Our New England States Trip -Part 2

Day 3- I am not a morning person, so I didn't set my alarm but I had decided if I wake up early enough I will go outside for sunrise on Cape Cod. It doesn't kill us night owls to get up at the crack of dawn once in awhile, particularly for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So when I woke at 6, I forced myself out of that cozy bed and tiptoed outside, but we were farther inland than I anticipated... on the map P-town looks like a skinny piece of land and somehow I envisioned us being closer to the beach than we were. There were multiple rows of  motels and guest houses so I couldn't see much from the motel parking lot.

I crept back inside determined to grab the van keys and find my way over toward the sunrise. As it turned out I had company - Richard & Arianna were semi-awake and wanted to join me. Which was a very fortunate thing because the parking was extremely tight at that motel and I'm not sure how I would've managed to wiggle our van free from that deadlock without crunching something.

If you know Richard, you know he has an incredible sense of direction. He can find his way around virtually anywhere. On the other hand my sense of direction is way off. I am totally directionally-challenged. Do not trust me to get you anywhere I'm not familiar with. And for sure don't tell me to turn west, I need solid left or right directions. When we were dating, if I tried to tell him how to get somewhere in my community he had this annoying habit of saying "I bet I could go [a different] way" and be right like every time. I can't even count how many times he said "yup, if I would've gone my way we'd come out here". Over the years, I quit sticking in my oar and just let him go however he wants. It makes sense, I guess; after all, navigating is a huge part of his occupation. So I do the trip planning and research but when we're in the road, I shut up.
The moral of that whole story is that when he gets turned around it amuses us. It feels a bit like a triumph to the rest of us when he's wrong for a change. For some reason Cape Cod had him all turned around. We were in a hurry because sunrise waits for no one, but he headed off in the opposite direction from what I was expecting. When I asked him about it, he said "the sun comes up over here". "Umm, not to argue with you, but the light is coming up back there."  We did find a beach, and it was even free public parking before 8am, so it all worked out.

 

 

 

 

My verdict- the Cape Cod sunrise is indeed epic, but it was also freezing cold on the beach at that hour. I'm not sorry I got up early enough to see it, but a coat & gloves would've been nice. 

Before we left Cape Cod, we decided to drive as far as we could go- right out to the very tip of Long Point. When you get to the end of the road, there are these marshes. 

 

Next was that long drive to backtrack off of Cape Cod and continue on to Plymouth Massachusetts. 

First to take a gander at Plymouth Rock. It's a rock, folks. 

Unfortunately for us, the Mayflower II is not in Plymouth right now -it's being refurbished for the big 400th anniversary next year. In it's place is an exhibit called "Should I go or should I stay?" We each chose a character and walked through the exhibit reading the information to decide whether we would go or stay. 

What struck me is the bravery of the women who followed their men on this voyage. We know the rest of the story- how hard it was for them- so as a comfort-loving American my head tells me "absolutely not!" But as a comfortable American I'm so glad they did. Blaze a trail for the rest of us.
The 'you learn something new every day' tidbit I gleaned from this day was that the Mayflower actually landed on Cape Cod first, before Plymouth. If I ever heard that before, it didn't stick.

Next we went to Plimouth Plantation. There is an exhibit room with various items that are normally on the Mayflower, housed here until the ship renovations are complete.

 

 We walked through the native american section of the village next. Most interesting was the log that was being burned out for a canoe. The "native american" [with suspiciously African american hair] explained that it's much faster than chopping it out- why would I do all that work when burning is much easier and faster?

 

We went in the craft house but no artisans were in there working at the time, however there were some porcupine headdresses in progress. 

 This fella did his best to stir up conversation, but I'm just not clever for coming up with intelligent questions. Someone else asked a question about how he starts a fire without matches; he didn't know what matches were but said the easiest way to start a fire is to get someone else to do it for you. lol 

 

We spent the most time watching this fella split wood into shingles.

 

I'm not sure if my expectations for Plimouth Plantation were too high or if there were less actors on hand playing a part because it was a weekday off-season, but the whole thing was less engaging than I expected. At least we can say we were there. 

Because it was included with our pass -and because we're Millers- 😁 we went to the Plimouth Grist Mill yet. 

 

Unfortunately he was not. 

 

But I do remember seeing it done for real when I was a little girl. Family reunions on my paternal grandma's side were held at a real grist mill, owned and operated by some of our relations.

😁

 

   I'm not a fan of Tex-Mex food but I got outvoted to go to Chili's that evening. Fortunately for me, they had New England clam chowder so I was a happy camper. First check on my NE seafood list.

Day 4 (October 1) was the much-anticipated Boston day. I was hoping to get an early start to cram as much as possible in this day, but Boston traffic is every bit as legendary as we expected. We were only 20 minutes away, but our route was solid red with a whopping 1.5 hours commute so we waited it out at the motel instead of sitting in traffic. Even at 10:30am, we still had a slow-up. 

We parked in a garage near the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum and laced up our walking shoes for a long day on foot. It had been raining in the morning so we carted jackets and umbrellas around with us all day, only to have it clear off and be a beautiful day for exploring Boston on foot. 

Our tour at the Boston Tea Party started with a town hall meeting. We learned how to express emotion, and the meaning of fei! and huzzah! in response to this rousing speech about taxation without representation.    

 We got to tour through one of the ships, the Eleanor... 

 ...and participate in throwing tea into the harbor. 

(Alas in our case we had to haul it back on board again for the next Son of Liberty to participate.)

