Boston, Massachusetts - September 21 - 25, 2015
September 21, 2015
Today was a trek from Wells,
Maine, to Middleboro, Massachusetts. The
driving instructions printed in our book were SO bad, that the Wagon Masters
gave us a replacement. It turned out
that they were better, but still not very good.
Luckily, we decided early on to follow our GPS rather than the printed
directions.
When we got to the park, we had a
lot of discussion about the terrible directions. The weather was sunny but cooler than we have
had in the past. Many of us sat in the
sun for a couple of hours.
Our dinner was provided by the
Wagon Masters and Tail Gunners. It was a
Cajun type of rice dish, salad, rolls and dessert. A nice change to get together, but still
early enough to turn in before it got too late.
We have an 8:00 a.m. bus pickup tomorrow.
September 22, 2015
Once again, we boarded a bus at
the RV Park to be taken into Boston for a city tour and visit the Freedom
Trail.
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| Brick path of the Freedom Trail |
“The Freedom Trail is a 2.5-mile-long path through downtown Boston,
Massachusetts that passes by 16 locations significant to the history of the
United States. Marked largely with brick, it winds between Boston Common to the
USS Constitution in Charlestown. Stops along the trail include simple
explanatory ground markers, graveyards, notable churches and buildings, and a
historic naval frigate.”
The history in Boston is amazing,
of course that is the main reason we came on this tour.
Some of the highlights that we
saw on the Freedom Trail are:
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| Paul Revere's House |
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| Bev at Old North Church |
“On the steeple of this church, Robert Newman signaled with lanterns the approach of the British regulars; "One if by land, and two, if by sea".”
“The steeple is 191 feet tall, making it the tallest steeple in Boston. The bells within the steeple were the first bells ever brought to America. Paul Revere was one of the neighborhood bell ringers. The interior high box pews and brass chandeliers, as well as the Church's first clock are all original.”
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| Dog Tags of fallen members of the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars |
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| Old North Church Steeple
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September 23, 2015
We got on the bus at 8:30 a.m.
and were driven to the National Monument to Forefathers. It is a beautiful monument that was made out
of granite. We had never heard of it
before but is beautiful.
“The National Monument to the Forefathers, formerly known as the Pilgrim
Monument, commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims. Dedicated on August 1, 1889, it
honors their ideals as later generally embraced by the United States. It is
thought to be the world's largest solid granite monument, and is the
fourth-tallest statue in the United States.”
From there we went to Plymouth,
Massachusetts, we were able to see both Plymouth Rock as well as the replica of
the Mayflower.
We were amazed at the size of
Plymouth Rock. It is MUCH smaller than
we had expected. Also, we were told how
it was broken many times in transportation from one location to another
throughout the years.
“Plymouth Rock is the traditional site of disembarkation of William
Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. It is
an important symbol in American history.”
The Mayflower II that is on
display is a replica of the original Mayflower.
It is amazing to think of the large number of people that sailed on the
ship so many years ago. There were
people in costume that represented the first and second mates of the ship. They were very informative and
entertaining. Stan really enjoyed that
portion of the tour.
“The Mayflower was the ship that transported English Separatists, known
today as the Pilgrims, from Plymouth in England to the New World There were 102
passengers, and the crew is estimated to have been about thirty, but the exact
number is unknown. This voyage has become an iconic story in some of the
earliest annals of American history, with its story of death and of survival in
the harsh New England winter environment. The culmination of the voyage in the
signing of the Mayflower Compact was an event which established a rudimentary
form of democracy, with each member contributing to the welfare of the
community.”
“Mayflower II is a replica of the 17th-century ship Mayflower, celebrated
for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World. The replica was built in Devon,
England, during 1955–1956, in collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton
and Plimoth Plantation, an American museum. The work drew from reconstructed
ship blueprints held by the American museum with hand construction by English
shipbuilders' using traditional methods. On April 20, 1957, recreating the
original voyage, Mayflower II was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, under the
command of Alan Villiers. According to the ship's log, Mayflower II was towed
up the East River into New York City on Monday, July 1, 1957. Afterwards,
Villiers and crew received a ticker-tape parade in New York City.”
There was a little while before the
bus arrived, so Bev decided to take a walk up to Main Street of Plymouth and
check out some of the historical buildings and churches. Stan stayed down at the waterfront with many of
the other travelers.
Lunch was a “Period Lunch” at the
Plimoth Plantation. A period lunch is
close to what the pilgrims would have eaten in the day. We started with a venison stew, followed by
fish, turkey, vegetables, finishing with cheesecake, which was more like a
cinnamon raisin dessert. Of course, the
water and tea that were served had no ice.
Stan was NOT impressed, but Bev didn’t find it too bad.
After lunch we went out to the
Plimoth (not misspelled) Plantation Museum.
There was quite a bit of walking, but golf carts were available also,
which worked well for Stan as his hip started to bother him. There were many colonists in costume that
explained life during that time.
