Day 17

We took our time packing this morning as Grammie was meeting her cottage owner before we left. The tents were pretty messy from the rain so we waited to take showers until after they were all packed up.

Once our site was clean, Brayden, Laney, and I headed up to the park's visitor's center to see if they had anything fun to do. We walked around learning all about the Native Americans that had given over this land, the WWII boats and submarines that sank here, and the animals in the area. We taught Grammie and Ryan everything we knew once they met up with us.

It felt a little strange to be leaving after we'd settled there for such a long time as stops more than 2 days are a long for us! We headed toward our Plymouth Plantation next to learn about life in the 17th century.

Our first stop was the Wampanoag village where we learned how they were building one of their homes. We sat for a little while inside this winter house asking questions to one of the tribe members about their life, home, and culture.










Next up was the craft house where they were making Native American headpieces, creating pottery, weaving towels on a loom, making candles, and making bread.  The headpieces were just beautiful made from deer tail and porcupine fur dyed with plants and roots.

In our travels and home school co-op field trips, the kids had done all these activities themselves so they were excited to see them and remind me how they all worked. The bread smelled so good I tried to reserve a loaf for when we could be back by to pick it up, but it wasn't permitted. So we headed on toward the 17th century!

Our first stop in the English village was the town meeting house with a wonderful view of the village. This building was situated at one end of the village and had quite a few cannons upstairs.  The kids recognized the buildings from several books we'd read this year about the life of different children in the 17th century.

Plymouth Plantation was different than anything we'd been to before in that the people who were dressed in 17th century clothing did not break character. They were basically stuck living the same day in 1627, but were fascinating to listen to. We asked them all kinds of questions and were left with so much information!

 


Laney was asked to help this lady grind some mustard seed. She had a few children and spoke to us about the journey from Holland and a little about their life.

  

We learned about some local native american customs from this gentleman as he ate some lobster.  I even met William Bradford at one point and didn't even realize it! He asked us if we were going to consider settling there and two kids shook their heads adamantly. The other just stood there smiling like she would get dressed and wave goodbye without a thought!

At the last house we were greeted by a 21st century interpreter who had the girls water her garden and spoke to us about life in the 1620s. The girls thought it was funny they watering can had holes in the bottom instead of a spout!

    

Next we drove to the town of Plymouth where the actual settlement had been and toured the Mayflower II. We were greeted by the captain who told us a typical 10-year-old crew member aboard the ship would sit at the very top of the mast and scan the horizon to report sightings of ships. We learned what different decisions the captain would make should it be a pirate ship, British Navy, or another country's military. Surprisingly, he was most concerned about a British Navy ship and would even lower the British flag so as not to be identified.




I had expected this giant ship to be able to house 102 passengers plus crew but it really was not that large at all. The pilgrims had an area about the size of a large living room to live in for the 66 days they were sailing. Laney felt right at home!




Then we walked down to the site of Plymouth Rock. We'd read some really great books this year about the rock so the kids just smiled at me when the guide told us of the rock not always being revered as a treasured monument.  There we all are!

 

Before we left we had to cool off with a snack at the local ice cream scoop. Brayden had some kind of chocolate madness, Laney had some kind of caramel madness, and Ryan had Green Monster. Delicious!

  

By the time we got Grammie checked in and our site set up in Rhode Island, we were starving so we hit a local seafood place that was definitely a popular local spot. I've gotten the kids back into the routine of trying more local food instead of opting for the grilled cheese or pizza on the menu, so at least they had fish and chips tonight!

Day 16

We started this day by meeting at the train station with just a little bit planned.  Little did we know we would be mentally and physcially exhausted by the time we got home!

We hopped on the 9am train headed for the Boston Museum of Science anticipating a couple hours learning and playing and a late lunch. We didn't plan anything for the afternoon as we thought we would probably just fill in with something on the list we hadn't gotten to or perhaps do a little shopping.

After a short walk by one of Boston's many enormous hospitals, we walked into the science center and all our chins dropped. This was a 3-story monster of a building. We hit the ground running starting off at the green exhibit on wind farms and nano  technology. Laney is 1.4 billion nanometers tall and Ryan come in at just under 1.33 billion nanometers tall. That girl has got some growing to do!

                                     
There was a small space section in the museum so the girls played in an orbiter which they said was very uncomfortable!  I guess space travel can be a little difficult!

           

Ryan and I headed to the dinosaurs next where we learned a bunch about Triceratops fossils and models. This was one of their back feet!

They had tons of cool fossils all around the walls too!

After a short crawl through the sewer complete with rats, garbage and painted turtles, we headed to try to engineer a hydroelectric dam for a community.  It was way more difficult than it looked to make the community, the fish, and the kayakers happy!

  


We headed to the collections room which made Ryan ecstatic next. She is most absolutely our collector of all things. This section was an amazing collection of things in nature and we had so much fun looking through everything. Unfortunately, Ryan got a bunch of new ideas of things to collect! We all had a blast playing a game similar to Guess Who with shells.

Next up was a physics area where the kids learned about all kinds of forces, motion, and speed. I bet Ryan and Brayden raced a clock for at least 20 minutes while Laney zipped around trying all the activities. Ryan loved spinning until she was beyond dizzy.

