Vacation: The beach and Fourth of July

We live in the Midwest so we don't have many opportunities to visit the beach, so we were sure to spend some time on the beach in Plymouth.  The beaches in New England aren't as nice as the beaches in Florida but it was still fun even with a more rocky beach and cooler water.  The ocean is just amazing.  Greg once again was not really able to do much since he couldn't get wet at all.

Adam posing with his sand creation

Our Sea Turtle.  I was the main architect and the kids gathered rocks.

Anna and Jake loved the water the most.  As Jacob would say, "Me and Anna rare water buddies."

Adam convinced the kids to bury him in the sand.

 If you have multiple children you know that if one of them does something the others are going to want to do it too.  This is Jacob.  

Ben mummified

Lizzy

Anna

We planned to go to a parade on the morning of Fourth of July but it was raining pretty hard so we decided not to go.  We spent a lot of the day playing games. The rain let up and we had a BBQ and went swimming at our pond. Then that evening we braved the crowds and went to Plymouth Harbor to see the fireworks.  Adam found us and amazing spot down on some rocks right by the water.  It was awesome to be right by the water because you could see the reflection of the fireworks on the water.  It was a great place to be for Fourth of July.  It was our last night there so was a fun way to go.

 

 

Vacation: The sights of Plymouth

A few of the days we were in Plymouth we spent our time exploring the historical sights there.  I am a descendant of William Bradford, one of the Mayflower passengers and governor of Plymouth.  In addition several of my ancestors came a short time after the Mayflower and helped to settle New England.  I have always been interested in this heritage and feel a connection to this place even though it is not where we call home.  I felt thankful for William Bradford and the man that he was.  I felt grateful for the sacrifices that were made.  I felt some shame and embarrassment too as I understood more about what happened to the Native Americans there.  For me it is fun to learn while on vacation.  I don't think it was the kids favorite vacation ever, but I think they enjoyed it too.

Plymouth Rock.  It is only one-third of its original size.  Tourists used to come and ship off a piece as a souvenir.

Four of the kids at the now enclosed Plymouth Rock

This is what Jacob wanted to do instead of look at the rock :)

The kids and I at the William Bradford statue commemorating our ancestor

One side of William Bradford's gravestone

The other side of his gravestone.  It took us a while to find it!  I think we went to no less than three graveyards on our vacation.  Is that weird?

In the Wampanoag Winter home at Plimouth Plantation.  I loved Plimouth Plantation because of all the wonderful workers.  It was great to talk to both modern day Wampanoag people, as well as actors posing as colonists from the 1630s village.  They brought a lot of understanding and insight.  

The kids in a Wampanoag canoe.  They made it by scraping and burning out a tree.  They had one they were burning that day.  Amazing!

Posers in front of a giant woodpile at Plimouth Plantation.

The English Village.  See the Harbor in the distance.

In the fort in the English Village

Bedding down on the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower.  Again the worker/actors were so knowledgeable and insightful.  Did you know everyone was basically squeezed together on the floor where there was several inches of water.  Everyone's skin got sore and damaged because it was always wet.  Not fun.

Monkeying around on the Mayflower

Jacob stood and watched the woodcarver for a VERY long time.  He was fascinated.

Liz and I on the deck of the Mayflower.

Vacation: Sunday and Whale Watching

One of the things I love about our church is that you can go anywhere in the world and find a congregation where you will feel at home.  They have the same meetings and formats and even Sunday School lessons.  It was great to visit the small congregation in Plymouth.  Everyone was friendly and I was even needed to play the piano in Relief Society.  I am so grateful for our church, for its doctrines, its organization, its wonderful members.  Yep, we enjoyed church away from home.  After church we went on a family walk on some of the trails right next to our rental house.  While the rest of the country was roasting, we enjoyed pleasant weather.  The scenery was so different from Iowa, it was so enjoyable.

