Cape Cod

After two weeks away, we are off by ourselves in Irv again....

We have SO enjoyed visiting with our various relatives and SO appreciative of their grace and hospitality. We left Rutland, and the wonderful historic home of Stacy's niece, Briar, and her family, and ventured south.

The gang...(L to R) Gus, Briar, Maya, Stacy, Jack and (front) Niko

Tonight we are camped just shy of Cape Cod, in Carver, Massachusetts. We are in a lovely campground,  bordered by cranberry bogs and forest.

The pond at our campground 

We ventured into Plymouth, Massachusetts today, where America began.  We are here at the very end of the "season", which makes it very uncrowded and...well...closed.  But we viewed Plymouth Rock...

Plymouth Rock...it used to be bigger

We went to the Pilgrim cemetery....

We visited the Plymouth Pilgrim Museum...

Tribute to Pilgrim women

And generally just wandered around Plymouth, soaking up the history and beauty.

The old Pilgrim church (sort of...it's the 5th church on this site)

Tomorrow....Cape Cod!!

Rutland, Massachusettes

Yep! Back on the East coast. (Keep UP, people!!)

After a great visit with Stacy's mom in California, we flew back to Boston on Thursday.

Friday we walked the Freedom Trail in Boston.  This is a walking trail designated by red brick (or sometimes red paint) that leads through 16 historic sites in Boston.  The weather was beautiful, and we walked, and walked.

We started at Boston Commons, and wound our way through the Old Custom House, the State Capital, a couple of churches, a few grave yards, Paul Revere's house, Old Ironsides, and finally, Bunker Hill.  The supposedly 2.5 mile walk took us all day, but we meandered, and lost the trail a few times. It was fun and interesting.

Graves dating back to the 1700's

At this point, he didn't even know about the beer!

The Old North Church "One if by land, two if by sea"

Saturday we took the advice of the man who sat next to us on our plane and  took the historic Boston Harbor cruise. We are so glad we did! Again, the weather was glorious and it was great to be on the water. The guide was really informative, and Boston from the water is really beautiful!

One thing we learned is that Boston Harbor has the world's largest waste treatment plant. It's how they have made the harbor clean and even swimmable. Another important thing we learned from our Boston cruise guide is that the world's second largest waste treatment plant is... Yankee Stadium. (This IS Boston, after all.)

Boston from the harbor

Then we drove back to Rutland, where Irv (our fifth wheel) has been staying. Thank you Briar and Gus!

Today we drove over to Northampton to visit Stacy's younger niece, Emma, who attends Smith College. We drove through fall forests, brilliant orange, yellow and red, and bright sunshine.  Emma toured us around Northampton, and the campus. She seems to be settling in and thriving there, and it was great to see her.

Then we took a long hike through the woods with Gus and little Maya.  We hiked this same trail almost 2 weeks ago and it has definitely "autumned up" here. The colors really are striking! And Maya collected all the flowers she could find.

Maya, accessorized 

Autumn comes to Rutland 

Tomorrow, we finally continue our trek...down towards Cape Cod and beyond!!!
Keep y'all posted!!!

Walnut Creek,CA

Still on our west coast family tour....today we are in Walnut Creek, CA, visiting Stacy's mom. The weather is beautiful, and it is so great to see Mom again.

Not a lot to report, but we will throw in a few "catch up" photos of our west coast tour...

Back in Portland for a couple of days...

Stacy's daughter, Evan, and our "grand-dog",  Charlotte in Seattle

Jack and Evan at the sports bar watching Seahawks. Evan is a BIG fan!

Jack, Henry and Lucy, eating ice cream

On our arrival in the Bay area, our close friend Bill Delaney and his two lovely daughters, Jessica and Jacqueline, came and met us for lunch. Bill's wife June had a business commitment and couldn't join us, but she was there in spirit.

Us with Jessica (L) and Jackie Delaney

Us with Bill

We will be flying back to Boston tomorrow, where we will reconnect with Irv on Saturday and continue our "To Look for America Tour" on Monday.....

Catching up...

We have been remiss in our blogging, and it's time to do a quick catch-up. I'll to apologize in advance because I am doing this on my iPad and don't have the photo file here. I'll add photos later...

Last Monday (9/16) we drove from Gloucester to Rutland, MA, about 40 miles west of  Boston.

On the way, we passed the Minuteman Memorial Park at Lexington, MA, where the American Revolutionary War basically began. The Visitors' Center was very impressive, and the multimedia presentation truly brought the colonial militia (the Minutemen) and the British soldiers to life right before our eyes. They traced the events leading up to "the shot heard around the world", and the skirmishes that led to the battle, and the war. It was very moving and sobering.

