Thursday, 9 May, 2013

What a wonderful breakfast we had to start the day! Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries followed a slice of pound cake with blueberries and a bit of cream! (Americans love sweet stuff for breakfast). We had cranberry juice, scrambled eggs with dill on an English muffin and very crisp bacon (baked in the oven to get it so crisp!) look at the size of the camellias that were on the tables! Fresh flowers were everywhere in the house.
We were going to go out to Martha's Vineyard but the weather forecast was rain and thunderstorms so we decided to drive around the Cape a bit more.
We started at the Stony Brook Mill to see the herring run. Much like salmon, they stay in the river system for awhile after they are born before heading out into the ocean for a few years. They then return to the fresh water where they were born to spawn. To do this they need to head up stream and there are usually rock formations that they need to jump up to continue upstream, a seemingly impossible job. Especially when the sea gulls sense when the "running" is occurring and realize they have easy meals. They sit on a roof of a nearby house (any wonder why the house is for sale?) ready to swoop. And swoop they do! Gee, they are greedy birds!
We then headed off to explore the town of Chatham, a fishing port at the southern end of the Cape. It was a really cute town and we walked up and down Main Street after stopping for a Hot Chocolate and coffee. We walked by a house for sale that overlooked the public golf course...nothing spectacular except the price...$2.3million. We were astounded!
I still can't get over the tulips growing everywhere. They are such a beautiful flower!
At the beach, the fog was rolling in and it turned really cold.
As it was only 2pm we decided to drive to Hyannis. The fog was heavy here too and the beach was not all that exciting. We drove around for awhile but nothing really grabbed us so we headed back to the B & B.
The restaurant where we went for dinner had bird feeders outside the windows where we were sitting. We saw a cardinal, red winged black bird and several tiny black and white finch looking birds. And I didn't have my camera!

Wednesday 8 May, 2013

Leaving Boston today, we took the hotel shuttle to Harvard Square to catch the subway as we had to pick up the rental car at the airport...save driving in the crazy Boston traffic.
On the river there are several amazing looking houses. Believe it or not, these houses are the storage sheds for the sculls, (one, two, four and eight man) from the nearby universities. At any time of day you can see them up and down the river practicing. The river also has wonderful pathways on both sides, always busy with walkers, joggers and bicyclists. Boston is a very athletic city.
We headed for Cape Cod, only about an 1 1/2 hour drive but we stayed off the main highways and quite enjoyed the beautiful drive. Stopped at Plymouth to see where the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. Was disappointed at the size of the rock but even more so at the fact that the Pilgrims actually first landed at Provincetown near the tip of Cape Cod the month before and then went further to Plymouth. Fancy all those years ago, being told the wrong story! (Believe it or not the Pilgrims were trying to reach the Hudson area of New York.
Many different houses on Cape Cod on many tree lined streets. Very boring colours of houses, grey and white mostly, and cars are very bland too, mostly silver and black. We have only seen a handful of coloured cars.
We had lunch in a lovely restaurant in the town of Sandwich before heading to the tip of the Cape where we saw the monument to the Pilgrims (no climbing this one). Beaches are no comparison with ours.
We are staying at a really nice Bed and Breakfast in Brewster in the middle of the Cape.

Tuesday 7 May, 2013

Our room is so blacked out that we are having a hard time waking up before 8am, which is most unusual for us! My nose and cheeks are beet red due to the wind but today looks to be a glorious day. 16C when we headed out (previous days have barely had a high of 16C.)
We took the subway to the JFK Museum and Library. What an amazing place! We spent five and a half hours wandering through the museum...and me who dislikes museums..but I remember Kennedy so well that I really enjoyed the visit. They had short movies and snippets of different events. It was frightening to read how close we were to a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. They had replays of his acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention and his Inaugural speech when he was sworn in as president. It was the closest presidential election, Kennedy only winning by 115,000 votes and he didn't find out until the next morning. They had an area where Jackie told of her memories of the White House Days and displays of many of the gifts they had been given.
The library received a donation of a piece of the Berlin Wall and the first space capsule and these are on display. It also houses the largest American Flag, a gift from the architect of the building.

Monday 6 May 2013

We started today by walking to the memorial for those that were affected by the Boston Marathon bombings three weeks ago. They have used part of an open area very close to the actual sites. As you can imagine it was very moving. I have noticed quite a police presence in Cambridge but whether that is more or less than the day of the marathon I don't know.
We then hopped on the Old Time Trolley again and travelled through the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As old as Harvard, it is considered one of the top three schools in the US alongside Harvard and Yale and has 1750 teachers. Out of 18,000 applicants they took 1600. 89% are on some form of financial aid to pay the $42,000 yr tuition.
The trolley then headed down to the waterfront and we got off to have a look and happened to see a seagull who had a lucky catch! After having a look at the view from the waterfront and admiring the amazing architecture, we hopped on the trolley again and headed to Bunker Hill and decided to climb the 294 steps to the top...amazing view!!
The Bunker Hill battle was soon after the Boston Tea Party and involved the colonists fighting the British. Although the colonists lost the battle they suffered significantly fewer losses than the British. This gave them lots of confidence as the British were a very highly trained militia.

Sunday 5 May 2013

This morning we went into Boston and bought tickets for the Hop On, Hop Off, Old Town Trolley as a different way to see the sights. first stop was to try a restaurant we were told about and read about for breakfast! We got there about 10 and ordered at 11. The line inside was longer than the line outside! Paramount has a very interesting arrangement...wait in line, order, get your meal and sit down. You watch your food being cooked. I had Texas style whole grain French Toast with a bowl of fruit while Rob had the omelette of the day that included chorizo, cheese, salsa, avocado, capsicum and onion. Meals were delicious and worth the wait.
We then hopped back on the trolley and headed to the waterfront to find out more about the Boston Tea Party. The British were taxing the colonists for all sorts of things and they finally got fed up with being taxed but having no representation in Parliament in England. The tea was not allowed off the ships from England unless the tax was paid so a very large group of the people decided to dump the tea overboard. As the tide was very low, they also had to jump on the tea to ensure it was ruined and full of water. At the reenactment, they had staff in the uniform of the day and carried on dialogue that related the tale. We then went on board a replica of the ships to see how they lived (extremely cramped) and how the tea was stored. We then watched a movie about the fight at Lexington several weeks after the Tea dumping...the colonists actually waited until the "regulars" (British) fired so they couldn't be accused of starting the skirmish. The next show was done with holograms and had King George talking with Samuel Adams. Need to do some more reading to refresh my memory of all the happenings.
We then walked to Paul Revere's home and the Old Northern Church where the lanterns were hung to warn the colonist that the Regulars were coming by sea so that they were ready and surprised the Regulars.
Another walk and we reached the USS Constitution, one of the first six frigates to be built to defend the US. Known as Old Ironsides because the sides of the ship were made with three layers of different woods that were so strong the cannonballs either bounced off the side of the ship or stuck in the timber. Last year the ship was taken out to celebrate the 200th anniversary if the War of 1812.... It is still sea worthy!!!
We also learned the history of the term "scuttlebutt". On the ship there was a keg that had fresh water where the men could gather and chat about the day and it was called a scuttlebutt. Also "to whistle while you work" came about from when the boys on the ships had to get the food for the crewmen, they were told to whistle down to the mess and back so that it would be known if they ate any of the food as the whistling would stop!
Hope you enjoy the history lesson!
Today was also the "run for hunger walk" so many more people around.