“Plimoth Plantation, founded in 1947, is a living history museum in
Plymouth, Massachusetts, USA, that shows the original settlement of the
Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by English colonists, some of
whom later became known as Pilgrims. They were among the first people who
immigrated to America to avoid religious persecution and to seek religious
separation from the Church of England.”
September 24, 2015
Our weather has been
wonderful. Even though it was 46 degrees
this morning when we got up, it quickly warmed to the low 70’s with the sun
shining. Again, the bus picked us up at
8:30 a.m. and took us to The Breakers Mansion.
“The Breakers is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Ochre Point Avenue,
Newport, Rhode Island, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is a National
Historic Landmark, a contributing property to the Bellevue Avenue Historic
District, and is owned and operated by the Preservation Society of Newport
County.”
It is one of a series of mansions
that are open for tours in the Newport area.
It would appear that they each tried to outdo the other. The architecture is absolutely amazing. Because of it being a historic site, we were
not able to take pictures inside the mansion, so Bev bought a book that had a
few shots in it.
From the mansion, we went to
Brick Market Place where we had some lunch before heading down to the water to
get on the Amazing Grace, a tour boat of the Harbor. Our tour guide told us about many of the
boats and houses of the rich and famous.
Money is in abundance in the area.
Wow.
We were able to see, Hammersmith Farm which is a Victorian mansion and estate. It was the childhood home of First Lady
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, and the site of the reception for her 1953 wedding
to U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy. During
his presidency, it was referred to as the "Summer White House”.
“Hammersmith Farm's 28-room main
house was built in 1887 for John W. Auchincloss, the great-grandfather of Hugh
D. Auchincloss (1897–1976), Jacqueline Kennedy's stepfather. It was erected on
what had been originally known as "Hammersmith Island," possibly
named after the English hometown of William Brenton, the 17th-century governor
of Rhode Island who established the first farm on the site in 1640.”
The next estate that we saw was built in 1873 and was the “Summer White
House” of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The Democrats and Republicans were pretty close together in Rhode
Island.
There are many islands in the area.
One of them is Clingstone.
“Clingstone, a cedar-shingled house built in 1905 and currently owned by
retired Boston architect Henry Wood, stands on a rock in Rhode Island's
Narragansett Bay.”
Fort Adams was one of the next places that we saw. It was established on July 4, 1799, as a
coastal fortification, and named for John Adams. After the War of 1812 it was replaced by a
larger fort. (The guide said it is the
largest fort that has not been heard of).
We saw the Ida Lewis Lighthouse – formerly the Lime Rock Lighthouse – named
for Ida Lewis, since she ran the lighthouse starting at age 16 when her father
had a stroke. She made many heroic
rescues. Ida's most famous rescue occurred on March
29, 1869 two soldiers were passing through Newport Harbor towards Fort Adams in
a small boat.
“Idawalley Zorada Lewis was an American lighthouse keeper noted for her
heroism. Ida Lewis was born in Newport, Rhode Island, the daughter of Captain
Hosea Lewis of the Revenue Cutter Service. Her father was transferred to the
Lighthouse Service and appointed keeper of Lime Rock Light in Newport in 1854.
Hosea Lewis had been at Lime Rock less than four months when he was stricken by
a disabling stroke. Like many wives and daughters of lighthouse keepers before
and after, Ida expanded her domestic duties to include the care of a seriously
ill sister and disabled father to the light — filling the lamp with oil at
sundown and again at midnight, trimming the wick, polishing the carbon off the
reflectors, extinguishing the light at dawn.”
We saw many yachts and ships of
enormous size. One that was pointed out
is the Oliver Hazard Perry, which is the largest civilian sailing school vessel,
at 200 feet, with 20 sails.
On the way back to the RV Park, the
bus took us on the road side of the mansions that we had seen from the Harbor
Cruise. It was cool to see both
perspectives.
We got back to the park at 5:00
p.m. That made for a long day. We had a short A, B, C social (Appetizer,
Beverage, Chair) before returning to our coach.
September 25, 2015
Even though we heard about the
Duck Boat accident in Seattle, we wanted to go on the Cape Cod Duck Boat. We figured that would be a great way to see
the Cape Cod area without driving it ourselves and hearing some of the
information about the area. Bob &
Cat Hill rode with us to Hyannis for the Duck.
In Hyannis there are a lot of choices for lunch. We were going to go to the Pizza place right
next to the Duck office, but there was a line of students from the school next
door, so we passed. Then we tried the
Pub across the street, they only had bar food on the menu, so we tried a third
time, and we actually got some lunch before we had to be at the Duck. When we got to there, Bert & Judy Goulart
from the tour were already seated.
They took us through the streets
of Hyannis, Massachusetts, and then we “hit” the water. The driver and the tour guide were very funny
and presented the information with humor.
We returned to the coach and
spent the rest of the day catching up on chores and resting, getting ready for
a travel day tomorrow.
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