Plymouth Plantation

Before I start, I have to say that this is one of those places I've wanted to take the kids to for forever!  I mean, what could be better than seeing a living pilgrim village along with their Wampanoag neighbors?!  It's a homeschooler's dream.

Oh, and yes, I know it would have made more sense to publish this actually ON Thanksgiving, but oh well.  Perfect timing does not always play out in the real world.

Anyway, Plymouth Plantation includes three sections:  The pilgrim village, the Wampanoag homesite and the Mayflower II.  All are meant to portray life as it was back when the first pilgrims came and settled on this land in 1620.



It certainly lived up to expectation and more.  First of all, the setting is absolutely gorgeous.  The original pilgrims made a good choice, if they were seeking a town with a view :-).  The entire experience is one of a kind.  In the pilgrim village section every 'pilgrim' you meet will speak and act strictly as a pilgrim would have.  They won't answer you in modern English but will use the pilgrim vernacular, if you will.  Even when asking your child to get down from the tree they're climbing...."Mind yourself lass!" When we asked how many pilgrims came across on the Mayflower we got the following answer: "Oh, I don't believe anyone on this ship has made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem".  Good point.  They didn't call themselves pilgrims, we do.

One is so totally immersed in it that even S declared he felt he was really there living with them at the time.  That's a pretty significant statement coming from him btw.

I'll start with the Wampanoag homesite as obviously they were here first.  The indigenous site differs from the pilgrim village in two ways:  1.  It is a recreation of a single family homesite and does not depict an entire village.  2.  The native staff here, mostly Wampanoag but some from other indigenous nations, are not here to play a role.  They are here to represent their people, share a modern perspective as well as to answer questions about their people's history and culture.

When I read reviews of Plymouth Plantation online before we came many people had commented about how unfriendly the staff at the homesite was.  I can totally see what they mean as they are not the bubbly Disney like characters/staff at all.  But that's exactly the point!  A point I think those commenters missed.  They are NOT there to play a role or even to entertain you.  They are there to show you how their ancestors lived.  They are there to be themselves.  To educate us as to who they really are.  Had they all had 'happy go lucky' attitudes I think the experience would not have been as authentic and meaningful.

Walking around the homesite I observed an interesting phenomenon:  All the native women were quiet and withdrawn. They explained what they were doing and answered questions yes, but usually in a very mild mannered way.  Not a problem, just an observation.  The men on the other hand were lighthearted and playful.  I have no explanation, just an observation.

A second observation we made had to do with the other children visiting the plantation.  They were obviously school groups, both private and public from what we could tell.  Our kids were free.  Free to wander, look, investigate, and ask their own questions stemming from true curiosity.  The school children however had a list of questions they were given and instructed to get answers to.  Their questions were dry and repetitive.  Yes, the content was reasonable, but the way they were designed was dry, dry, dry.  The result was no real passion and curiosity behind them.  The kids seemed to be asking because they were told to, not because they wanted to.  It was clear as day to us, and the staff apparently.  When the school children asked their questions the staff tended to answer in the same manner, dry and boring.  When our kids asked their questions (different and original), the staff lit up and gave animated answers to boot.

Now, I understand that when you have a large group of kids you're trying to 'educate' you might need to corral them and point them in the right direction to focus in on what they 'should'.  But really, can't it be done another way?!  In a way that perhaps motivates the kids to be truly interested and engrossed instead of having a teacher constantly remind them to make sure they have all their listed questions answered?!  The plantation probably provides teachers with an educational packet and all the school groups use the same thing.  I'm not a school teacher so it's not my job to figure this one out, but someone ought to find a way to truly engage students and promote independent thinking and an active imagination.  They're kids, a strong sense of curiosity comes naturally to them, why must it be stymied instead of making the most out of it?

It was really sad to watch.  I realize we have it easier, what with only three kids to be concerned about.  But that's just it, we weren't 'concerned' about them.  We trust their instinctive curiosity and imagination and let them lead the way practically all the time.  And you know what?  From where I stood, they came out with a significantly richer experience than their peers that day.

