Town #27 Old Lyme

Sunday, October 5, 2008
Florence Griswold Museum * Clam's

We went on a mystery outing (thanks, Jan) to the Florence Griswold Museum. Florence Griswold owned the mansion and used it as a boarding house for artists. An elite group stayed there from time to time and concentrated on their painting and fellowship with one another. They were early Impressionist artists and many of the door panels and other wood panels in the home bear their artwork. The mansion itself is a fine piece of architecture. The grounds have been kept up in the period style as well.

On the way down we had passed a place to eat that looked good so we decided to return there, Clam’s. Strangely, there weren’t many cars in the parking lot. Figuring we might be a little early for supper (5:00) we went in, only to find the dining room empty. There were people in the bar, though. Then we found they were out of clams which we really wanted in the first place, as well as shrimp, oysters, and mussels! That didn’t leave much left—just scallops, I guess. The chowders were the worst we had ever had. The clam chowder tasted like library paste, the scallop chowder turned out to be onion soup with some scallops, and the fried scallop dinner was quite strange, soggy! We were sorry we stuck around. (Another group came in and left, as we should have.) ($16.00 museum, $59.42 food) (Bob)