Fall is coming (is here, I guess!)

Greetings,

I couldn't resist putting a fall picture up at the top of this week's post. We passed into fall a couple of days ago, and each day are seeing more and more color here in New England. This glimpse of fall is reflected in the pond at Old Sturbridge Village, Mass. I'm sure we'll be seeing much more color in the next few weeks and will love to share some of it with you. Of course, there will be great color at home in Minnesota, too, I'm sure.

MILEAGE:

Buster: Cape Cod to Mystic, Connecticut, back to Sturbridge, Mass to Rhinebeck, New York:

397 miles

Bella: 120 miles

Total this week: 517 miles

Total mileage so far on League's Excellent Adventure: 8,852 miles

STATE COUNT: 14 (up two); add Rhode Island and Connecticut to last week's count

Greetings from Gary: (he's been wanting to get a few words in!!!)

I really love this motor home, partially because it allows me to fulfill a life dream of being a gypsy and seeing the whole country, and partially because this particular motor home fulfills our needs so well. It's like having a big, self-indulgent, complex, six figure toy that I get to play with and operate each day.

When Julie and I first began to talk with our friends and relatives about our plans to take this trip, some people chimed right in and felt it would be a fabulous experience. Other people, however, had misgivings for unexpressed reasons. It's our impression that some people thought we were going to be camping for a year. Other people's lack of enthusiasm, we think, resulted from their concern that this living in such close proximity would become intolerable after a while.

First of all, we are not camping. Last night was a rainy night. When we got up this morning, we saw a family camping in a tent across from us. They were sitting around outside on pads at a wet picnic table eating breakfast. They had long-sleeved slickers on, were wearing long pants and damp shoes .... and they didn't seem to be having that much fun. At least they didn't seem to be slapping mosquitoes. Adjacent to them was another family who had a pop-up trailer for their camping home. They had a substantial awning and were able to sit under the awning as the rain dripped off the trees ...., but they were dressed the same as their neighbors. Later in the morning when doing laundry, Julie saw the first family drying their sleeping bags in the dryer. Apparently their tent wasn't water proof.

We, in contrast, had a dry night in our motorhome, able to be heated or air-conditioned at our choice. There are no leaks, so we have no water problems, and our floor is about 36 inches off the ground. We feel insulated and protected from nature to a degree nearly equal to that in a home. Our motorhome is not a camper ..... it's most analagous to a small one-bedroom apartment completely outfitted with HVAC, running water, water heater, sewer, cable TV (where available), antennae, satellite (if desired). It's well designed to maximize storage and comfort. And best of all, it completely moveable to wherever we want to go (except narrow alleys and dead-end streets).

We have all the amenities that we are used to. It is true, they aren't all quite as convenient as at home. Each time we move, I have to disconnect and stow the equipment for electrical power, water, sewer and cable TV. I empty the grey water tanks about every 4 days ... we take lots of showers! I empty the sewage once a week, which some people would find odious, but I haven't splashed on myself yet! And then each time we arrive at a new location, I reattach those items; it takes about five minutes.

I would agree that motorhome living is best enjoyed when the outside temperatures are between 50 and 90 degrees. The motorhome is insulated but we would have difficulty and expense at keeping indoor temperatures at 70 degree when outside temperatures are below 50 or above 90 degrees. All in all, I think our opinions are that I love it, and Julie and Elizabeth like it.

Now regarding the close proximity issue: I would say it has not caused me any problem, but I can't speak for Julie. Lizzie, of course, suffers somewhat from lack of friends her age. She forms quick attachments when there is a reasonable child near-by in the motorhome parks we visit, and is sad to leave them. She also misses her friends at home in Rochester. In spite of this hopefully small sacrifice on her part to be on the trip, I believe this experience will provide her with lifelong benefits. First of all, she is getting parenting about 18 out of 24 hours each day. This is much more than she is used to, with all of the hours usually spent at school, with friends and in sports. Any lessons we want to teach her or behavior we want to modify is evident, and we have unlimited opportunities for parenting! I also feel that this is leading to an even closer parent bond relationship which can only be helpful and she passes into pre-teen and teen years.

