ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS about touring New England is that worthwhile sights are bunched together, a result of towns being close to each other. Nowhere is that notion truer than in compact Connecticut, our nation's third smallest state.

The southeastern corner of Connecticut is maritime New England in a nutshell. Base yourself in the historic town of Mystic, and you've got a whole raft of sightseeing pleasures within easy driving distance. The border of Rhode Island is only eight miles away.

Not only do you encounter coastal scenery, seafood eateries, and salty slices of Connecticut's seafaring heritage, but you find the storybook New England of town greens, clapboard homes, and white-steeple churches. Inviting boutiques and antiques shops abound.

A focal point of American maritime history, the Mystic area enjoys a national prominence far out of proportion to its size. Few places in the 19th century rivaled this Connecticut enclave as a center for sea commerce. Whaling, seal hunting, fishing, shipbuilding, and the China trade all made Mystic a magnet for swash-buckling pioneers.

Mystic Seaport, the world's largest maritime museum, is the area's signature attraction. Minutes away are a world-class aquarium and one of the country's best Native American museums.

You easily can spend a day at Mystic Seaport, a replica 19th century village spread across 17 acres along the Mystic River. The fleet of vintage ships includes the 1841 Charles W. Morgan, last of the nation's wooden whaling vessels. In the blubber room below deck, guides explain how whale blubber was sliced, diced, and boiled into oil (used in lamps). The Sabino, a coal-fueled steamship built in 1908, takes passengers on a cruise along the Connecticut coast.

Among the buildings at Mystic Seaport (many were moved to the site from other places) are an oyster culling house, a tavern, chapel, lighthouse, and one-room schoolhouse. Craftspersons demonstrate the skills of the shipsmith (blacksmith), cooper, and shipcarver, who carved the elaborate wooden figureheads on ships of the day.

Horse carriage tides and a planetarium provide other diversions at Mystic Seaport. Special events include December's Christmas-themed Lantern Light tours and October's Chowderfest.

Save time for exploring downtown Mystic, buzzing with pubs, galleries, boutiques, bookstores, and antiques emporiums. The town's 1922 drawbridge on the Mystic River opens hourly in summer to let boats through. From a table at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream, you can watch the river action as you enjoy homemade flavors like creamy coconut, ginger spice, pumpkin pie, Mystic mud, and Kahlua mocha fudge.

At Mystic Pizza, made famous in the 1988 Julia Roberts movie of the same name, savor a "Slice of Heaven" and pick up a souvenir pizza cutter, yoyo, mug, or T-shirt. The restaurant also sells videotapes of Mystic Pizza (filmed in Mystic and neighboring towns), a story about the lives and loves of three young waitresses.

From spring through fall, schooner cruises ply the Mystic River and some go out into Long Island Sound. The windjammer Mystic Whaler features lobster dinner outings.

Olde Mistick Village, away from downtown, is a colonial-themed shopping center with more than 60 specialty shops and free entertainment in a garden setting with duck ponds, a gazebo, and waterwheel.

Mystic Aquarium & Institute for Exploration, near Olde Mistick Village, is one of the nation's finest aquariums. Besides viewing penguins, a sea lion show, and the world's largest outdoor beluga whale habitat, visitors can immerse themselves in underwater archaeology at the Institute for Exploration, a major expansion to the aquarium in 1999.

The Institute is the head-quarters of Dr. Robert Ballard, best known as the marine scientist whose expedition discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985. Exhibits focus not only on the ill-fated ocean liner but on other famous vessels, such as Lt. John F. Kennedy's PT 109, which sank following an enemy attack in the South Pacific during World War II. Ballard's team found the boat in 2002. "Noah's Flood & Ancient Shipwrecks" looks at Ballard's expeditions to the Mediterranean and Black Sea.

Institute visitors can walk the deck of a replica of a scientific support ship and learn about remotely operated robotics systems that have revolutionized deep-sea exploration. Two spherical theaters provide a seven-minute video descent into the ocean.

