Summer Break - Plymouth, Massachusetts

We left Montreal, and had a big day of driving ahead of us.  We drove through Vermont and New Hampshire, and it was a very pretty drive - very green, with beautiful trees and towns with church steeples.  We were hoping to go through Burlington in Vermont, as we had been told it was a really nice place, and we were going to stop there for lunch.  Unfortunately, we missed our turn while in Canada, with no GPS, and the navigator was asleep (though Phil would probably argue that that was irrelevant, as directions are not one of my strong points!) and didn't make it there, but saw some lovely scenery anyway!  We had a wee stop at the Appalachian mountains, where I took Quinn to a pit toilet, while unbeknown to us, Phil, Luke and Ryan headed up one of the trails.  When we were done, we couldn't find them anywhere, but figured they had not gone far, as Ryan had thongs on, and Luke didn't have shoes.  I asked someone coming down if they had seen them, and they knew them instantly - they said yes, we thought unless he had feet of leather, they weren't going to get very far.  I am sure they just thought we were silly tourists!

We got stuck in our first traffic jam, going through Boston.  Unfortunately, we came through around 6pm on Thursday night.  It took us about twice as long as it should have to get across Boston, and that included a two mile tunnel under their harbour.  Plymouth is south of Boston, on the coast, and while Phil was researching Massachusetts he found it, and decided he wanted to stay here.  It is the site of one of the early British colonies, and is a very pretty seaside town.  So then, it was my job to find accommodation here.  I managed to get a cabin in a caravan park by a lake.  It is kind of pot luck, but we were really lucky here. The cabin was small, but it was a perfect location for us to have a 'holiday', as opposed to the travelling we were doing.  The boys were so excited that they were not going to have to get in the car, or walk anywhere - what are we doing to these poor children?!

Cooking dinner and s'mores by the fire was one of the favourite things, for our little pyromaniacs!

A picture of the lake where we swam, and fished - it was really pretty, and safe

 I don't think we left the park for the first four days, except for me to get groceries.  We had great weather, and there was a little sandy 'beach' for us to sit on.  It wasn't very deep, so the boys could swim out to the pontoon off the jetty, and I could sit and read - it was great!  They met some other kids who were staying in the 'Lakehouse', which is just off to the right in this photo.  They live in Kingston, not far from Boston, so they would race down there each day to play.  They exchanged addresses, and are going to keep in touch, so that will be a good lesson in letter writing.

On one of the days, Phil and the boys hired a tinny for a few hours, and they were so excited!  Luke and Ryan both caught fish, so of course they wanted to go all the time, thinking that they would always catch fish.  Luke caught his first, then Ryan proceeded to catch two, so he was super excited.  Then Quinn wanted to go out there, and he caught a fish as well.    

 You can see from this photo how happy Quinn was at catching his fish!  Luke came racing up to our cabin, and told me I had to come down with the camera, as Quinn had caught his first ever fish.  The big deal was that they had to kiss the fish, then throw it back into the water.  Well, we did threw him back in after a few photos, a fair bit of handling and quite a bit of time out of the water.  Unfortunately, by the time we threw him  back into the water, he floated.  So the running joke then was that Quinn gave the fish the kiss of death!

 

Pinewood Lodge, where we stayed, was such a typical American holiday destination - it was like we were in one of those 'teenage camp' movies.  On the weekend they had activities for the kids, so they could do craft, have running races, air hockey competition, and they had a disco in the evening.  They met another boy, Sean - though Luke told me it was Shon, I am sure it was just their accent.  So he was into basketball, and they had lots of fun down at the basketball court playing with him and his brother and sister.

By Monday, Phil was getting restless, so we went to the Plymouth Plantation, where they have historical actors, who show how the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims lived together in this area, from 1620.

Warriors, in one of the houses in the Pilgrim village

 Unfortunately, it was really hot the day we went to Plymouth - well into the 30's, and the boys just wanted to go home and swim, and play with their new friends.  We also managed to choose the day that a whole heap of school kids were having an end of year field trip, so we tried to race ahead and get where we were going to, before them!  Saying that though, it was quite an interesting place, and I learned things, so I am sure the boys did.  In the Pilgrim village, the people 'played' roles of villagers, and it was interesting to talk to them and find out about living in those times.

Boys in one of the boats, with an example of how the dugouts are made, behind them

We had great weather, so we swam and stayed home again on Tuesday, although Phil went into town during the day to visit some other historical sites, including the Jenney Gristmill, pictured below, where they ground the corn.

And also the Plymouth Rock, which is in all the guidebooks, as being the first rock that the British stepped onto.  Call me cynical, but I just find it all a little hard to believe; but it is nicely preserved out of reach of people and has a ranger talk there for the tourists, so I took a photo!

We all went into town in the evening to have a look around, and to have some dinner at one of the 'Lobster Shacks' that everyone raves about.  It was really nice to be by the ocean, and we got some photos of some of the original 'Cape Cod' homes, which are really quite pretty.