A Week in Boston: Part 2

Wednesday was not the most enjoyable day of our trip.  We checked out of our hotel downtown to move a little farther outside of the city to a less expensive hotel and to get a rental car to be able to visit some sights outside the city.  That meant we had to get all of the suitcases packed up and take the trip on the subway with everything back to the airport.  It took all morning to get out to the airport to get the rental car.  We finally pulled into Minute Man National Park at around noon.  We had stuff for a picnic lunch but it was pouring rain.  It would have made a great spot for a picnic if it weren't for the weather.  So we ate our lunch in the car and then pulled out the rain jackets and umbrellas and headed inside to the visitors center.  They had a fun video inside the visitors center that explained a lot about the start of the revolutionary war.  We grabbed some Jr. Ranger booklets for the kids to do.  Andrew and Kaitlyn were excited but Jared was not happy about it.  He said it was just like school and didn't want to do it.  So with one unhappy child we headed back to the car to visit the other sights at the park and fill out the booklets.  By then the rain had stopped but it had turned off really cold and a strong wind was howling.  It was miserable to be outside.  There were lots of trails through the park that took you to different sights but it was way too cold to be outside much.  We also found out that we were there off season and several of the buildings we would like to have visited were closed.  I didn't get many pictures that day since it seemed like we were running back to the car as quickly as we could to get out of the cold.  The kids were tired from the long week and late nights and getting sick of sitting in the car next to each other.

Concord where the "shot heard 'round the world" was fired.

The kids taking their Jr. Ranger pledge.

Besides the starting place of the revolutionary war, Concord was also home to several favorite authors.  After visiting the North Bridge in Concord we stopped by the Orchard House, home of Louisa May Alcott but found out that it had closed for tours for the day.  Our next stop was Walden Pond, where Thoreau went to have his experience out in the "wilderness."  We were surprised to find that it sits right outside the town of Concord.  I always assumed he was a long way from civilization when we learned about it in school.  It would have been a lot of fun to walk around the pond to Thoreau's cabin on a nice day but we were all so cold by this point and the kids were getting really tired and ornery so after taking a quick picture from the window of van I made the decision to just grab some fast food for dinner and head to the hotel.

The next day everyone was feeling a lot better after a night's sleep.  We were headed to Plymouth and since it was supposed to be windy again we went prepared with more layers of warm clothes.  At least the sun was shining that day and it made a big difference.  All of the kids said that Plimoth Plantation was one of their favorite things we did on the trip.  At the Wampanaog Homesite we got to see a village where Native Americans showed us how the people live in the 17th century.  The kids loved watching them burn out the inside of these tree trunks to make boats.

We got to go inside their houses and ask questions about how they lived.  These two cute boys are hanging out inside their winter home.

Skyler loved playing with the leather ball they had made.  We had a hard time dragging him away from the toys.  He didn't want to hold still long enough for me to take his picture though.  Here we were protected from the wind a bit and with the sun shining the kids were having a great time outside.

Jason checking out the food they are preparing.

The summer home.

Then we went to the 17th century English Village.  This was on a hill overlooking the ocean and it was a lot windier.  We ran from one building to the other trying to get out of the wind.

In this village the actors played the part of the English settlers in the 1600's.  The kids really wanted to find our ancestor Peter Brown but we were told by the other villagers that he was gone for the day up north cutting wood.  When Skyler got bored of sitting in houses and talking to people he found the chickens in the back yards and loved to chase them around!

The kids had a lot of fun with the children's games.  Here they are bowling.

We were never able to find Peter Brown but when we headed over the replica of the Mayflower the kids were excited to find his name on the list of passengers.

The replica of the boat was really cool to see.  It was amazing to see the conditions they lived in while crossing the sea.  We also discovered that they continued to live on the boat after arriving in Plymouth for shelter.  Without it they probably wouldn't have survived.

On board with one of the passengers.

This next picture in front of the Mayflower is kind of silly but it shows just how windy it was that day!

We were disappointed when we saw Plymouth Rock.  I won't include a picture because it's not worth it.  Jared's comment when he saw it was "They ruined it!"  It was pretty anticlimactic and definitely not what you imagine when you think of Plymouth Rock.  I'm not sure how big it originally was but it had been cut and placed in a monument.

Our last full day on our trip we drove up to Cape Ann northeast of Boston.  The towns of Gloucester and Rockport were scenic sea coast towns.  We found, as we did other places, that we were there before tourist season and a lot of the things we would have enjoyed were closed.  We were too early for whale watching and the boats out to the lighthouses weren't going yet so we had to view them from a distance.   We actually found the lighthouses hard to get to, even the ones that weren't on islands.  We had to drive down obscure, sometimes private roads to get there.  Apparently they don't really want tourists going there.

This was as close as we could get to any of the lighthouses.  After driving around to try to find some lighthouses for a bit we went to Bearskin Neck to grab some fish and chips for lunch.

I was told this red barn is the most photographed building in all of New England.  It certainly made for a picturesque backdrop.

That evening on the way back to the hotel we were able to meet with one of Jason's mission companions, Adam Jarnigan, and his family.  They are a wonderful family and Jason enjoyed catching up with an old friend.  We ate the only food we hadn't eaten the whole trip, Mexican!

With our flight not leaving until late afternoon we decided to stop by Concord again after we checked out from the hotel.  We were able to tour the Orchard House which was really cool although Skyler wanted to touch everything in the house which they specifically asked us not to since most of it actually belonged to the Alcotts.  We also met up with one of my good high school friends, Laura Forsberg White who now lives in the area for a quick bite of lunch before heading for the airport.  It was a great trip but Skyler was so ready to be home to his normal routine.  I had forgotten how hard it is to travel with a toddler!  We may not plan any more big trips for a couple years until he is a little older.  It was so much fun having the whole family there and hopefully it is a trip the kids will never forget!