Boston Vacation, Day 5

So, where to go today? Well, I LOVE History, and here we are in the documented oldest historical area in the "New World" (not counting the Native Americans who were already here), but the area where the Pilgrims came to settle. So, of course I wanted to go to Plymouth, Massachusetts (Bruce said to please not tell anyone that he went to a 'tourist trap'....oh yeah...geesh.)

In deciding where to go for the best experience in Plymouth, we chose to go to "The Plimouth Plantation"...I still don't know why the plantation is spelled "plimouth" and the town is "Plymouth" but I'm wanting to find out.

"The Plimouth Plantation" is a replica of what the Wampanoug Indians would have been like, as well as an English settlement/village.

Inside the Visitor's Center at the beginning there is a small replica of the Mayflower ship, but this one is called the "Mooflower"...we thought that was pretty cute.

The first 'leg' of the plantation was the Wampanoag area...in my opinion, it was the best part. It was very interactive, and provided an insight, interesting insight, and hands-on.

There was a young man burning out a small log just like they would do for a larger log to burn out a boat.

These guys were showing how to make cornhusk dolls, and people could sit down there with them, and make them too.

Allison and I each made one; she made a girl doll and I made a boy doll.

A lady was cooking up a bunch of different food items over a fire...soups with different fish and mussels and vegetables and spices and herbs.

The fish wrapped in cornhusks were interesting concept to me....

Grinding some corn....

Inside some of their homes....

This was a hoot... The man on the left was demonstrating some different games and activities for the kids, etc. The guy on the right was the one making the boat. He came over and they trash talked and stuff and played this "Hub, Hub, Hub" game with white/black disks. When they were finished, Allison says, "Can I play?" so the guy shows her how to play the game. Now I should interject here that the guy has been winning all of the games that we were sitting their witnessing.

Well, guess what? Miss Allison beats him! :) She LOVED the fact she beat him, and he played it up that he couldn't believe she beat him, etc. It was funny!

After a walk down a path and up a bunch of stairs, we came to the English Village. The buildings were about what I thought they would be like, a little older and worn down, but I was surprised by all the weeds, but Bruce assures me that they probably would not have had time to keep it cut back and neat. I don't know.

The village, too, had folks around to answer questions, but didn't really do anything hands on for the visitors. There were ladies in the gardens behind the houses, but there was nothing for the people to experience otherwise.

Back in the visitor's center, there was a children's exploration room, and Allison, of course, enjoyed this room.

Outside in the courtyard while we were there, two actors with the Summer Shakespeare company demonstrated staged play sword fighting. Allison didn't even want to go watch it at first, but then talked into watching it, by the time the guys were asking if there were any volunteers who wanted to come up and learn how to sword fight, Allison was up there learning, too. :)

Upon leaving the Plimouth Plantation, we then went to an area bout three miles away that was in conjunction with the plantation. It was where the Mayflower II was docked. The Mayflower II is a replica of the original Mayflower ship that came over from England in 1620 and brought the men and women and some children to settle in the New World for the King of England. The Mayflower II was building in 1957.

We were able to go aboard the ship, and I simply cannot imagine being at sea for two to three months on this cramped little compartments, stuffy, with people getting sick, etc. There were like 130 people cramped in here. ICK!

Plymouth Rock seems to be somewhat of a joke in this area, but it still draws the tourists to view it and take a picture (like us, huh?). They do at least admit that they don't KNOW it's the rock the Pilgrims stepped on when they arrived, but it is to commemorate this area.

They find it so special they built a special building around it to keep it protected from further damage from the elements, as best as it can. Pretty fancy, huh?