Southern New England and New Netherlands

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Plymouth Rock is tiny! It could fit under a picnic table. We were told that we would be surprised how small the Mayflower was. We weren't - mainly because we had seen the Hector (see previous blog) and the Mayflower is no smaller. But the rock surprised us. It has worn away over the past almost 400 years and is estimated to be about a third of the size it was when Degory Priest et al jumped out on to it.

Bill has confirmed that Degory Priest is a ancestor from his maternal grandmother's side. Degory Priest died during that first winter (the records say January 1, 1621) as half of the colonists did. He had a wife and children though who did not come over on the Mayflower but arrived on the next boat three years later, and Bill is descended from one of his daughters. She had descendants who moved to Nova Scotia as colonists in the 1700s prior to the American Revolution.

We were in Plymouth on the day of the big celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Mayflower II. This is the replica that the UK gave the US in 1957 as a thank you for helping in WWII. We met a Boston lawyer and his wife who were going to attend the big anniversary party that night at Plimouth Plantation. They were very proud of being descendants of Mayflower colonists Bradford and Brewster respectively. We didn't have the heart to say "Well actually we Canadians are Mayflower descendants too!!" Couldn't do it. And needless to say we did not attend the ball.

But we did go and see Plimouth Plantation, the re-construction of the colony as it would have looked in 1627. It was fantastic. You need to use no imagination at all to believe you have been transported back in time. The place is full of costumed role players who do a great job with not only the words and accent they use but have tremendous knowledge of the time and cannot be tripped up. As well there is a native village peopled with real Wampanoags, descendants of the original population. We all loved it and spent most of the day there.

The next day we drove out to the end of Cape Cod and tumbled out onto Race Course beach. Traffic was heavy but maybe not quite as bad as we had been led to believe it would be. Again the "scenic" highway actually gave no views of the ocean, being cut right through the woods in the middle of the peninsula. On the positive side we were surprised at how wooded Massachusetts was generally. We saw very little industry from any highway, except in Boston. Surprising when you come from Canada which is supposed to be all trees, to realize that the consistency of woods surrounding highways in Massachusetts is greater than you can remember seeing. We wondered where are the farms? We remember a Boston journalist describing Montreal's location as "a few farms north of Vermont" and thinking that it was somehow a put-down. But it might have been that farms were salient features to that journalist because he was so unused to seeing them. Found some lunch in Provincetown and then headed to Hyannis to catch the ferry to Nantucket Island.

Memories and impressions of Nantucket:

relaxed
friendly
old-fashioned
cobblestones
gray wood-shingled houses
flat
great bike paths

We rented bikes and explored the island for two days. That's the way to do it on Nantucket. We left our car on the mainland and just took the passenger ferry. We biked over 40 km.

We spent an hour or so at Dionis Beach. The number and variety of shells on the beach was the greatest we had ever seen, which surprised us since we have seen so many ocean beaches in our travels. The interior of Nantucket was almost all woods, which surprised us again. It is very different from Martha's Vineyard even though they are only a hour apart by ferry. That's where we headed next.

The island of MV was absolutely full of tourists but it was not unpleasant. Instead of renting bikes we took the municipal buses. Although not cheap, they were a very easy and efficient way of getting around. A carnival atmosphere reigns in the town of Oak Bluffs right down to the old-fashioned carousel. Houses are all brightly painted and many are reminiscent of gingerbread houses. The other towns and villages (there are 6) are all unique. Edgartown is more well-to-do but retains its old-time feeling while Menemsha is a small fishing port, for example. The time it took to get the different villages on the bus was well rewarded.

A couple of days later we found ourselves in Mystic, Connecticut. They have an aquarium which we visited. There were sea lion shows and belugas and penguins and it was all right. A little disappointing though in comparison to the fantastic aquaria we saw in New Zealand, Australia and Japan. As well we spent most of a day at the Mystic Seaport which has real old tall ships that were used as whaling boats. We recommend it. Late in the afternoon we said goodbye to the ocean and drove inland towards Hartford and spent the evening at Lake Compounce amusement park. Boulder Dash was the highlight. It is billed as the first roller coaster built on a mountainside and the fastest wooden roller coaster on the east coast of the US. It may very well have been the best roller coaster we have ever been on.

We left Connecticut and drove up the Hudson River valley of New York. Bill is descended from Dutch colonists (on his paternal grandfather's side this time) who lived in what was then called New Netherlands. The British took it from them in 1664 and it was re-dubbed New York, although the Dutch colonists continued to speak Dutch almost exclusively for over a hundred years until the American Revolution in 1776. After that those who stayed were forced to assimilate. Those who chose not to, came to Canada. Many settled in southern Quebec and the Eastern Townships as well as Ontario. Ironically, they had to learn to speak English anyway of course, and in the last few decades, those who chose Quebec have descendants who now speak French as well (but none of them speak Dutch anymore we feel safe in assuming).

Again, disappointed about the so-called scenic roads from which we caught a total of two glimpses of the Hudson River and the occasional "mountain" (big hill) in the distance. We stopped in Rhinebeck and Hinderhook both of which have not changed much in centuries, which was interesting. Other than the occasional Dutch Reformed Church though there were very few actual ties to Dutch colonial days.

And that's it. One unintended side effect of having traveled around the world for 21 weeks is that 4 week vacations no longer feel long!

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Photos

On board the Mayflower
There was not much space!

Wampanoag Village
Part of Plimouth Plantation just outside the town of Plymouth.

Cycling on Nantucket
OK - actually taking a break from cycling for lunch at 'Sconset.

Renee and Basket
Renee learned how to make a Nantucket Basket at the Life Saving Museum of all places.

Menemsha
A fishing village on Marth's Vineyard where we had - what else? - lobster dinner.

Harbor at Mystic
This is the Mystic River in Connecticut looking south out to the sea.