JULIE'S JOURNAL:

Well, I certainly enjoyed hearing how much Gary is enjoying the trip. He certainly does a marvelous job keeping this rig running smoothly. It is kind of interesting .... on the proximity issue! It has only been the last week or so that I have started to think about it. When you think that we have been gone 9 weeks now, and that it was only after about two months that I started to notice how limited my social contacts are! Understanding that I am probably the more socially needy of the two of us, I think overall it is going amazingly well. I would tell you that our "ace in the hole" is that while we may wish we had longer fuses, we have equally short recovery times .... this is invaluable!

SO .... back to the itinerary:

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 and WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23

Having visited Plimouth Plantation and Mayflower, we headed across Massachusetts on State Highway 44. It's always fun when our route avoids an interstate. While it takes a bit longer, we see much more local color: small towns, challenging routing through them, opportunities for a Dairy Queen stop, etc. Highway 44 took us to Providence (we added Rhode Island to our state count), but elected not to explore more in Rhode Island though Newport WAS on my initial list.

We found our campground in Old Mystic, CT, and made our plans to visit Mystic Seaport and the Aquarium the next day after my morning newsletter consultations. A staff member at Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) in Massachusetts had said Mystic Seaport was a must see, and as developed as OSV; it wasn't, but it was still very worthwhile. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we are experiencing the benefits and liabilities of off-season travel: many places are very uncrowded, but many exhibitors close down activities and sections of their attraction in the "off-season." Often these deleted activities are targeted for children, so Liz gets disappointed when the advertised "special craft event" isn't happening. But we saw chronometer and compass vendors, boat repairers, iron works, apothecaries where they would create "Medicine Chests" for captains to carry on board sailing vessels. Anchored in the Mystic harbor was Amistad. This is a replica of a slave ship that was commandeered by the slaves it carried, running aground in New England. A legal battle ensued regarding the responsibility of the US government to return the slaves (property) to their American owners or free them. The ship has been reconstructed and sails telling its human rights story, but happened to be anchored in Mystic last week:

Also on display, in the small boat museum was a sampling of different small pleasure boats. Included was FDR's sail boat, that he used to teach his children how to sail at Campobello, in Maine. It was on this boat he sailed the day before he awakened with the symptoms of polio. Coincidentally, when we visited FDR's home yesterday, we were told it is theorized that he had contracted polio while visiting a Boy Scout camp about two weeks previously. He had mingled closely with the children there, and it is thought that is where he was exposed. Here is FDR's sail boat:

We had a delicious lunch there, and then Liz and I spent the rest of the afternoon at the Mystic Aquarium. We were anxious to visit there, as we had heard about it when we heard the story of Andre, the harbor seal, from Rockport, Maine. Many of you may be familiar with this true story of a harbor seal, taken as a pet by the harbormaster some years ago (when it was legal), and raised as a pup. However, the winters were harsh and ultimately it was worked out that Andre would winter either at the New England Aquarium in Boston, or the Mystic Aquarium. He lived 25 YEARS doing this, being returned by the aquarium staff by truck, often to Marblehead, MA, to swim the rest of the way home to summer in Rockport. We enjoyed the book, and, of course, now have a darling stuffed harbor seal as an additional companion with us in Buster.

At Mystic Aquarium we were taught some important differences between harbor seals and sea lions, which are on display and shown at Mystic. Sea lions have very well developed front flippers. They are long, and very complex with a bony structure nearly as complex as a human's hand. These are strong appendages and a sea lion is actually able to support all his/her weight with extended appendages, not having to use his tummy for gliding. Seals slide. Also, the sea lion can catch fish anywhere around him: he can touch the back of his neck with his nose!!! My neck hurts just thinking about that!

We saw a couple of beautiful beluga whales, Liz petted a ray, and I was enchanted by these variant clown fish, i.e. the black and white ones. It seems to very explicitly represent: do your own thing!

We learned something fascinating about clown fish: they live in schools, but there is only one mated pair. If something happens to the female and she dies, the male transforms and becomes a female, and another fish becomes the mating male. Unfortunately, I didn't learn if the converse is true, i.e. that the female could transform into the male. I think I'll restrain myself from editorializing about this!

We rehooked up with Gary after our Aquarium adventure (I also got some very pretty cloisonne jelly fish ear rings there!), and had dinner at Mystic Pizza. Gary and I both liked this Julia Roberts early movie, but we didn't recall it was rated "R!" Liz, of course, wanted to see it (it was on sale in the lobby of the restaurant), but we had to explain it had "mature" content. The pizza was REALLY GOOD, which surprised us. We planned to go just to see it, but were very happy we did! It was a slice of heaven!

