NGS Benchmark

At one of our stops on the way back from Plymouth, there happened to be a NGS benchmark right outside our window.  It appears that the bank has eroded and caused it to become unstable but there is flagging tied around it so someone has used it in the recent past.

The Lobster Hut!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ray & Tami's Anniversary Trip

 OH YEAH!!!!  Fried seafood from the "Lobster Hut" at Plymouth MA!  Yepster!  Yer lookin' at fried clam strips, fried shrimp, fried haddock, fried scallops, fried coleslaw, fried clam chowder, fried iced tea....wait a minute...stop frying at the scallops!  With all that fried food it kinda felt like we were home (South of the Mason-Dixon)!  Good place to eat and good value!

The Other Side of the Story...

We celebrate our forefathers coming to America and rightfully so...but there is another side to the story.  While the Pilgrims found friends among the native tribes, all of them were not happy with their new neighbors.  The memorials are pretty explanatory.

The Mayflower II

We didn't have enough time to go to the "Plimouth Plantation" so we settled for a tour of the Mayflower II.  An exact replica of the original, at least as far as plans and eyewitness accounts go, it was really a sight to behold!  I guess what shocked me was the size...it ain't very big!  How they got 102 passengers and a crew of 20-30 aboard I will never know.  We found out that two ships actually were going to be used for transport but the other vessel, the Speedwell, developed leaks and had to return to England.  So they crowded onto the Mayflower and set sail!

This is the view from near Plymouth Rock.  The Mayflower did not come into the harbor because it was too shallow.

They anchored out to sea and used smaller boats for transport (the boat in the foreground with the Mercury was not used by the Pilgrims)

Topside looking toward the bow...Yes maties.. me knows all the tarms for the paarts of the ship!

 Below deck looking aft...toward the back of the ship

 Looking forward... toward the front of the ship

 In the Captain's quarters...note the cross-staff on the table...

 Also in the Captain's quarters

A sleeping berth for a family...looks purty cozy!!

I know you can't see very well in all these pictures but just imagine 102 people in this small space...

Here's your Signs!!

I'm a surveyor so the following displays caught my eye.  Especially the one about calculating latitude and longitude...if only they had know about Garmin or TomTom!!  Which reminds me of an old Bell Telephone radio commercial from years ago..."Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere......now if Paul would have known about Bell Telephone Company back then...he wouldn't have had to make such a long ride!!"

 Every wonder why speed on the water is measured in knots???

 The Pilgrim's version of GPS!!

 And finally...the Pilgrims did not have NOAA they had...POAB - "Pilgrim's Oceanic and Atmospheric Board"!!

These folks were "Period Actors" which basically means they only relate to a certain time period which in this case was 1620.  When I told them I was from Missouri they had no clue where that was.  So I told them it was in the Midwest...the lady said "I know that Mid means the middle of something and West is a direction but how had you have the middle of West??"  Very interesting to talk to!!

We traded out pictures with some folks on the dock...so here are a couple of cold Pilgrims ready to go eat lunch!!!

Plymouth Rock

Nothing inspires me more to persevere in my Christian walk than to recount the story of the Pilgrims.  I realize there are those among us that want to clarify or "rewrite" history and say it had nothing to do with religious freedom, only greed and opportunism...but here are my thoughts:

I know the type of person I am and at my very best I still deal with fleshly desires, greed, ulterior motives and such like.  I don't have to let them dominate me or give in to them but through the grace of God I can resist them and have an overcoming Christian life...The Pilgrims were no different...they put there "breeches" on one leg at a time just like me!  They weren't perfect, they were just pursuing a dream of living a Christian life without interference from unyielding, domineering, suppressive religious rule.  They had their faults and sometimes acted in an un-Christian manner but as a whole were good, honest, forgiving, upright people (hmmmm...kinda sounds like my church)

When Tami and I arrived at Plymouth Rock (via the Mayflower Taxi Service) it kinda felt like we were on holy ground.  Just to stand there and feel the hope, the dread, the uncertainty, the resolve that the Pilgrims most certainly felt...was an awesome thing.

