Boston Vacation - Day 5 - Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble...

"C'mon Sherman. Let's step into the WABAC machine."

Let's now take one giant leap backwards in American history. Way, way back to the very beginning of American history. Sort of. Depending on how you define "beginning". And "American". And maybe even "history". Look, I'm not here to argue cultural biases or every little right and wrong that occurred during the occupation and colonization of North America; this is a vacation travelogue. What I'm trying to say here is we went to Plymouth on this particular day to see Plymouth Rock and Plimoth Plantation.

We first stopped off at the Rock. Oops, sorry, the Rock. For those of you who have never been there, I have provided a picture of said rock above. Now no one is really sure if this rock is the first place that the Pilgrims set foot on land or not. The first person to claim it was did so 120 years after the fact, although he was 94 years old at the time, and it certainly is located within the relatively safe confines of Plymouth Bay and not far from where the settlement was established. You may note that it looks like the rock has been cemented together. That's because in 1774, the townspeople decided to move the rock to the top of the hill to display is as part of Massachusetts' cultural heritage, but I guess it was too heavy or something (over 10 tons), so they split it in half, leaving part of it at the water and moving the rest. In 1880, it was decided that the two halves should be reunited, thus the cement job. As you may imagine, many people wanted a piece of the rock over the years, and it is estimated that the top half is only 1/3 as large as it originally was. Well, as fascinating as looking at a big rock is (even when ensconced within a Roman portico), we didn't hang out too long before wandering over to the Mayflower II.

The Mayflower II was a project  (done in the '50's) to rebuild the Mayflower so modern people could really appreciate how entirely insane an idea it was to sail across the ocean to colonize the 'New World'. About 100ft long and 25ft wide, it carried 102 people and 25-30 crew on that voyage. A quick look at the accommodations will quickly persuade you that this is not Royal Carribean. To make matters worse, they hit bad weather which a) blew them off-course (they were aiming for Virginia), b) delayed their arrival until the  onset of winter, and c) probably made everyone throw up. The ship over-wintered in Plymouth Bay, and everyone continued to live on board. A disease outbreak killed half the settlers and half the crew. Don't you yearn for simpler times? I know these people were God-fearing Christians (most of them), but I bet they had some choice words for the Mayflower when they finally got off it.

Makes our house look big. 

Our next stop was Plimoth Plantation, a recreation of the first settlement that the Pilgrims established. I remember having a good time visiting this place on a grey day around Thanksgiving when I was kid in the 1970's, but I didn't remember much of the details. The way it's laid out now, there are two sections: a Wampanoag family homestead, in which they have actual Wampanoag people who dress traditionally and perform traditional tasks (like cooking, farming, and making log canoes), but they do not take on a historical role, they represent their nation as it is today, but are also able to answer questions about their history, as well. (I must point out here that it's always a little awkward when conversing with people your ancestors treated badly.) Then you have the English settlement, wherein all the people are reenactors portraying historical figures.  We immediately came upon the apprentice blacksmith who, while we watched, went from flint and steel to a fire hot enough to melt iron in about 10 minutes - it was impressive. He was repairing hinges that day. Hobbes had lots of questions. We also ran into a trader who was about to make a pile of money by buying out some of the investors in the colony - boy could that guy talk. It was a bit of a rainy day, but we enjoyed our stroll through history, seeing how the colonists lived.

Do NOT get this guy started...

From here we drove on to New Bedford. Here's a little preview of tomorrow:

School milestones

So today we embarked on a new island adventure. Thing 1 (aka Hobbes) started Middle School (6th grade). This is a big deal because the one-room schoolhouse that serves the West End only goes K-5, so from now on, he will have to ride the bus to Avalon every morning. Since the bus ride takes about 90 minutes, and the bus has another route it needs to run in Avalon before school starts, it leaves Two Harbors at about 6:15am. In the afternoon, it leaves AValon at about 3:30 and arrives back in Two Harbors around 5pm. You can see why they established the Little Red Schoolhouse. Can you imagine an 11-hour day for a first grader?

I guess in general this is the time of life when kids start getting more responsibilities and learning how to be more independent. The kids will have to keep track of class schedules, change (and shower) for PE, and Hobbes in particular will have to be better about remembering things like homework, permission slips, dates of events, etc. I think it will be good for him, but it will also be a steep learning curve these first few months.

Thing 2 (aka Calvin) also had a bit of a milestone first day at school. He has moved into the upper grades, and is now the oldest boy at school. In fact, he is the only boy at school. Five students: four girls and Calvin. To balance this out somewhat, we have, for the first time in the 20+ year history of the LRSH, a male teacher. It will be quite a different experience for all the kids (and maybe the parents and community) to have a male teacher, but he seems to be a very nice guy and we all have high hopes for the school year.

It was, all around, a pretty good first day. Both Things (and Sweetie) were up at 5:15am. Hobbes got through breakfast, chores and preparations just fine, and I stirred myself at 5:45 to go downstairs and see him off. (Then I went back to bed.) Calvin stayed up and had second breakfast (our little hobbit). Sweetie took the opportunity to go for a walk. At 7 I got up to find Calvin had already eaten, done his chores, and packed his backpack. He asked every 10 minutes if it was time to go to school yet. Finally, the time came and we walked down to the school for the traditional first day pictures. Mr. Frizzle seemed raring to go. The kids were very excited and seemed happy to see each other. We dropped our charge off, and headed off to work.