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

While we were certain we hadn't explored all the wonders of Connecticut, we did want to return to OSV/Sturbridge, as our visit their last week had been so brief. We actually had a nicer day today .... sunnier, warmer. We had hoped to arrive in time for the broom making craft that was offered on the web site, but plans were changed at the last minute, and they didn't offer that. We had to settle for a broom making demonstration later in the day. Instead, Liz and Gary made tin candle holders, pounding and crimping the tin in place.

We were able to spend much more time watching the carding mill and grist mills, and Gary had time to give Liz a lesson on stilts! Gary was pretty good at it himself!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25th, was another travel day as we made our way into the Berkshires and the Hudson River Valley. It turned much colder today, too, and again we were thankful for Buster and his amenities. On Saturday, September 26th, we made our way south just a few miles down Route 9 from Rhinebeck, NY, to Hyde Park. We had heard that they were having a small community fair in Hyde Park, as part of the Quadricentennial .... 400 year celebration of Henry Hudson finding this beautiful river valley. Apparently the voyage in 1609 was his 3rd voyage (we learned the 4th voyage was up in Hudson's Bay, and ended in a mutiny and Hudson's loss). They had the most engaging woman explaning his voyage on a painted wood map with a ship that moved along in a little slit. She had Liz "sail" the ship. We learned of his run in with an iceberg as he sailed along Norway (trying to get to China), so he turned his ship around and kept coming west. He was Dutch, and John Smith, in Jamestown, VA, was English, so Henry decided to stay north of there, and ended up first in the Chesapeake, and then at the mouth of the Delaware River, and up the "Hudson" to Albany, where it became to shallow too go further. It was interesting and fun.

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Roosevelt's home at Hyde Park, and visited the FDR presidential library and museum. This library was built while FDR was still in office, and dedicated, by him, in June, 1941. He worked in the museum, and his office is just as it was. The memoribilia is impressive, and, of course, one always comes away with unique impressions. He was the only child of his father's second marriage, and his mother, Sara Delano, was nearby (including living in the bedroom next door to Franklin and Eleanor) as long as she survived. He and Eleanor seemed to have a very productive partnership, and there is a great Eleanor wing in the museum, as well as an opportunity to visit her own retreat ... a home at Val Kill. I want to tell you a humerous thing I saw in the library. Eleanor wrote her assistant that she was enclosing the bill from the doctor to treat Franklin, Jr's, "piles"/hemorrhoids. She alludes to the fact that the fee must be related to the number of visits (12) and not a simple fee for a cure. She suggests that Franklin, her husband, "will have a fit." On the bottom of the memo is written:

"Pay it. Have had the fit. F.D.R."

The museum has a lot of FDR's first 100 days, which, of course, are quite controversial ... his decisions and programs gave people hope, but of course spent more than any government had ever imagined. The footage of him, though, IS infectious ... his "can do" attitude, his "nothing to fear but fear" speech, all had to go a tremendous way in helping the nation crawl back from the Depression. It was suggested that this "can do" attitude was fueled by his attempts to recover from polio. When he returned to Hyde Park after his initial illness, he tried, every day, to walk down this lane with his crutches. He would lock his braces on his knees, and pull his lower extremities down the lane, believing that if he could make it all the way, he might walk again one day. He never made it the entire way ..... but he learned A LOT about perserverance. Here's a picture of that soul-wrenching lane.

Eleanor and Franklin are buried at Hyde Park in the Rose Garden. Some of the roses were in perfect late summer/early fall bloom yesterday.

Liz, of course, was enchanted by the stories of Fala, the Roosevelt's scottie ... another opportunity for a little stuffed friend. Here she is with the topiary Fala at the Visitor Center entrance.

Finally, we have the 4th grader seated with her new friends, Eleanor and Franklin. She thought they sounded pretty special.

Then, while driving home we stopped to ask directions and happened to encounter a very nice woman who appeared to be a fire fighter (she was walking from the fire station), and Liz commented how nice she was. Then she said, "Dad, you should have been a fire fighter: brave, strong, and nice." And there you have .... it doesn't get much more special than that.

Stay tuned .... we're thinking of going to NEW YORK CITY!

Julie, Gary and Liz

.... liberty and justice for all.

Good day!

