activities, mainly in the Northeast United States. We found out that Sheldon's Horse supports and participates in many historical programs on the American Revolution throughout the region. It was a pretty spectacular day for Matthew. One that I doubt he will ever forget.
Checked out of the hotel and we were looking for breakfast. We didn't want to eat at the hotel, we wanted to find a local diner. We found Norm's Diner in Groton, about 5 minutes from where we were staying. We pulled up and we were kind of skeptical. Looked like something from the 1950's in the bad part of town. It was packed so we figured, what the hell. Let's just go for it. So we did. The food was good, the place looked gritty but we survived. In fact, we liked it. We even picked up a souvenir t-shirt to commemorate our experience. The picture is of Matthew and our waitress. Believe me, she was a lot nicer than she looks.
We headed up to Mystic Aquarium after our bellies were full. The weather was pretty depressing today. Cold, rainy and gloomy. It was way too cold to be wandering around outside at the Seaport. So, why not go to an aquarium and watch the happy little fishes? It was great. Matthew got to participate in the touch tanks, I was watching the little fishes swimming and it was very zen like. 
After we were done wandering around the aquarium, we decided to head over to Olde Mistick Village and visit some of the shops. While we were in La Bottega, a shop that carries Italian novelty items, Matthew spotted a sign that pretty much pays homage to the typical stereotype of the way Italians speak. So of course, we had to purchase it for him to hang on his door. No visit would be complete without a meal at a Zagat rated restaurant. We wandered over to Go Fish for some lunch. Matthew ordered the seafood pasta, Tony had a bowl of clam chowder and I had the oysters. We snacked on calamari and wandered out of there to get on the highway back home. At least, we didn't hit a major pile up on the expressway. The perfect ending to a great weekend.