OK, off my soapbox now.  Again.

Moving on here....

We first stopped and talked to this grandmother.  She told us that her role in the village would have been to school the children and watch over them.  A babysitter and a teacher.  She would not be out there doing physical labor anymore.



This man was demonstrating how the Wampanoag made their canoes.  They hollowed it out by burning the inside.





Grilling some venison.....



I forgot what it was she was making, but it was cool to watch.



We spent a good amount of time in here, the winter dwelling.  Here we learned many details about life at the homesite.  This is also where we sat for a very long time listening to the barrage of repetitive questions while we waited to ask ours.



The eastern indigenous peoples did not live in tepees like the Plains Indians.  They were also not nomadic.  They had slightly different locations for their summer and winter homes, but they stayed in the same general area farming the land, fishing and hunting.  As we had some great experiences out west with the Plains Indians, the differences between the populations made for some interesting discussion among the kids.

Yes, that's a real baby in there.  And yes, the mother says he loves it.  Everyone was enthralled.  We've of course seen a papoose before, but never with a real baby in it!



The 'play station' -

Dolls,



and an native game boys used to play.



Everyone yells during this game, so it made it extra fun!



Leaving the homesite and moving on to the craft display area we saw pottery in the making,



a woodworking area,



and a beadwork area.



The cool thing about this craft area was that anything you could reach you could touch, and there was plenty the kids could reach.  Their favorite was the woodworking,



OK, now we can head over to the pilgrim village....Where there seemed to be much more to see and do than the Wampanoag homesite.  You would think they could have balanced out the representations a bit more.....

It's really an entire village.  All the houses arranged like they were and furnished as they would have been.  Each house had an extensive garden that we salivated over.  Greens, greens and more greens!  As well as squashes of course and other veggies.

We visited the fort, built to protect them more from the Spanish than the Natives.



We did some sawing,


Cleaning,


and kitchen prep.

Served drinks,



used the 'toilet',


got dressed,



got ready for guard duty,



got ready for bed,



strolled the gardens,

roamed the main road,


chased the chickens,



watched the pilgrims,

received advice on home construction and roof thatching.  Really.



And posed for pictures.




Then there was the blacksmith shop, otherwise known as, the main event.  Don't get me wrong, the kids loved running around in and out of the houses, touching and using all they could get their hands on, but come on, here there was FIRE!



This is a father and son operation, as it was explained to us.  Being the oldest son, he gets to inherit the shop and therefore must learn the trade.   That's the story anyway.



Apparently everyone in Plymouth worked their own garden and provided other services to the community as well, like this blacksmith.

Did you notice that the pilgrims do not wear all black like they seem to do in the pictures depicting them?  Apparently black was reserved for special occasions since the color was very hard to achieve.  You can see here that the pilgrims really wore lots of other colors on a daily basis as they were easier to make.

Finally finishing up here, we headed for the Mayflower II, about 3 miles down the road.  Given the length of this post though, I think I'll save that for next time.

See you then!

Boston. In under five hours.

It's 2PM.  We managed to see whatever we could at Minute Man National Historic Park and now it was time to move on to Boston.

S, being the schmoozer he is, made friends with the ranger at the park.  To be fair, both the ranger and S are really nice friendly guys so schmoozing came naturally to both :-).  Not only did the ranger give us permission to leave the RV in the parking lot but also to leave it there after closing!  He would then coordinate with the officer on night duty making sure we'd have no problems. Like I said, really nice guy.  Oh, lest we forget, he also spent a great deal of time making sure we knew where we were going once we got to Boston and gave us some recommendations regarding places to see and things to do.

So, having taken care of that 'little' issue, we headed to the nearest train station to take us into Boston.  30 minutes on the train and we were in the heart of Boston.  Incredible!  Never having been here before I was thoroughly impressed.  I don't think I've ever said that about big cities.  Period.  Neither one of us are fans of big city life, they're just not our cup of tea.  Ha! 'nother pun!  Tea, Boston - get it??  Sorry, I'm often the only one laughing at my jokes.....