I believe our favorite thing this week was being reminded/re-educated about the bravery and determination of our founding fathers, and how tremendous it is to live in a free country. As I am finishing up this posting, it is turning out to be really long. But we DID see a lot this week .... we are in the birthplace of the nation, after all!

We did have that delicious lunch at Mabel's Seafood in Kennebunkport, Maine, last Sunday. I had something called Lobster Savannah, which was simply scrumptious with scallops and shrimp baked with parmesan inside a lobster, and the lobster tail and claws boiled in the usual way. I'm told this was Rachel Ray's favorite when she ate there.

We circled back around Orchard Beach, when I saw this sign for a local salon. I thought it was SO funny, I had to share it with you:

MILEAGE:

Buster: Old Orchard Beach to Boston/Foxboro to Cape Cod:

198 miles

Bella: 450 miles

Weekly total: 648 miles

Total mileage for trip so far: 8,335 miles

State count: 12 states, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine. Massachusetts is the latest



Monday, September 14

We had an easy drive, at least at the beginning, from Old Orchard, Maine to the Boston suburbs. We stopped north of Boston in Danvers where we had determined that there was a Costco. We had just about exhausted our frozen chicken and fish from our Costco stop in Michigan, so we were due for a restocking. It is so tempting to buy more .... produce, fruit, etc ... but it is obvious our storage capacity is limited, so we try to keep it to frozen items and maybe a DVD or two.

You won't be surprised to learn that the campground opportunities close in to Boston are not easy to identify. While it may not have been the closest, Normandy Farm campground in Foxboro was certainly one of the nicest we have encountered. Nearly 40 years ago, a long-established farm family turned some of their land into a campground and they have kept improving and expanding. They have a beautiful site, with three pools (one indoor and nicely heated!), great laundry and other facilities, etc. We really enjoyed our stay there. We DID NOT anticipate that driving in on a Monday would present any problems, though we did have a vague knowledge that the Patriot's football stadium was in Foxboro. Well, last Monday night, the Patriots (and Buffalo Bills) were on Monday Night Football. We drove down State Route 1 at 2:30 in the afternoon, but hit bumper to bumper traffic into the stadium. We didn't know the roads (or have a detailed enough map) to plot another route, so we just sat with them for 60-90 minutes. I actually think my iPhone can do this route plotting, but I don't know how to work it (I'm sorry to say). We were able to adjust our antenna to see the game later than night, though we opted for the US Open final with Federer and ? del Portro (from Argentina) and saw the upset. That evening we also plotted our strategy for the Boston area.

Tuesday, September 15

Gary, Liz and I were actually in Boston three years ago for a meeting I had, and Liz remembers being at Frog Pond in Boston Common, and a few other things. This time we wanted to focus on the Freedom Trail.

Even though I am walking and doing steps better all the time, we decided to get a City View Trolley ticket so we could jump (not literally!) on and off the trolley at the spots we wanted to see. We boarded at the Public Garden in Boston Common.

We drove by the Massachusetts State House, saw the Granary Burying Ground, where Benjamin Franklin's parents were buried, and drove by the Old South Meeting House and the Old State House (below).

It was here the jubilant crowds surrounded the balcony to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independece on July 18, 1776, and in front of which the Boston Massacre had occurred six years earlier.

Our trolley tour swung us by the harbor, and we got off to take the included Harbor Cruise, which we really enjoyed. Here we saw John Hancock's Counting House where trading and wharf life centered in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Counting House has been converted to the Chart House restaurant, and it was here we took our dinner this evening.

Boston Harbor remains very busy, more with pleasure and tourism these days, as well as being a Coast Guard station for search and rescue vessels.

It was also really windy on the harbor cruise:

From the harbor, we hopped back on the trolley which momentarily dropped us near North Square and the home of Paul Revere. He lived here during the Revolutionary War years and was a renowned silversmith. We are learning quite a bit about him as Liz is reading the Newbury winner, Johnny Tremain, and filling us in on a lot of details of the time.

It is a short walk from Paul Revere's house (on left below) to the Old North Church (on right below), in whose steeple, you know: "one if by land, two if by sea". We learned much more about this as we visited Lexington and Concord later in the week.