Mystic Aquarium's Immersion Institute theater offers live views of California's Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary via a web feed using robotic vehicles and underwater cameras. The hookup even includes live explanations from a diver.

The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, the world's largest Native American museum, is another must-see in southeastern Connecticut. Tucked amid wooded hills and marshlands eight miles north of Mystic, the museum chronicles the Mashantucket Pequot tribe from prehistoric times to ownership of a wildly successful mega-casino on the reservation near Ledyard.

State-of-the-art exhibits feature interactive computer programs and films, plus dazzling dioramas of a 16th century Pequot village complete with life-size figures, wigwams, and everyday scents and sounds. No expense has been spared.

Don't miss The Witness, a movie that describes in dramatic detail how the tribe was all but decimated in the 1636-1638 Pequot War, which included the massacre of a village near the Mystic River by English colonists and their Native allies. The defeated Pequots were forced into slavery among the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes or shipped off to foreign territories. They were stripped of their land, culture, and language, and could not even call themselves Pequots. The burning of the village is seen through the eyes of an elderly Pequot, who, as a boy, survived the slaughter and urges his grandson to keep the story alive.

Ancestors of the displaced Pequots began returning to Connecticut in the 1970s and bought back their lands. An act of Congress in 1983 recognized the tribe as an Indian nation.

An audio tour of the indoor, walk-through Pequot village, which has no fences or barriers, describes everyday experiences like fishing, weaving, tanning hides, and harvesting corn. Outdoors, a recreated Pequot farmstead, with a garden and orchard, is built over the recently excavated remnants of an 18th century farm.

Other exhibits focus on the tribe's struggle for federal recognition and the beginning in 1986 of a high-stakes bingo operation that led six years later to Foxwoods Resort Casino. The sprawling Foxwoods complex, the world's largest gambling operation, draws more than 40,000 visitors daily. It actually comprises five casinos with 5,800 slot machines and 350 table games, plus three hotels (one a high-rise tower that pokes out of the forest), 24 restaurants, a world-class spa, and a theater that attracts the biggest names in entertainment. The Foxwoods Golf & Country Club at Boulder Hills is a short drive from the resort.

In Uncasville, west of Ledyard, the Mohegan Indians operate Mohegan Sun, another grand gaming center.

The cozy village of Stonington, a few miles east of Mystic and close to the Rhode Island border, is steeped in maritime lore. Situated on a little peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean, Stonington was a whaling, sealing, and shipbuilding center in the 19th century and today abounds with well-preserved homes, many of them in the Greek Revival style. Quaint shops line Water Street. The ambience is understated and less commercial than Mystic.

At the Old Lighthouse Museum, agile visitors climb the ladder to the stone tower's cupola for views of Stonington harbor and three states. The beacon, built in 1823 and active until 1889, houses the museum of the local historical society. Displays in six rooms showcase a harpoon and other whaling tools, scrimshaw, ship models, toys and dolls, and items from the China trade.

Another lofty vantage point is the octagonal cupola of the Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer House, a 16-room Victorian mansion built in 1852 by two brothers active in whaling, sealing, and other seaborne ventures. On a seal hunt in 1820, Nathaniel is said to have discovered Antarctica. The peninsula he sighted would become known as Palmer Land.

A SEASIDE STAY

A HILLSIDE ESTATE OVERLOOKING THE sheltered coves of Mystic Harbor and Long Island Sound, The Inn at Mystic makes a homey nest for travelers exploring the coast of southeastern Connecticut. In fact, it's centered around a home, a grand white one celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Five of the inn's 67 guest rooms are in the historic Haley Mansion, built in 1904 by Katherine Haley, the widow of one of the owners of New York's Fulton Fish Market. The property was purchased in 1943 by Frederick Mosel, the financier of Richard Nixon's first political campaign. He lived in the mansion with his sister, Annie, but because his lavish parties kept her up at night, he built her a little house down the hill, now called the Gate House.

