Plymouth, massachusetts

Sept 28th - Oct 5th

Saturday, we took our time getting ready to haul down to Plymouth since it was only a couple hours drive.  We ended up adding a little bit of time to our trip by swinging way out along I-495 to avoid driving through Boston.  In all, it only extended our drive time by an hour but so worth it.

Notes from D:  It cracks me up that there is actually a wiki page for I-495!

Burial ground of a passenger of the Mayflower

What's left of the rock

Pilgrim Hall Museum that houses Plymouth Rock

Plymouth is a coastal town in Massachusetts, south of Boston.  It is the site of the first Pilgrim settlement, founded in 1620.  Plymouth Rock, a boulder in Pilgrim Memorial State Park, marks the place where settlers are thought to have landed on shore.  The Mayflower II, a full-scale replica of the ship that carried the Pilgrims across the Atlantic, is usually anchored at the park but during our visit, it was out for repairs. That figures!

The National Monument to the Forefathers commemorates the Mayflower Pilgrims.  Dedicated on August 1, 1889, it honors their ideals that brought them here and was as later embraced by the United States.  Education, Law, Liberty, and Morality.  It is thought to be the world's largest solid granite monument at 81 feet tall.  The original plans date around 1820.  The first cornerstone was laid on August 2, 1859.  The monument was completed in October 1888.

Massasoit Sachem 1581 – 1661 was the great leader of the Wampanoag tribe.  According to Colonial sources, Massasoit prevented the failure of the Plymouth Colony and the almost certain starvation that the Pilgrims faced during the earliest years of the colony's establishment.

The Pilgrim Mother Statue

This granite figure stands on the waterfront near Plymouth Rock.  On the back are listed the names of the women on the Mayflower. The inscription reads: “They brought up their families in sturdy virtue and a living faith in God without which nations perish.”

For lunch, we stopped in at The New World Tavern.  We picked this place because most of the other spots were very loud due to folks watching the Patriots play.  This place did have the game on but luckily it only had two televisions going compared to fifteen like the other places.  I had a grilled cheese sandwich with a huge slice of caramelized onion on it and I have to say it was awesome.  I think I have a new favorite grilled cheese.  By the expression on D's face in this picture, I think he is getting a little tired of being my photo subject.

Our next stop was Provincetown! We have a long drive ahead...