What I Did on my Spring Vacation

I am sure that if I assigned this topic to my 6th graders I would get the same title on most of their essays.  I guess that's why I won't be asking them to write about their breaks!  (I'm actually thinking about - What did you wish you did, but didn't!)

We spent a couple of days away on a 900 mile round trip get away.  We left on Sunday morning and headed for Cape May, NJ.  I wanted beach, I wanted further south than here, and I wanted a bed and breakfast.  I got 2 out of 3.  We stayed here, at the Marquis de Lafayette:

We had a balcony view of the beach and ocean, and it was in walking distance of all the sights. Since it was off season, we got our room for a very reasonable price  -- about a quarter of what it goes for during the summer.   Cape May is full of restored Victorian homes.  We took a guided trolley tour and we walked up and down all the side streets as well as the beach.

We spent 2 nights here and then headed back north, stopping in my home town in CT to visit my aunt and some cousins.  Tuesday night we traveled to Mystic, CT where we spent the night, and then on Wednesday morning, I went in search of an old family cemetery in Stonington.  I've been working on our genealogy in between knitting, reading, school work, and church.  My mother's family is an early New England family and a lot of work has already been done on her side.  My father's side is more difficult; he was born in Cuba, and his family is from Asturias, Spain.  My husband's family came to the US in the late 1800's and early 1900's from places that have changed countries a few times:  Sadagora which is now in the Ukraine but was part of the Austria-Hungary empire back when his father was born, and small villages near Minsk.  His family is also difficult because so many records were lost.    But I did find the cemetery I was looking for.

I love the mausoleum!  There is no record however of who's inside!  Someday I will contact whoever is in charge of the cemetery to find out.

This ancestor fought in the American Revolution and is one of the ancestors through which my DAR membership is traced.  There are a number of other family members here, but I haven't been able to yet to trace exactly when the family arrived in Stonington.  Family lore says the first relative came over with Gov. Winthrop on the Arbella in 1630, but I haven't substantiated that yet.














We finished up our trip through the past with a visit to the University of Connecticut.  It's our mutual alma mater.  I have to admit, the campus has mushroomed since we were there in the late '60's and early 70's, and it's not nearly as pretty as it used to be.  It's a veritable city now! 

The rest of the week was very low-key. I got some knitting done, read a lot, and watched a lot of DVR'd TV shows that had piled up.  Now it's back to the grind  (on my birthday no less!) for another 40 days.