And our 'you learn something new every day' moment for this day was that there was a Miller among the Boston Tea Party participants. Also that the volume of tea that was dumped overboard was such a substantial amount that it "gunked" up the harbor and some poor peons had to wade into the freezing water to break it up. 

Next on our agenda was walking to the Public Garden. 

 Happy sigh. I've always wanted to see this in person. 

 In my research for the trip, I discovered there is a monument in the Public Garden for ether as an anesthetic.

We were almost at the 5 month mark of Richard's emergency surgery, so I especially wanted to see this monument. So thankful for this discovery! Mass General, where the experiment took place, is nearby and you can actually go in the hospital to see the room but we did not.

 Well, well, a quote from the Bible/ Revelations! 

(Looking forward to the ultimate fulfillment of this promise.)

And then it was on to the Duckling statues, of Robert McCloskey's Make Way For Ducklings book. If I read the book to my children once, I read it to them a thousand times. Shoot, I even have portions of it memorized all these years later. I can still rattle of the names Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack in quick succession. (The connection goes back farther than that- the book was read to me when I was a kid.) It's such a classic. 

I know there are all kinds of cool things to see in Boston, adult things, but this was #1 on my list. 

I don't care if I did embarrass my kids.  

 And there they are- the descendants of the original Mr & Mrs Mallard! 

 Unfortunately the swan boats are put away after Labor Day so we didn't have the privilege of going for a spin around the pond on one. That iconic bridge though...  and weeping willow trees... 😍

It's a pity we didn't have time to sit and enjoy the beautiful Garden longer. For myself I would've wanted to retrace the steps of the Mallard family from the book -just for the novelty of it- but we were running out of time. Onward and upward. We headed toward the Paul Revere House, but due to a little extra walking ...not being familiar with the city streets, we didn't always take the most direct route... we happened upon the New England Holocaust Memorial first.  

 There is a tower for each of the major concentration camps... 

 ... with the number of each victim etched on the glass ...mind-blowing! 

and steam rising from the grates to symbolize the smoke from the ovens. There are no words. 

 

 

  We did manage to find the Paul Revere House. Having toured old houses before, we agreed to forgo the tour here and pay for the tour of Old North Church instead. My impression- it's not very large considering the Reveres had 18 kids. Just sayin'

 My plan to walk to Old North Church via the Revere Mall for this photo op (below) didn't go quite as planned and we added more extra steps wandering around. The streets of old Boston are not laid out in squares and it got a little stressful for the point-man to find our way at times. Eureka! There it is! The Revere statue with Old North Church in the background, in case you didn't recognize it.

 We bought tickets for the church + the Behind the Scenes tour. The lady in the ticket booth gave us the family package price (even though our kids are adults), so it was well worth the money!

 The purpose of the box pews was to keep heat contained, but I'm trying to decide if it would also be a great feature for when one is in the thick of raising a family aka keeping one's circus contained during the service.

Boxes were rented, with the choicest pews being up front. (And the cheap seats were in the chilly balcony.) One was able to decorate one's box...

 ...or leave it plain, if one couldn't afford decor. 

 Cool. 

I bet that pipe organ sounds amazing.

244 years ago... so cool!

So on the Behind the Scenes tour we got to climb the bell tower where the lanterns were hung -of the one if by land, two if by sea fame. We also learned about the bell ringers and watched a video clip demonstration. The number of tunes that it is possible to play is phenomenal.

Technically the lanterns were placed in a window a little higher up, but  this is where that historic event took place. I'm sure the view is different now than it was in 1775 though. 

The tour also took us into the basement to see the crypt. There are 37 tombs stacked full of coffins. The one pictured below is the only open one -the rest are sealed- and the coffin inside is a sample of colonial style. 

Old North Church steeple

We also went through the Captain Jackson's Historic Chocolate Shop on the church grounds. Captain Jackson was an Old North congregant that operated a chocolate shop in Boston in the 1700s. There was a demonstration how chocolate was made and we were given a tiny sample of a spiced chocolate drink. Even though I've seen chocolate at the source in Africa, I'm always game for a chocolate sample. lol  

Next we headed over to the Mike's Pastry to try their famous cannolis.

Personally I'm not a huge fan of the filling but it was fun to try them for the first time. 

It was around 4pm by then so we headed back over to Sattler College where we had arranged to meet 2 students we know- our former next door neighbor and my "nephew". Upon arrival at the college, we ran into a snag. I had no idea there was security involved in getting into the college, on the 17th floor of a high-rise. I did not have my ID with me -it was in the van back in the parking garage. I like to think I'm harmless-looking, but there was no bending the rules. So the kids hung out at the college while Richard & I trotted to the parking garage and back to retrieve my ID. The upside of the extra mileage was we jettisoned our excess baggage, the jackets & umbrellas we had been carrying around all day. 

They have some amazing views from the 17th floor. 

 

 We got a tour of the college. Then it was off to find some food. We were only too happy to let Dylan -who knew the most direct route- lead the way. Enough already with our wandering around, it felt good to put our street map away and mindlessly follow.

Excuse me, when exactly did these little boys turn into men who are a college sophomore and a pilot? 

We went to Spyce. The robotic kitchen restaurant.

Super cool. Food is delicious, too.  

 We were expecting to eat in the park but the restaurant was not as full as usual so we were able to get tables inside. 

Boston is beautiful at night. 

 We walked back to the parking garage... which is under this office building, with a cool waterfall feature in the lobby...

Austin drove us out of the city and up to Malden, to their apartment. We got to see where they live and deliver the gifts sent from home. We drove up to Danvers, MA for the night, where we were fortunate enough to find another nice multi-room corner suite at a TownPlace Suites. 

-to be continued-