From there, it is another short hop to the USS Constitution. Liz asked us, "What is the second S for in USS?" and unfortunately we didn't know. So she asked a sailor on board: United States SHIP. There you go. The USS Constitution is the oldest battleship in the world; it is considered to be still in active service. It is maintained by the Navy and they deliver a very nice tour. The main deck is currently being refurbished, so it has a roof on it just now, which will be removed when the new deck is done. It has been in nearly 50 battles and never defeated, the most famous of course with the HMS Guerriere off Nova Scotia. She was so sturdy the British captain said, "her sides must be made of iron." Of course, they are wood, but her hull was fortified from Paul Revere's copper foundry, also with 44 cannons on board. It was a great tour.

We finished up our Freedom Trail day with a stop at Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market, and then our dinner at the Chart House. We learned a lot. And I was particularly pleased my knees held up so well. I did get some sitting breaks on the trolley, but all in all, I was on them for about 6 hours. It was today I knew I was better off having the knee surgery before the trip .... here, about 8 weeks into the trip, I am definitely more functional than if I hadn't had it. I'd have been whining and moaning A LOT if I'd tried to do 6 hours on those old knees.

On Wednesday, September, 16, we inserted a low key day. I had my Wednesday morning work on the phone and computer with Women's HealthSource, which actually is always a nice break (read: I get meaningful conversation with other humans outside my family!) On that note, we are getting along quite well for the close quarters that we are in. We get out a lot! Gary took advantage of this time to have an RV mechanic come to the campsite to do some work on our bedroom heating system, the locks on the cargo doors, and the ice maker. Buster IS complex! It did put us behind a bit, as we had planned to go to Concord and Lexington on Wednesday, so we just made a really early day of it on Thursday.

Thursday, September 17, we drove away from the campground just after 7 am because we wanted to try to beat the Boston commuter traffic as we made our way north from Foxboro to Concord. Concord was also a mail stop, and we pulled up in front of the post office at 8:30. It opened at 9. So we had a nice breakfast at Helen's. We had minimal mail at Concord but did get our rent check from the Chung's, so that was welcome!

Then we made our way to the Old North Bridge, at the western edge of Minute Man National Historic Park, which is celebrating it's 50th anniversary. Apparently, in the late 1950's local Concordians noticed that suburban sprawl was starting to occupy Battle Road including motels, ice cream stands, etc. The road still exists where the British regulars had marched out to Lexington, engaged forewarned (by Paul Revere and William Dawes) colonists, and shot and killed 7 colonists. The British moved on to Concord, destroyed some ammunitions supply depots, and saw that about 400 colonists had gathered on the hillside over-looking the North Bridge. Someone shot first (it's not clear which side DID shoot first), but it was here that blood was first shed as troops fired upon each other. These were the shots "heard round the world." After that the British retreated all the way back to Boston where there were multiple skirmishes on Battle Road ... the road of retreat. These sites along Battle Road are now being acquired into a National Historic Monument, and it is really interesting to see just where these encounters took place. See below the little hill across from Old North Bridge (and behind the Minute Man monument) where the colonist patriots gathered.

We learned a documented interesting twist to the Paul Revere story. You may remember that actually two riders were sent out to warn the colonist patriots after the lanterns were hung in the belfry of the Old North Church. Paul Revere had the shorter ride, being rowed across to Charlestown, where he was given a horse to ride out to Lexington and Concord. William Dawes had the longer route and rode via Boston Neck. He reached Lexington after Paul Revere and they rode on together to Concord. As they rode, they encountered fellow patriot Dr. Samuel Prescott who was returning home from a DATE .... visiting a girlfriend or "courting" the reports say. He hooked up with them, and they were all intercepted by a British patrol before they reached Concord. Paul Revere was captured (and released later the same day as the British realized they had bigger fish to fry), Dawes lost his horse, and it was Dr. Prescott who actually got through to Concord to warn the Minute Men there. SO, being out and about, wooing and courting ..... it can be a very patriotic thing to do!

Many of you know that Concord is also the home of a number of 19th century authors including Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Below is a picture of the house where Ms. Alcott lived, and is the model for the home of the Little Women.

We also had to visit Walden Pond, and purchase an anniversary edition of Walden, another Julie favorite. Somehow, Gary had missed this .... he's immersed in it as I write. The man in the Walden Pond gift shop was surprised that Liz wasn't in school. So he thought she needed a little quiz: "Who is the man who lived here at Walden Pond?" She was better with the Henry and David, than the Thoreau, but was ultimately rewarded with a free button with HDT's picture on it, which she now proudly wears!

