The US Coast Guard Academy occupies a handsome campus on a hill overlooking the Thames River, and unusually for a military academy, it is open to the public without prior arrangement. Walk the grounds, visit the museum in Chase Hall, and if timing is right, watch the cadets on parade — Friday afternoon parade drills are a tradition during the academic year.
The Eagle, the Coast Guard's training barque and one of the last tall ships in active service with the US government, is often docked at the Academy pier when not on training voyages. A three-masted 295-foot ship built in Germany in 1936 and seized as war reparations in 1946, it is the flagship of the Coast Guard and worth seeing up close when available.