For our parents only vacation this year we headed out to Boston to explore the historical sights. We decided not long after we had Noah that taking time for just us each year, for more than a few hours, was important to stay connected especially when we spend so much time being in different time zones and when we happen to be the same place there are always so many things going on we don't get to just spend time together. Both sets of grandparents helped with Noah while we were gone and we are very thankful for them letting him crash at their houses and running him to school and such.
In high school I went on an east coast history tour with my high school
and actually visited the plantation and a few of the other sights we
saw on our trip, it's amazing how much more of an impact things have
when your an adult and not a teenager more interested in hanging out
with friends. I am so glad I got to go back as an adult. Ready for a vacation overload cause here we go...
Day 1, 9/13. We landed pretty early in the day and decided to head up to Salem, MA to see the hiostory from the witch trials. We started off at the visitor center, we learned always start at the visitor center in a new place with lots of stuff to see the rangers will direct you and most of the time give you insight on stuff to see you didn't know exhisted. From there we headed to the Salem Witch Museum, it was interesting to see and hear accounts of what happened during the witch trials but there is definitely an eerie feeling when it's being discussed, at least I thought so...Mark didn't.
We wandered through the town, old towns have so much more character than anything new! We stopped in the oldest candy company in the country for a sweet treat, it was good candy but nothing amazing that I need to make a special trip for.
replica 1797 East Indiaman, a sailing vessel representing Salem's role
as a center of global trade in 18th century America - See more at:
http://www.salem.org/advertisers/find/museums-attractions#sthash.lI8iPTrw.dpuf
After our candy stop we headed down to see the Friendship of Salem. This a replica 1797 east indianman sailing ship. These ships are amazing to see in person. They still take this ship out sailing on occasion and it's only open to the public 2 times a week so we lucked out in seeing it.
replica 1797 East Indiaman, a sailing vessel representing Salem's role
as a center of global trade in 18th century America - See more at:
http://www.salem.org/advertisers/find/museums-attractions#sthash.lI8iPTrw.dpuf
We stopped at the minute man visitor center on the way to our hotel that was about 30 minutes outside Boston. There wasn't much going on in the late afternoon but the rangers told us to come back on Sunday and some of the historical homes would be open, this is why you ask rangers they tell you the valuable information.
Day 2, 9/14. After a much needed rest, I think we each slept over
10 hours, we got up and headed south to Plimoth. We started our day of sight seeing at
Plimoth plantation.
After arriving we started off at the Wampanoag homesite, unlike the
english village that is full of actors portraying 17th century life the
homesite is actual descendent's of the natives that were here when the
pilgrims arrived. It was amazing to listen to them talk of their
ancestors and how they lived before and after the pilgrims arrived.
The english village is amazing to see, built as close the original as possible from description. Puts in to perspective how much more we have than we actually need to survive, not that I wish we had dirt floors or one rooms homes but it was an interesting comparison as we dream of buying a house to realize what we actually need compared to what we want. All of the villagers you meet are in character, they only know things that happened until 17th century with complete back stories so you can ask them questions about England, their voyage over and so forth however if you ask about future events they will not respond. It was fun to watch them interact with young kids around Noah's age who can't understand the concept of what they are doing, they did it and stayed in character. It was really neat
View of the village from the look out tower, the bottom half of the building was their meeting house and had this amazing stand for speakers that I failed to take a picture of.
After visiting the plantation we went to see the Mayflower II, a replica of the ships from the era of when the pilgrims arrived. The actual Mayflower was just a charter ship that went back to England and worked there for awhile before just kind of disappearing and was probably sold for scrap wood as most ships in those days were.
Mark in the captains quarters, so glad I am not a sailor! As a girl I would be tall for the few bunks they had and just being on there to tour it I was getting nauseas.