Sweetie has recently become employed (part-time, for now) by the Wrigley, so we were headed in the same direction, except she was on a bike and I was on foot. (At this point she was second-guessing her decision to go for a walk this morning.) The kids were released early today, so at noon, Sweetie rode back home (now REALLY second-guessing the morning walk) to greet Calvin and wait for Hobbes' bus. It was hot today, so at the end of the day, I suggested a swim at the lab. Sweetie brought the Things out, and we swam off the dock with their friends (the Bobsey twins). Both Things were completely exhausted by the end of this day. We had a quiet evening and then it was off to bed.

Tomorrow, we do it all over again. Although maybe with less enthusiasm.

Boston Vacation - Day 4: The Adams Family (They're creepy and they're spooky)

No, no, no. The OTHER Adams family. You know, the one that's not spelled Addams. The one with the guy who wrote the...and was...and his son, too...never mind. We'll get to that.

Today was a bit of a rainy day. Despite that, we again took the T to our destination. (I know the T is underground, but you have to walk on the surface to get to and from it.) Today's destination was Quincy, which, you'll remember from Freedom Trail Pt. 1, is pronounced 'quinzy'. No, not the market, the town, which was birthplace of the two Presidents Adams (John and John Quincy). The historic sites that are associated with Adams National Historical Park are spread out all over town, so they have a central Visitor Center from which visitors take a bus to the Adams birthplaces, and Peacefield. Despite the rain, it was rather busy that day, so we had a little wait before our bus time. We took the opportunity to get the Things started on Jr. Ranger badges. They watched a video and looked at the exhibits at the center: a timeline of Adams history, and models of various buildings that were important to the Adamses.


When our tour started, the first stop was John Adams' birthplace. It's pretty much your standard old wooden building. No Adams artifacts were in them, however the guide was quite personable, and, naturally, knew a great deal about the history of the Adams family. John was the son of a farmer, and always wanted to be a farmer himself, but land was expensive, so he became a lawyer so he could earn enough money to buy some land and farm. Along the way he fell in love with Abigail, and needed to impress her in order for her to marry him, so he built a house - 75 feet away from his birthplace. It worked, and soon Abigail gave birth to John Quincy. And so two Presidential birth sites are 75 feet apart. Rather amazing. This second house is also where John had his law office, and where he (along with some others) drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, the oldest state constitution and a model for the federal version. Hobbes, I think, was impressed by this. Calvin, I think, was wondering what exactly a constitution was. This seems almost bizarre to me, but this house was being used as a residence until the 1960's. That's when they finally purchased it for the National Historic Register.

During the Revolution, after spending much time gallivanting about between Boston and Philadelphia pressing the cause of independence, John was called on to be a diplomat, and so he left for Europe with JQ (who was only 11), spending time in France, Britain and Amsterdam. He came home for about six months, in which time he wrote the Massachusetts Constitution, then it was back to Europe. John Quincy again went with him, but this trip he was apprenticed off to Russia (at age 14 !). Abigail quite forgot what both of them looked like. So at one point, John brought her over to Europe as well, not returning to the US until it was the US. By 1788, the war was over and the Constitution was signed. After spending barely any time at his new estate, Peacefield, he was off to Philadelphia to be Vice President. After holding that position for two terms, he was elected President (the first one-term President). After being defeated by Jefferson, he was done. Finally, he could go home and farm.

John Quincy, meanwhile, was having serious troubles getting out of Europe. After his apprenticeship, which took him to Russia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, he went to Harvard and became a lawyer. But a few years later, he was appointed Minister to the Netherlands (1794), then Portugal (1796), then Prussia (1797). Returning home, he had nothing better to do, so he became a Senator in 1803. Until he was appointed Minister to Russia in 1809. Then, after being called back to Washington to negotiate the end of the War of 1812, he was appointed Minister to Great Britain from 1815-1817. At that point, the only job he was not incredibly over-qualified for was Secretary of State. So he took the job under President Monroe (writing the Monroe Doctrine). Seriously low now on job possibilities, he was elected President in 1824. Unable to retire after being defeated in the election of 1828, he became a Representative, and served until his death. This was a tremendously amazing guy. If you can read all that and not feel like an under-achiever, you are probably Richard Branson.

But back to our travelogue. Our tour of the birthplaces was over, we hopped back on the bus and zipped over to Peacefield. This was a considerably larger and fancier place, although apparently when they moved in, it didn't look so good. They expanded it quite a bit, adding the Stone Library which now houses both John and John Quincy's libraries. They also have the desk on which he wrote the Massachusetts Constitution.

That was about it for the NHP, so we returned to the Visitors Center (by bus) and got the Jr. Ranger badges. Then, after a quick lunch, we went over to the church where John, Abigail, John Quincy, and his wife Louisa are buried. This is amazing. You can go into the church, down to the basement, and into the chamber that holds the stone tombs. It's a tiny chamber, so you are right there next to them. What an incredible experience to learn how extraordinary these people were and then be in the presence of their mortal remains. I was touched.

So that was our Adams experience. Visiting the houses was so-so, learning the history was eye-opening, and seeing the graves was jaw-dropping.






More soon...