Eeeenyways....

Boston is an awesome city!  Just the right mix of old and new, really pretty and not so, well, big city like.  It's really manageable.

Within a few minutes of walking around to find the visitor center we stumbled across this plaque on a building:



We had been here less than five minutes and already we had our first Ben Franklin reference.  In this family we love Ben Franklin so it was quite an event!  The kids have been enamored with him for a while now and yes, Liberty's Kids, again, had a lot to do with it.  But since then, we've also watched, listened to and read all about him and his multifaceted life.  What a man!  BTW, he apparently did not like the time he spent as his brother's apprentice at all.  Being the independent and original thinker he was, I can't say that came as a big surprise.

We made it to the visitor center at 4:15, 45 minutes before closing.  Uh Oh.  We can pick up our Jr. Ranger packets (and here they were indeed packets!) but we would not be able to return them completed on time before they close.  Luckily the ranger was understanding and kind enough to give me the badges to hand out later, once everyone completed their 'work'.  The other downside to getting here so late was that most of the sites were closing so we weren't going to be able to see them all from the inside.  It was unfortunate, but there was not much we could do about it.

Our goal here was to walk the so called 'Freedom Trail'.  It's literally a red line on the sidewalk that guides you from one historically significant place to the next.  The total distance, one way, is 2.5 miles.  Our plan was to walk it start to finish and then take the ferry back to downtown at which point we'd catch the train back to our RV.

It was 4:45PM.  We had just spent hours running around Lexington and Concord, we were exhausted before we even got here and now, we had 2.5 miles to walk, not to mention taking the time and effort to see everything along the way.  Oh, and it was cold.  The sun was going down and the winds were blowing.  But, our determination to do it all was still strong.  We headed out and started pounding the pavement, literally.  We went at an extremely fast pace through it all, practically running from one site to the next.  Thank goodness for the stroller!

First up,



At the time I'm sure the building stood out among the rest but now, of course, it's swallowed up by the monstrosities around it.  It is however, a quiet and noble reminder of what happened here.  A distinct contrast to this now bustling downtown.  It's like it's saying, 'Hey, wait!  Stop for a minute and think about the significance of this place!'  I can tell you, it does a good job of getting the message across.



Next up was Faneuil Hall, otherwise known as America's "Cradle of Liberty" as it was the location of the very first organized protests against the British.  We're talking pre revolution.  Apparently, it was the custom in England to have a public meeting hall above a marketplace and that's exactly what this was.  Still is.  A marketplace anyway, not sure about the public meeting hall.




The statue is of Samuel Adams, organizer of the revolution and signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Third stop was

The house of

Yes, the actual one.  This was the one and only site that was still open so we could actually go inside and explore.  Unfortunately, photography was not allowed....

The house is decorated and furnished according to the times with authentic period furniture.  Some of the furniture is thought to be actual pieces owned by the Reveres at the time.  The pieces were passed down from generation to generation of his decedents and finally donated to what is now a museum.  We had a wonderful opportunity to have a nice long question and answer session with some of the guides inside.  The kids asked question after question as we discussed many aspects of life at the time including:  What Paul Revere did other than ride his horse? (he was a silversmith), what they might have had for dinner? (green beens and ham), how many of his many kids slept in one bed? (3 or 4), the role his 16, total, kids would have played in the house (You're a 7 year old boy? Bring in the firewood, you're a 9 year old girl?  Better finish stitching your sampler! You're a 15 year old boy?  See ya, you're off to be an apprentice to someone never to return to live in the house again).  We stayed way past closing....



On our way to Paul Revere's house we spotted THE cannoli shop in town.  Mike's Pastry in case you're interested.  We had been informed by practically everyone we came across today (including our friendly ranger in Concord) that it's a must stop.  So you see, we had no choice really :-).  The selection was tremendous (this is only part of it) and yes, they were indeed yummy!  If not a bit sweet.