And because we were there we had to stop and see Plymouth rock (there are multiple ways to spell Plymouth we learned and all acceptable). It's kind of a dinky rock, Mom and Dad H and my brother have bigger rocks in their yards. The information board next to it noted that
they don't actually know why Plymouth
Rock is important. Some one decided it could have been close to where
the pilgrims came ashore, might have been part of a dock or just a land
marker. Some one "who knew the original pilgrims" told them it couldn't
be buried back in the late 1600's.
Following Plymouth we traveled north to
Minute Man National Park. This is the sight of the beginning of the revolution war and the "shot heard around the world". The scenery everywhere we went was amazing, gorgeous and green with a few hints of fall.
On Sundays there are volunteers who come tell the account of the battle, in period costume. It was neat to listen to the man recount "his" story during the history changing battle.
Next it was off to the
battle road. This is the road that the minute men and british soldiers fought on while returning to Boston from Lexigton & Concord. The battle road had this reverence about it, a feeling of peace and importance. To walk where such a significant battle took place and read the history along the way was truly amazing. It wasn't a large battle but it shaped this country, maybe thinking of that was why the feeling of reverence was there.
Any home along battle road that comes up for sale is purchased by the national park foundation, if it's an original house from revolutionary war time it stays standing. If not it is torn down and a marker placed there.
Hartwell Tavern we were able to tour the tavern, this was used as a home until the 1970's when it was purchased and restored to it's original state.
Day 3, 9/15. We headed out to Cape Cod. First on our agenda was a Hyannisport Harbor cruise. It's always fun to see the view of things from the water. Part of the cruise took you past the rich parts of cape cod, not sure there are cheap parts but maybe, we saw the "Kennedy compound" and the house used as the summer white house during President Kennedy's term. The houses were pretty but I loved seeing all the sail boats floating on the water just waiting for their next adventure
Next we headed to Brewster where we picked up a couple of bikes for the day, we enjoyed seeing San Francisco by bike last year so we decided to try it again. We were not disappointed, it was fun to thing from a bike instead of inside a car trying to navigate traffic on unfamiliar streets.
First we headed off to find some lunch and make a plan. We didn't find lunch but we found the beach.
We ended up riding about 22 miles from Brewster to Coast Guard Beach, don't worry we found lunch first. It was a beautiful ride.
Coast Guard Beach, I am glad we didn't visit there for a beach vacation. It was a bit chilly, had we not just biked there we'd have had sweaters on.
Forgot to rotate this, oops! The radio tower were the first transatlantic broadcast was transmitted from
26 weeks pregnant, 22 miles on a bike...bragging rights I think. Yes my butt hurt and I was slower than not pregnant but Mark just enjoyed the scenery and stuck with me.
Proof that I did actually wear my helmet. I hate helmets, no really I do, but Mark insists we wear them and I listen. I know they are good and serve a purpose, my boss is alive thanks to a bike helmet so I really do know, but I still don't like them.
After returning our bikes it was time for some fresh seafood, we tried going to a place recommended by Karin & Tawyna (our unofficial tour reference, they use to live there) but it closed before we got there so we detoured to Chatham lighthouse.
Chatham Lighthouse, known as Twin Lights prior to 1923, is a lighthouse in Chatham, Massachusetts, near the "elbow" of Cape Cod. The station was established in 1808, the second light on Cape Cod. It a function lighthouse today manned by the US coast guard.
While watching the sunset over the lighthouse we ran into 2 couples vacationing together we had seen through out the day but hadn't talked to, one of them noticed Mark's USU shirt and wouldn't you know they were from Draper. One of the ladies actually works at the NICU and is pretty sure she took care of the twins during their stay, the story of my sisters random delivery at 29 weeks while visiting her in-laws is not easy to forget.
Thanks to the help of Aunt Karin we found a yummy place to eat in Hyannis, Spankys Crab Shack. It was amazing, never have I had a crab cake so amazing, I could have eaten multiples.
Up next downtown Boston! Hopefully I don't take another month to post the second half of our vacation :)
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