More Action from Last Week

Hello All!

As noted in the last blog posting, this post will cover some of the other sites we saw last week in Main, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

The photo below gives you an idea of the weather conditions on the day we saw the three lighthouses in Maine.  Fortunately, we have not had many days like this one. 

On Friday night we stayed with Mattie's cousin Ann and her husband Stan in Plymouth, MA.  Compared to the lapse in not seeing Terry for nearly 40 years, we saw this cousin as recently as 15 years ago.  

Saturday morning we headed into the town of Plymouth to see some of the "tourist attractions."  It has been a long time since either of us had seen the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock (below). 

We were fortunate that when we went to see the actual Plymouth Rock (above), there was a ranger there providing info about the rock and the site.  I seem to remember a picture in a grade school history book showing the pilgrim's disembarking from the Mayflower directly onto Plymouth Rock.  The rock in the photo above is much too small for that.  What most likely happened is that a smaller boat was dispatched from the original Mayflower and the men in that boat actually walked from the boat to the beach in Plymouth and then used this rock to secure the boat while they explored the area.  If this is the actual Plymouth Rock is still open to debate.

After doing the touristy stuff, we went on a Whale Watching trip (I guess technically another toruist activity).  On the way out of Plymouth Harbour into Massachusettes Bay we passed the Plymouth Light below. 

My cousin, Ann, has been on this whale watching trip a number of times and my heart sank as she said that one time they didn't see ANY whales. Plus. the weather was still iffy for Saturday.  As it turned out, the weather was quite nice (some overcast conditions helped to cut down on the glare from the water) and we saw LOTS of whales.  One even did a head breach right next to the boat.  I have a great shot of the splash from that but not much of the breach itself.  I do have lots of these fluke shots seen below. 

We also had a chance to see some friends in Rhode Island.  Barb and I took a drive and she showed me the Watch Hill Merry-Go-Round - the only continuously operating and surviving flying horse merry-go-round.  (See photo below.)  It was constructed in 1867 and was oringinally operated by two men turning a crank.  Later is was pulled around by a horse.  In 1897 it was powered by water.  It was not until 1914 that electricity was first used to power the ride.  The two little girls (on the right side of the photo) seemed to enjoy it. 



We are still in Connecticut until tomorrow morning when we head towards Pennsylvania.  It was great to spend some time with family and to take a brief break from all the driving but we are both looking forward to the remainder of the trip.  On Friday we will take the Delaware Water Gap Scenic Drive and on Saturday I will to go Bushkill Falls while Jim plays golf (weather permitting).  After that we will be visiting friends in Delaware for a couple of days.  I will try to make the next post on Monday or Tuesday of next week. 

Have a great week end!