Stacy's niece, Briar, and her husband, Gus, and their two lovely children, Niko and Maya, moved to Rutland from San Diego a couple of years ago and seem to LOVE it! They graciously allowed us to park Irv in their driveway, and to park ourselves in their guest room. They live in a nearly 200-year-old house, situated on a acre backing up into the trees. (Note: This is woods, NOT the forest! The difference is the woods have a lot more trees... and BEARS! Per Niko, age 5)

We all went apple picking, took a long walk in the woods (no bears) and had a wonderful time. They even have chickens!!! (For Karen...) It was a great visit .

Wednesday we flew from Logan Airport in Boston to Portland. THAT is a long flight! Jack  had some business there, we wanted to see Henry, Little Lucy, and baby Hardy (oh and their parents of course) and check on our cat, Jack. Oh, and we each had (routine) doctors appointments.

Jack-the-Cat stayed at our house and is being looked after by our wonderful renters, the Hernandezes. We stopped by the house and could see where Jack eats and sleeps outside, but he did not grace us with an appearance. By all reports, though, he is doing well. We wish we had had the time to see more friends, but for some reason we only allowed ourselves one week in Portland to cover 3 "pods" of family members in 3 states.

On Friday, Stacy took the train up to Seattle to spend the weekend with Evan, her 25-year-old daughter. Jack stayed behind to attend our friend's son's wedding.

Stacy and Evan got pedicures, did some shopping, decorated Evan's new apartment a bit, took the dog to the lake, and just had girl time together.

Jack hung out with Thomas, Henry and Lucy....and will take the train up to Seattle today.

There! At least we are caught up...tomorrow we fly to the SF Bay Area to visit Stacy's mom for a couple days...then we fly " home" to Irv on Thursday. Our fifth wheel is truly feeling like home now.
More later...and PICTURES!

Gloucester and Salem, Massachusetts

Gloucester is a working fishing town, and is charming.  We arrived Saturday and went into town for, what else? Chowder!  

But we also took the time to wander around the harbor.  It was late afternoon and the fishing boats were coming in.  The breeze and the sunshine, and the smell of a working harbor town made it so wonderful just to be there. 

There is an interesting maritime museum, with a section funded by the Gorton Company.

Remember the Gorton Fisherman? ("Gorton's of Gloucester")  Well, the Gorton company has been in Gloucester since something like 1830.

 

Gloucester Harbor

Fishing Boats

We also took a drive down to a beautiful white sand beach called Wingaersheek Beach, on the Atlantic right at the mouth of the Annisqam River. There were folks swimming (well, two) but the water seemed a bit too cold for us.

To infinity and beyond....

The lighthouse  

Yesterday we drove over to Salem, Mass...yep, the site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Salem is a really nice town, and REALLY old.  On Salem Commons, now a park in the middle of town, is a stone monument erected in 1926 to celebrate Salem's TERCENTENARY. So the monument celebrating 300 years is nearly 100 years old!!

We HAD to go to the Salem Witch Museum. It was a little hokey, but very educational, with strong political and social overtones.

Salem Witch Museum

Along the waterfront is a replica of an old sailing ship, like the ones used in the "Triangle Trade" (West Indies, Europe, the Colonies) which was open for browsing.

And we toured through the House of the Seven Gables, of Nathaniel Hawthorne fame.  Although he was born and raised in Salem, he never lived in this house.  It was the home of a series of increasingly wealthy sea merchants, one of whom was Hawthorne's second cousin, who suggested using it as a title.  The house was restored in the early 1900's. But, interestingly, it was not restored to what it was originally...it was restored to reflect the house written about in Hawthorne's novel.  The woman spearheading the project felt that more people would visit if it reflected the well-known story...and she was trying to generate funds to finance a community center for Polish immigrants, held in the house.  Either way, it was a very historic place...being from the West coast, it sort of boggles our minds to be in homes built in the 1600's.

House of the Seven Gables

As we were walking back to our car, we passed a cemetery. As we entered, we realized that these graves had been here for 300+ years, including the Hathorne plot.  Nathaniel Hawthorne added the "w" as an adult, some say to distance himself  from Judge Hathorne, his great-great grandfather. The judge was part of the witch trials, and was known as "The Hanging Judge". 

Interesting places......

Gloucester and Salem, Massachusetts

Gloucester is a working fishing town, and is charming.  We arrived Saturday and went into town for -what else - Chowder!  