The kids on our walk

Anna and I

Lizzy on our walk

The view from the trail


On Monday we got up and headed to Plymouth Harbor.  When we decided we were headed to the NorthEast for vacation I knew I wanted to go Whale Watching.  I have always wanted to do this and I was not disappointed by this experience.  It was a beautiful day.  We enjoyed just being out on the ocean (we may have enjoyed it more because I made everyone take some dramamine).  Seeing the whales was awesome.  We had a great location on the boat and were able to see quite well even though there were so many passengers.  I think the boys enjoyed the boat ride more than the whales, but the girls and I loved it all!  I am so glad we were able to do this.

Getting ready to go

  

 

 

 

Notice the mist from his spout.  Pretty cool

 

 

 

Anna stood almost the entire trip, several hours.  She did not want to miss a thing.  We also spotted some seals, but they were much more difficult to see.  Anna is definitely the animal lover in the family.

Another great day on vacation!

Vacation: Swimming and the Aquarium

When we finally arrived at our rental house,  the kids were not too impressed with the outside.  They thought it looked like a haunted house.  Go here to see pictures.  I thought it was great because it had 4 bedrooms and was right on a little lake (Long Pond).  We even had our own little private beach.  

After we got settled Greg turned right around and headed back to Boston. (We had just spent several hours in Boston traffic earlier that afternoon).  Greg just started some remote classes at MIT, but he has to be on campus at certain times.  It fell during vacation and since our other vacation plans fell through we decided to head east for vacation.  So this was Greg's view:

And this was mine:

While Greg was gone the kids and I swam and went grocery shopping.  There was a great floating dock out in the water.  At first the younger kids were afraid of it because it moved, but then it became the favorite spot.  All of the kids, except Jacob, could touch the bottom all the way out there.  The kids were awesome at helping and taking care of Jacob.  I only swam with them the first day.  The rest of the days Greg or I would sit on the beach and just watch.  Greg couldn't swim because of his arms otherwise he would have been in the water with the kids.  I thought it was too cold!  I couldn't believe the kids were so content.  It was amazing to have that available to us anytime we wanted.  It was definitely one of the favorites on our vacation.  Yeah for Long Pond and the Apley House!

Adam and Anna on the floating dock

Jacob coming up to the beach

What a view!

Lizzy helping Jacob

 

 

The 5 Finches who turned into Fishes

Greg came back to us Friday night.  Saturday morning we got up and headed back to Boston.  This time we opted to park and ride the "T" into town.  We headed to the aquarium right on Boston Aquarium.  I don't know if it was the week we were there or what, but it was so crowded!  You would of thought we were going to an amusement park there were so many people in line.  We did not love the aquarium.  It was difficult to get a good look at most of the exhibits because there were people everywhere!  We generally do not love big crowds.  Also, I was expecting a lot more.  There is a great aquarium in Chicago, and even the zoo in Omaha has a pretty nice aquarium section with a shark tank and everything.  I just thought the New England aquarium would be the aquarium to beat all other aquariums, but it fell short for me.  I did really enjoy seeing the sea turtles and Anna loved the seals and sea lions.  It was also sooo expensive.  We really could have went to an amusement park instead.  Not worth the money for us.  Crazy!

I love this picture!  We were trying to get a picture for Anna of her and the seal, her favorite animal, but Jacob kept getting in the way.  She is trying to smile and still get Jacob out of the way.  So funny to me!

Jacob had to have his picture taken by himself, too.  I don't know if we ever even got one for Anna.

We enjoyed watching the trainers with the seals and sea lions.

We did like the touch tank, too.  All of us, except Greg (his arms just couldn't get wet yet), were able to touch a Manta Ray.  That was pretty cool.

Patiently waiting at the touch tank

Jacob having a little fun waiting for the Imax movie to start.

This was the only time we made our way to Boston.  The rest of the time we spent our time in Plymouth.  I really wanted to do some of the historical things in Boston, but I didn't think the kids would enjoy that too much.  I hope I will get to tag along with Greg on one his trips to MIT.  The aquarium wasn't our favorite, but I like the feel of Boston.  The "T" was great and it seems like a really fun town.  I hope I get to go back soon.