While we were looking at some optical illusions, Brayden spotted an animation talk coming up so we sat down and enjoyed a fun, historical look at animation with a little bit of illusion thrown in. Laney even volunteered for a super neat demonstration with animated lights.  The final moment we all enjoyed was when two volunteers from the audience were able to animate the Van Gogh "Starry Night" painting using their bodies and an xbox.






After walking around about another 20 minutes, we sat down for another fun demonstration the girls spotted on lightning. The enormous room had two Van De Graaf machines that were at least 3 stories high. The educator taught us all about electricity, lightning, and lightning safety.  We all covered our ears as she demonstrated an awesome electrical display.

   

The tesla coils were the kids' favorite as they recognized the Super Mario song they heard the coils play. It was deafeningly loud, but so fun to watch.

                       

After another 30 minutes spent playing with electricity, probability, angles, and calculus concepts, I finally talked the kids into heading to the gift shop. We finally walked out of the museum just before 5pm with tired feet and heads full of science. And we still didn't get to see everything!

As we said goodbye to Boston from the train, the kids decided on returning to our breakfast place from the day before for dinner. I am pretty sure they were counting on delicious desserts after their delicious breakfast and they were right! Lots of sugar and ice cream for all the little people.  I honestly don't know how they sleep after all that, but today I think it might have been sheer exhaustion.

Day 13

The majority of the night was filled with sprinkling rain so I wasn't quite sure when we'd be able to make it out without getting muddy and soaked. When I first woke up the air was still so I checked the weather only to find out the rain would be returning in 40 minutes. I quickly got everyone up and we raced the 300 yards (I didin't do to well with this reservation!) to the bathroom and back to start packing. We had an assembly line of packing going with everyone pitching in to try to keep everything somewhat dry, especially us! The kids have gotten used to the routine of packing by now and knew exactly when to step in and take on a job that needed to be done. As I was putting the key into the roof cargo box, the sprinkles started - such perfect timing.

The kids were starving so I dug through the laundry bag for clothes and we headed out. We were trying to find a quick breakfast place, preferably local, but once Ryan saw the Cracker Barrel they all *had* to eat there. At least it would be filling for our busy day ahead and I could beat the kids in checkers.

We were finally on the road to meet Grammie! We'd agreed to meet at the station around 9:30 in hopes to grab a train in and explore. We arrived at the station around 9:35 with only 2 other cars in the parking lot. I'd talked to Grammie so we knew she was on the way so I got my backpack ready and we headed to the platform. Brayden noticed the train was coming in 8 minutes so we were timing this perfectly again. I checked the Sunday schedule and it looked like the next train wasn't coming until almost noon.

We waited and waited for Grammie rooting for her to make it. Brayden was stressing us all by loudly announcing the countdown as each minutes ticked off the board. 4 minutes. 3 minutes. C'mon Grammie. The kids squealed as a truck pulled into the parking lot. Not Grammie. I started to figure out what we could do to fill the 2 hours before the next train. 2 minutes. C'mon Grammie. 1 minute. Brayden screams he can see the light of the train coming. Racing through the parking lot, of course, in her little Jeep rental here she comes.

We are all violently waving her over trying to explain we need to go. I see her shake her head and say there's no way she can get ready fast enough. Ryan is jumping up and down and the other two are trying to grab her to go. As the train pulls up to the platform I turn around and see her half in the car pulling out things she'll need for the day. The ticket guy comes out calling for those who want to go to Boston. He sees me and I motion back for Grammie to hurry. He's getting impatient trying to keep the train on schedule. Finally, we all climb on board and collapse in our seats. Grammie looks at me with the "what just happened?" face and we explain the craziness of the last 10 very stressful minutes.

Once we recover and realize we're good, we give hugs all around and sigh relaxing that we're together. We figure out parking and the ticket guy ends up helping us so much explaining tickets, giving advice, and offering stories of the city. We silently hope that at least most of the people we come in contact with will be that kind.

Once we get to the main station, we start walking to find the main attraction of the day, the hop on/hop off tour of the city. We figured this would be a good, quick exposure to the things we wanted to see and would also hopefully help us get our bearings. The tour guide we ended up with was great keep us all laughing and filling us with great stories of history and culture.

Once we reached the end of the tour, we ended up at The Chart House on Boston Wharf for lunch, once John Hancock's Counting House. While we savored the delicious food, we decided to try the subway to give Brayden an opportunity to see Fenway Park while we were there. After much confusion about tickets, we finally made it to our platform to take us there!

Unfortunately there was some construction so the Fenway stop was closed. We were completely confused about what to do so we just followed the masses and got on the bus. Within 2 blocks, Brayden and I looked up and saw the huge stadium right outside our window. Had we known we could have just walked! We figured out the bus was taking us to the next station so once we got off we walked the five blocks back to Fenway and walked around a little bit. Brayden batted his eyes at me when he saw a $200 jersey, but quickly figured out that wasn't going to happen.