After a fast lunch, we experienced one of the expected frustrations of this experience: we got lost. Our maps are state maps, and so don't have a lot of detail sometimes. I suppose we could get better at working the NAV in our car (this day's eperience may motivate that!), but we couldn't figure out where to get on the interstate to make our way to Sturbridge. Then I (the navigator this day) missed the off ramp on the Mass Turnpike and we had to go 15 MILES to another off ramp to turn around. With a 30 mile careless detour, moods were a little grumpy when we pulled into Old Sturbridge Village at 3:30 pm (they close at 5). Fortunately, we knew that we could return a second day for our admission price (within 10 days) which we plan to do.

Below find a scattering of pictures from there: milking a cow, making a piece of pottery on the wheel, the Cooper's Shop, the Tin Shop, the beautiful farmstead modeled after an 1830's village, a stagecoach ride and a very handsome rooster.

On Friday, September 18, we headed southeast for our Cape Cod week-end. We decided we weren't going to try to see everything, or much of anything for that matter. We just wanted a little down time. We had some lovely and unusually warm weather, so Liz had fun playing with her parents in the pool.

This series of pictures reminds me of something I forgot to include in a previous blog ..... about my very sound husband! He was sitting waiting for Liz and me in a St. John's, New Brunswick, shopping mall, and a lady walked right up to him and said, "You know ..... you have very nice looking legs for a man your age .... no bulging veins!" He, as he should, took it as a compliment .... and she just backed up what I've been telling him all summer ..... "You look great in shorts!"



On Saturday, we headed to South Cape Beach, near Falmouth. It was breezy but a beautiful sunny afternoon. While we didn't swim, Gary and Liz played in a sand and I took a tremendous beach walk.

(sorry for the shadow in the beach pic!)

Sunday, September 20, was the day we decided to go to Martha's Vineyard. We were camped in Falmouth, near Woods Hole, so took the ferry from there. Any of you who have done this know there is no parking at Woods Hole, so it took us a little extra time to find the correct parking and shuttle lot. We were told some 35+ weddings were taking place on Martha's Vineyard this week-end.

The 45 minute ferry ride was beautiful ... about 10 o'clock on a bright Sunday morning. Everybody was in a good Sunday mood, and enjoying themselves. We had reserved a car at Oak Bluffs, and explored the rest of the day.

Then Liz took a ride on The Flying Horses carousel, the first merry-go-round in the country, and did have some luck grabbing the brass ring!

Above left are the cliffs at Gay Head, and on the right is one of the Gingerbread Camp Meeting houses that were an interesting part of Martha's Vineyard history early in the 20th century.

Finally, we moved on to Plymouth today, Monday, September 21, and saw, of course, THE ROCK, the Mayflower, and a very interesting restoration called Plimouth Plantation. There are neighboring displays: one of a native Wampanpaog extended family who had been asked by the chief, Massasoit, to be a liaison with the newly arrived Europeans; ....and then the 1620 European settlement which was understandably crude, but with folks in costume telling us how life had been that first year. After nearly 100 arriving in December, 1620 (their sailing had been delayed as the original vessel was not determined to be sea-worthy), only one-half survived that first year. We were told they DID have enough food, but had no shelter, and died, really, of exposure. They had been weakened substantially after lying around on the Mayflower for about 67 days during the crossing, and the weather prevented them from establishing shelter, so they spent the winter on the ship. It was a really interesting afternoon.

The Wampanoag encampment had native people descendents staffing it, and we saw young women weaving and another giving herself what she said would be a permanent tattoo: she was using obsidian/charcoal with a sharp edge embedding it into her forearm (see photo).

(look carefully and you can see 1620 engraved on this rock, which is housed on the Plymouth shore, and is apparently 1/3 to 1/2 its original size)

Then, a "colonial" instructed Liz on how to whistle with grass between her fingers.

This evening, Gary and Liz went on a 90 minute walking "Ghost Tour" of Plymouth. They met at Plymouth Rock at 7:30, and with four others followed a guide around town while she told spooky stories and legends and took them by the graveyard. Liz loved it!

It was a busy week, but really perfect for the first week of school. We did do some reading, and spelling, and writing, and math, but just living and seeing things first hand taught us all a lot more. One of our problems may be where to put interesting books we pick up at these very memorable sites. It felt like this week was alot of what this trip is about!

Until next time ....

Julie, Gary and Liz