We spent a couple of afternoons on two of eastern Connecticut’s major rivers. First, we headed to Groton, along the Thames, to see the Submarine Force Museum, home of the USS Nautilus. The Thames is gorgeously scenic. Arthur intuited that it was named for the famous London river, and a quick trip to Wikipedia confirms this: It was originally known as the Pequot River after the Pequot Indians who dominated the area. Other early names for the river have included Frisius, Great, Great River of Pequot, Little Fresh, New London, and Pequod. The town was officially named New London in 1658 and the estuary river…

The first stop on our Connecticut trip was Mohegan Sun, one of the two mammoth casino resorts that anchor the economy of this part of the state. It’s an enormous, labyrinthine place, where the casino floor snakes around a circular corridor filled with shops, restaurants, a huge arena, and the hotel towers where guests stay and convene. We enjoyed a couple of early evenings in each of the casinos (one is called Earth; the other, Sky); Arthur did well at the slots while I managed to lose pretty consistently. We ate at a restaurant called The Shed, which turned out…