But we also took the time to wander around the harbor. It was late afternoon and the fishing boats were just coming in. The breeze, the sunshine, and the smell of a working harbor town made it so wonderful just to be there. 

There is an interesting maritime museum, with a section funded by the Gorton Company.

Remember the Gorton Fisherman? ("Gorton's of Gloucester")  Well, the Gorton company has been in Gloucester since something like 1830.

Gloucester Harbor

Fishing Boats

We also took a drive down to a beautiful white sand beach called Wingaersheek Beach, on the Atlantic, right at the mouth of the Annisqam River. There were folks swimming (well, two) but the water seemed a bit too cold for us.

To infinity and beyond....

The lighthouse...waaay out in the distance

Yesterday we drove over to Salem, Mass. Yep, site of the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Salem is a very nice town, and REALLY old.  On Salem Commons, now a park in the middle of town, is a stone monument erected in 1926 to celebrate Salem's TERCENTENARY. So the monument celebrating 300 years is nearly 100 years old!!

We HAD to go to the Salem Witch Museum. It was a little hokey, but very educational, with strong political and social overtones.

Salem Witch Museum

Along the Salem waterfront is a replica of an old sailing ship, like the ones used in the "Triangle Trade" (West Indies-Europe-the Colonies) which was open for browsing.

We toured through the House of the Seven Gables, of Nathaniel Hawthorne fame.  Although he was born and raised in Salem, he never lived in this house. It was actually the home of a series of increasingly wealthy sea merchants, one of whom was Hawthorne's second cousin who suggested using it as a title.

The house was restored in the early 1900's. But, interestingly, it was not restored to what it was originally...it was restored to reflect the house written about in Hawthorne's novel. The woman spearheading the project was trying to generate funds to finance a community center for Polish immigrants, held in the house. And she felt that more people would visit if it reflected the well-known story. Still, it was a very historic place. Being from the West coast, it sort of boggles our minds to be in homes built in the 1600's.

House of the Seven Gables

As we were walking back to our car, we passed a cemetery. As we entered, we realized that these graves had been here for 300+ years, including the "Hathorne" plot. Nathaniel Hawthorne added the "w" as an adult, some say to distance himself  from Judge Hathorne, his great-great grandfather. The judge was part of the witch trials, and was known as "The Hanging Judge". 

Interesting places.

Due to circumstances beyond our control.....

It's been a few days since we last posted...I know you have all been HUNGERING for more from the Ramsey's, but there was the lightning storm that knocked things out, then the floods, then the failure at the email server...but we're BA-A-A-ACK!!!

On Thursday, we found out why Bar Harbor is called Bar Harbor.  Twice a day at low tide for about 4 hours, a gravel land bridge - a "bar" - rises between Desert Island (where Bar Harbor is located) and Bar Island, about 1/2 mile away.  We checked the tide tables and walked out to the island.  It was pretty cool to think that where we were walking had been covered in several feet of water just hours before.

Then we took off on the Loop Road, which skirts the island, Cadillac Mountain, and the Acadia National Park.  Parts of the road run along the coast, with rugged cliffs, and sand beaches. It was really pretty, and reminded us of parts of the Oregon coast... except the ocean was on the wrong side.

We found a river-side outdoor lobster pound (as they are called here) so Jack could have lob-stah one more time, and I had a bucket of steamers.

the lobster pound at Trenton Bridge

There are lobsters in those pots

On Friday, we drove south to Biddeford, Maine (about 15 miles south of Portland, Maine) in an unending, blinding rain storm. NOT a pleasant drive. We had hoped to get a photo of Portland, but by the time we got there, we just wanted to get settled somewhere out of the downpour. 

Our campsite was on a farm, replete with llamas and chickens, horses and geese. It was on the Saco River, which was an angry, churning morass when we got there. The next morning, it was a lovely, gleaming river, and the farm was sparkling clean. Irv, our faithful 5th wheel, came through it all beautifully.  Jeremy, the llama, was so happy to see sunshine he took a dust bath.

Our campground when we arrived....

the next morning. Beautiful!

Interesting thing about the truck plazas along the Maine Turnpike....they all have live lobster tanks. 

The lobsters at the truck plaza

Saturday, we drove further south to Gloucester, Massachusetts. We are staying in a really old (founded 1946) campground, above a beautiful salt water marsh. The tidal swings are dramatic! When we got here, the fishing boats were laying on their sides in the mud. By sunset, they were floating quite nicely in several feet of water.