A white-frame "dollhouse" trimmed in yellow and set behind a white rail fence, the Gate House has four guest rooms, each with private bath. Its most famous guests were Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who honeymooned there in 1945 while visiting Mosel, a longtime friend of Bogie's. If you want to sleep where the movie legends stayed, ask for Room #8.

Most of the inns guest rooms, though, are located in three modern buildings closer to the harbor and Route 1. All rooms are furnished in a colonial style that says New England. Six accommodations share a building with the Flood Tide restaurant, a great excuse to visit the inn even if you're not staying there.

Large picture windows at the Flood Tide provide sweeping water views, and the culinary creations of Executive Chef Bob Tripp are lauded throughout the region. Menu choices at dinner include lobster with seafood stuffing and pan-seared duck breast with raspberry Grand Marnier compote, whipped maple sweet potato, and broccoli florets. For an appetizer, I recommend the garlic escargots baked with fresh Roma tomatoes and cabernet thyme butter in puff pastry. And the New England clam chowder is a must.

Classic tableside preparations lot two or more include Caesar salad, chateaubriand, and the decadent Bananas Flood Tide, a flaming dessert of bananas, walnuts, rum, and banana liquor over vanilla ice cream.

After a day of sightseeing, we looked forward to complimentary afternoon tea at 4 p.m. The spread features goodies like soft oatmeal raisin cookies, light-as-a-feather popovers, and finger sandwiches.

On a brisk October morning, a group of us got up early to go kayaking with Jody Dyer, the innkeeper. We boarded our kayaks at the dock on Pequotsepos Cove, a calm sanctuary down the hill and through the orchard from my Gate House quarters. A thin glaze of ice covered the surface as we paddled around the protected cove, where deer sometimes are visible along the shore. We then went out into the harbor, sharing the cold water with swans as we passed weathered gravestones and cannons in the 1698 Denison family burying ground, located across the road from The Inn at Mystic. Some of us spotted muskrats and cormorants.

After an hour of paddling, we walked over to the Flood Tide for a hearty breakfast. I jumped at the Buffet's chocolate-rapsberry bread pudding. Other choices included oathmeal, scones, seafood and blueberry crepes, and moist brioche French toast with pure maple syrup. Eggs Benedict with lobster is a popular breakfast specially, as is salmon and eggs--two salmon cakes on toasted English muffins topped with poached eggs and dill hollandaise sauce.

Rooms at the white-columned Haley Mansion, crowning the highest point on the rocky hilltop, may feature a fireplace, canopy bed, whirlpool, or balcony. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the mansions is a popular spot for wedding receptions.

I liked staying in the Gate House because it was a bit isolated from the rest of the resort. Room #9 was cozy and warm, with wood paneling, ceiling beams, and a parquet floor in the bathroom. The original bookshelves contained tattered books and National Geographics from the 1970s and '80s. A white chenille bedspread covered my four-poster canopy bed. A vase of fresh flowers and some shiny McIntosh apples graced the writing desk; waterfowl prints decorated the walls.

Recreational amenities at the inn include an outdoor swimming pool and 10-person whirlpool; tear, is courts, two putting greens; nature trails; and use of kayaks, canoes, and sailboats. Guests have full membership privileges at the nearby Mystic Community Center. which offers an Olympic-size indoor swimming pool fitness center basketball courts, a beach, and more.

Room rates range from $85 to $295, depending on season and type of accommodation. Special value packages focus on Haley Mansion's 100th anniversary, Thanksgving, and Christmas. The "December Lantern Light Tour" package features an evening Christmastime tour of Mystic Seaport.

The two-night "Newport Mansions/Rolls Royce" plan (from $287 per person, plus tax, through Dec. 18) includes some meals, accommodations in Haley Mansion, and a chauffeured Rolls Royce day trip to Stonington and Newport, Rhode Island.

Contact: The Inn at Mystic, Junction Routes 1 and 27, Mystic, CT 06355; (800) 237-2415; www.innatmystic.com

Contact: Southeastern Connecticut Tourism District, (800) 863-6569; www.mysticmore.com.

COPYRIGHT 2004 World Publishing, Co. (Illinois)
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group