              

Earlier we had decided to try to catch the early 5:00 train back to our cars as the next one wasn't until after 8:00 which would have us setting up in the dark. We navigated the subway back to the main station and made it there with plenty of time for an ice cream snack. It was regular soft serve that the kids enjoyed, but they have definitely been spoiled by all the flavor choices on our trips!

We checked in at the campground and set up quickly. The park was beautiful, nestled in a state forest in the middle of a small suburb of Boston. We usually spend quite a bit of time at the park with rangers and exploring the trails and visitor centers, but with our time focused in Boston I didn't think we'd be able to see much at this park.

After we grabbed a quick dinner for the kids and wifi for me, Laney, Brayden, and I made a quick stop at Whole Foods for some fruit. Ryan would be spending the next 4 nights with Grammie and we were all jealous of her soft bed and dry roof! I was pretty thrilled to have a tent to myself, though, as I spread out my sleeping mat - diagonally across the tent!

Day 12

Apparently I jinxed myself with the complaining the day before about the adult scouts being loud. Granted it was Friday and we were camping pretty close to New York, but our site was in the middle of at least 8 families that knew each other and were ready to hang out around the fire and chat it up all night. Lucky for us, the campsite directly next to us was where all 30 of them wanted to gather. We read 4 extra chapters of the book just because I knew the kids (nor I!) would be able to sleep with the amount of noise that was happening. Yep, these people were not low talkers.

I finally sent the girls to their tent at 9:30 in hopes the group would abide by the quiet hours beginning at 10pm. That was the point when they pulled out the karoake machine. The girl thought it was awesome! I could hear them giggling in the tent as I sighed heavily to the start of each new song. While Brayden read on his Kindle, I lay there listening to fabulous top 40 hits of the last few years.

For a policy that is "strictly enforced" according to the check in papers, this one took some time. The first visit of a ranger was a simple driveby at 10:01pm. Neighbors started visiting asking for them to at least stop their kids from running around in the dark screaming. By 10:20 they were getting enough visits they decided to turn off the karaoke machine, but they had to spend 15 more minutes finishing their conversations and saying goodbye. The ranger then threatened to kick them out and we were surrounded by the silence of the woods. I think I fell asleep in 12 seconds.

The kids have gotten in the routine of getting on the road early, so by the time I'd showered and gotten a car breakfast ready the kids had everything packed and ready to put in the car. We were on the road by 7 and ready to make it to our first stop. We were getting to the good part of our latest audiobook, The Island of Dr. Libris, so the kids opted to listen to it the whole way.

Having just studied the colonial time period for history in the fall, I knew our next stop would be a perfect learning experience. We stopped at Old Sturbridge Village for a few hours to see a little of what it would be like to live in a colonial village in the 1830s. This is definitely Laney's thing. Our first stop was French and English tug of war. The English won!

       


Next Laney wanted to take a carriage ride around the pond, so we were able to check out much of the area led by the beautiful, one ton horses, Jim & Jerry.


  

Next we visited the bank, tin shop, yarn dying area, and one of the typical homes of the time.

   

        


Ninteenth century baseball was next. They played with an ax handle and rules were a little different - base running clockwise for example - but the kids had a blast.

                    


Then we walked up to the school house where the kids tried a few games. They all enjoyed sitting at the desks the kids used comparing it to their school which takes place all over the place!  Ryan was surprised to read about how all the kids from kindergarten through early high school age sat in one room until she realized that's exactly what we do too, especially at homeschool co-op!

                           

Next up was the pottery house and the carding mill where they processed wool into batting or strips for spinning into yarn.

   

   
After visiting the farm, we came back to the common to enjoy the toy balloon flight demonstration. The kids love hearing stories about what kids their age used to do and this was exactly what some curious boys used to do when they were interested in science and figuring out how things work.

       

After lunch we saved their favorite part for last where kids could experience more hands-on opportunities for play. We waited until it was hot to visit this part of the village before we left.

       

After we made it through some traffic, we found another science museum I knew the kids would love. It was part nature and part hands-on science with an exhibit on immature activites for kids - perfect! Our first stop though was a very cool exhibit on ipads showing normal every day things magnified millions of times.  Some things, like dust mites, we didn't really want to see but others like fingerprints, orange peels, and pencil lead looked very cool. Dave, Brayden, and I had seen an IMAX very similar to this somewhere and this was a fun refresher!

  

























Next up was definitely all the imature stuff. After playing in the mirrors and experiencing winds of a hurricane, we learned how to fold rings out of dollar bills, make boomerangs, flip spoons into cups, catch things off elbows, fold footballs, flip cards, and all the kids favorite - pull tablecoths out from under dishes! We must have spent 2 hours in this section. It was so much fun!

                       


Once we'd had enough we went outside to play with the bubbles until they closed shortly after. Like water, bubbles are usually an instant mood changer.

                                                 


We all left with big smiles on our faces and headed to our campground. Unless we were going into Boston naked, we absolutely needed to get some laundry done so once the kids finished dinner we headed back into town. Grammie had made it into Boston so we were texting trying to make plans for the next day. We decided to meet at the train station and go into town to get our feet wet in the city.

We were all pretty exhausted from the night before and our full day, so once we got back to our site I left the laundry unfolded in the bag and we all crashed.