Onward we marched along the Freedom Trail heading to the North Church, the same church those lanterns were placed in on April 18th, 1775.  Along the way we ran into Paul Revere himself on his horse with THE church steeple in the distance.  Actually, it wasn't his horse at all.  He didn't have one!  No need for one in the city.  The horse was lent to him for the purpose of completing his mission.

Those are the cannoli Analyzer's carrying there....



There's the church again.



As we left the visitor center in downtown and headed to the heart of old Boston, the streets became narrower and narrower and some were even still cobblestoned.  This was most noticeable walking around here by the church.

We left this old residential part of Boston and headed across the river towards Charlestown and the Navy yard.  It was quite a bridge to cross on foot!



Continuing to follow the trail



climbing what seemed like a pretty steep hill, we arrived at Bunker Hill!

It's apparently being renovated, or something, so we got to see it with these red things around it.



Two months after the battles of Lexington and Concord another battle was fought at this location.  Here the British suffered heavy losses yet still managed to defeat the Americans.

Being as late as it was the museum was of course closed, but at least we got to be there.  One can also climb the 294 spiral stair case to the top of the monument.  We obviously didn't.



It was now getting pretty dark and we needed to head over to the dock to catch a glimpse of the USS Constitution and then hop the ferry back to downtown.  Huffing and puffing we marched along.  We were almost done!  I guess it might seem like we were just trying to check things off our list at this point, but it really was more than that.  We wanted to see these places and objects with our own two eyes and put our feet on the same ground those audacious men and women did.  And we did!

At the docks we came across this ship



Not sure what it's meant to be, but it was cool to look at.

Right across from it was the USS Constitution



Theoretically one can climb aboard and tour the ship but it was Monday and of course there are no tours offered on Mondays....Had there been a tour we would have tried our darndest to be there on time.

Now we needed to head back.

We came across two uniformed navy officers at a guard house who informed us that the last ferry was at 6 o'clock.  6 o'clock?!  It was now closer to 8......We were so disappointed not to mention unhappy since we'd now have to take a cab, probably two, back to the subway station.  This was A. Going to be much more expensive and B. Not nearly as fun.

The officers pointed us in the direction of the taxi stand and basically sent us on our way.  Walking along the dock to find it we spotted signs for the ferry and S being S, went to find out what the deal was and if we still had any chance.  Well, turns out we had NOT missed the last ferry!  We were invited to board for an immediate departure!  Whoohoo!!

We ended up having a private tour of Boston harbor, a truly magnificent sight to behold, especially at night!



The kids were given free rein of the upper deck, but Whirlwind was tightly held on to of course.....



We disembarked right next to the New England Aquarium....Ugh!  What a thing to miss out on in this town!!  The other thing we missed?  Can you figure it out after reading this?  What MAJOR thing did we not see?

The Boston Tea Party!  As we were walking to the subway station it literally hit me like a bolt of lightening.  What the heck were we thinking?!  Or not thinking, really.  I couldn't believe we hadn't seen it let alone think about it!  How could it not be front and center in the Boston info we had?!

After smacking myself over and over that night we later found out that we really didn't miss anything.  Apparently, the museum and ship replicas burned down a little while back and everything was now under construction and not open to the public.  Phew!  I could at least stop smacking myself about it.  Though we could have gone to see where it happened, we could not have seen it.  OK, not ideal but I can live with that.  There's so much more to see in this town we just have to come back some day anyway.

As we got closer to the subway station we walked by the old State House again.  Glowing softly in the middle of the hustle and bustle in was a nice, and fitting, farewell to a truly beautiful city.



We made it to the subway!  Our day of schlepping was finally coming to a close.  The time now was 8:45ish and all we needed to do was retrieve the RV from the park and drive an hour to the Walmart down near Plymouth.  At least there was no more walking involved....

I think that for kids who've been on the constant fast paced move for, oh, 12 hours or so, they don't look too catatonic :-)