Bridgeport to Newhaven: In Search of Dinosaurs

Our second day was by far the easiest riding of the trip -- we only had 25 flat miles along the coast.  I planned this one to be short on purpose, as (1) we weren't sure if the first day riding the loaded bikes as a group was going to be a shock to the system and (2) I wanted to have lots of time to visit the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.  Because, well, dinosaurs...

A few of the days sights included picturesque bridges,

and very flat beaches

with a wee library.

We eventually made it to the dinosaur museum and admired the bones, including a brontosaurus with the wrong head on it

some scary leaping critters with large claws that hunted in packs

and other fine monsters.

We spent so long wandering through the various rooms of interesting things that we had to beg the woman closing up the gift shop to re-open for two minutes so that Chad could buy a copy of the postcard of the big mural in the dinosaur hall that he remembers fondly as a kid to send to his mom. (We got a copy for us too.)

Newhaven, being a college town, had no shortage of interesting dinner options.  On our walk back through Yale from the museum to the hotel, we found a most excellent modern fusion noodle soup place, where we laughed silently at the earnest hip young waiter who thought he had to explain the types of soup to us because we had never been to *that* particular restaurant before.  Bay Area denizens already know what ramen and pho are, of course :)

Nim enjoyed her dinner, through teen-like complaints of "this ramen isn't authentic" (it was a modern take on ramen, and was delicious).  

Noodle snob or not, the kiddo was inspired to produce a fine sketch in their comment book as Chad and I finished our drinks (Thai-style bubble tea spiked with cognac, and extra gingery Moscow Mule....mmmm...)