 Plymouth Rock with the tide in

 The view from the portico over the rock

The view from Cole's Hill

Commuter Rail

 May 16, 2011  Monday Morning

We were scheduled to go to Plymouth MA on Saturday but didn't realize that the commuter rail was not running because of track repairs.  So...we changed plans and went on Monday!

We walked to the subway station (which was closed for track repair) and took a city bus to North Station and THEN took the subway to Braintree Station where we were to catch the commuter rail.  We had to wait awhile so we visited with the station host and he gave us some valuable information.  He said to not be alarmed when we got to the Plymouth station because it was behind an old wal-mart and in a seedy looking part of town...Don't be alarmed????  Right!!!  When we arrived there were taxi's available so we didn't have to stay at the station long.  All in all it was very enjoyable...kinda gave us a sense of stepping into another world...very much different than the Missouri Ozarks!!

 

 The train arriving at Braintree Station

 Almost stopped...

Our view on the ride south

 The subway train...

Wadda!

At this rate, it will be two years before I get all of our anniversary trip posted!!!

How do you know when you are in the north east?....zoom in and check out the sign just above the front wheel!  You can see the Bunker Hill Monument in the background.

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

I really do not like the term "July 4th Celebration"...I know what it means and understand that why it is said but I try my best to state it as "Independence Day Celebration"...It just seems more appropriate...

 Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm." Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war;
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide. Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street
Wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet,
And the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore. Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,
By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all. Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead,
In their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still
That he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went
Creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"
A moment only he feels the spell
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead;
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away,
Where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats
On the rising tide like a bridge of boats. Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth,
And turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search
The belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill,
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns. A hurry of hoofs in a village street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark
Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight,
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock,
And the barking of the farmer's dog,
And felt the damp of the river fog,
That rises after the sun goes down. It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington.
He saw the gilded weathercock
Swim in the moonlight as he passed,
And the meeting-house windows, black and bare,
Gaze at him with a spectral glare,
As if they already stood aghast
At the bloody work they would look upon. It was two by the village clock,
When he came to the bridge in Concord town.
He heard the bleating of the flock,
And the twitter of birds among the trees,
And felt the breath of the morning breeze
Blowing over the meadow brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket ball. You know the rest. In the books you have read
How the British Regulars fired and fled,---
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard wall,
Chasing the redcoats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load. So through the night rode Paul Revere;=
And so through the night went his cry of alarm
To every Middlesex village and farm,---
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ye Olde Union Oyster House!

May 15, 2011
I knew I would need to start planning months ahead for our anniversary trip so I started looking for good places to eat in Boston.  (Actually....there are hundreds of them!) So I made reservations at America's Oldest Restaurant - Ye Olde Union Oyster House - Est. 1826!

It was pretty pricey (at least for a couple of poor Hillbillies!) but once in a lifetime?...go for it!!!

 Three stories of....FOOD!!  We were served on the third story..

 YE OLDE SEAFOOD PLATTER, deep fried shrimp, clams, scallops,
calamari, oysters and filet of fish topped with onion rings

I have eaten some but not a lot of seafood which was mostly Red Lobster-Captain D's-LJS variety...so...When I tasted REAL fresh seafood I was hooked (pardon the pun)!  It was the best I had ever had!

PAN SEARED HALIBUT served with new potatoes, grilled tomato
and sugar snap peas

Tami does NOT like fishy tasting fish...I guess she wants it to taste like butter pecan ice cream!???  Anyway...this dish was perfect!  Fresh and delicious with great flavored sides!

 It was real crowded when we asked the waitress to take our picture so she was leaning back over another table to take this picture and could barely fit us in. 

FYI....The toothpick was first used in the United States at the Union Oyster House. Enterprising Charles Forster of Maine first imported the picks from South America. To promote his new business he hired Harvard boys to dine at the Union Oyster House and ask for toothpicks. (read more at the Union Oyster House website)