Aug 19, 2009 - Salem, MA

Our second journey with the rental car was to the town of Salem, MA. Although known for the witch trials, we were interested in discovering more about Salem's life as one of the first major, prosperous, seaport towns. We started our explorations of the town with a stop at the visitor's center. To find the major historic landmarks, the tourist follows the red line, just like Robert is doing.

Below are a couple examples of the buildings.

We followed the red line to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, the first historic national park.

 

Sadly, the Friendship, a replica historic ship visitors can usually explore, was off in Maine for repairs. However, there were still many other things to see. Robert studied all of the exhibits carefully in an attempt to earn his Junior Ranger badge.

From walking around the Maritime museum, we could see evidence that Salem is still very much an active and bustling sea port. Here is a big barge off loading what appears to be coal.

We went off of the red line to find a place for lunch. The menu indicated that the resturant offered a lobster that they cleaned and cracked. Sold. Robert indicates a thumbs up for the lobster.

After lunch we wandered back to the Maritime museums for a couple of ranger tours of historic homes.
First was the Narbonne house, built in 1675 by a butcher. The ranger gave a very interesting description of middle class life during the time the house was originally built. She showed how the house had evolved over the centuries, with various additions and adaptations.

The second home she showed us was the much larger Derby house, build in 1762. The first picture is the outside of the Derby house. The second picture is a look at the kitchen.

Our last adventure in Salem was a tour of the House of the Seven Gables, inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne's book. Built in 1668, the house is the oldest surviving 17th century wooden mansion in New England.

Aug 18, 2009 - Gloucester, MA

While in Boston, we rented a car to see more of the surrounding countryside. Our first day we took the drive north to Gloucester, MA, one of America's oldest seaports. Click here for a history of Gloucester. It was also home to the Andrea Gail, the boat lost during "The Perfect Storm", which was partially filmed in Gloucester. It is also home to the first art colony.

Gloucester is still very much a working seaport and home to Gorton's fish.

An interesting boat on the hard next to the visitors' center.

The next two pictures are two sides of Rosie's Wharf, home to the Andrea Gail before it was lost at sea during the perfect storm

The view of Gloucester harbor from the art colony side

A cute house in the art colony

In the movie, "The Perfect Storm", the crew and friends gather in a harbor side pub called The Crow's Nest. This is a real place frequented by fishing people, but it is across the street from Rosie's Wharf and not on the wharf itself. For the movie, a wharfside, temporary Crow's Nest was constructed. The picture below is of the original, real Crow's Nest.

This familiar statue, "Man at the Wheel" was erected in a park on the Gloucester Harbor in 1926 to memorialize the thousands of Gloucester fishermen who never returned from the sea.

Team Finnegan in front of the Man at the Wheel

As part of the Fishermen's Memorial, there is a multi-panel plaque with the names of the 10,000 Gloucester men who have been lost at sea. Below is the entry from the men from the Andrea Gail.

The Glousester harbor lighthouse.

Aug 13-16, 2009 - First days in Boston, MA

On Aug 13, we awoke in Plymouth to very grey skies and inclement weather. It was a day to stay in port, not embark on a voyage to Boston. The marina in Plymouth had another reservation for our slip and were thus not prone to discuss extending our stay until conditions improved. We assessed our options....Robert had set up our route in the chart plotter. We had duplicated our route in our new little garmin. All systems were working well. It was not a great weather day, but it wasn't foggy. We decided we could safely make the run to Boston.

The trip from Plymouth to Boston took constant vigilance because of the thousands of lobster pots. We got pretty good at using simple terms. If I'd see a red lobster pot buoy on the left side we'd probably miss, I'd say, "Red, port, safe". If there was a lime green in our path, it was "Lime, straight ahead". If it remained in our path, I'd say, "Action to port or starboard" "Safe". There were times we were literally surrounded and Captain Robert would wend our way through.

We arrived at the Constitution Marina in Boston in excellent time. We knew we had almost arrived when we passed by the USS Constitution. The marina is across the Charles River in the suburb called Charlestown. The view was excellent.

We did some sightseeing in Boston by a trolley. I'll say up front that Boston is a beautiful city...clean with lovely buildings. When you visit NYC all you care about is seeing the tourist places seen in movies and on tv. When you visit Boston, you want to understand the history of the birth of our county. Here is the challenge...the historical sites are spread out over miles and are in random order so landmarks are not seen in chronological order. It is confusing and disorienting for the short time visitor.

Just in time, we found Ben Franklin in Faneuil Hall.
The old State House, where the Declaration of Independence was first read from the balcony.

This statue commemorates the black 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry led by white Bostonian Robert Shaw during the civil war. The movie, "Glory" was based on the story of this regiment. Click here for more information.
The new Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill.

Near Boston Common is a very old graveyard called The Granary. We wandered around and found some well known historic folks. Below is Samuel Adams.

A memorial to Alexander Hamilton

I'm hanging out with Paul Revere.

Inside Grand Fromage

Some of you have requested some pictures of the inside of Grand Fromage. Almost three years ago, my daughter, who is a professional photographer, took these shots. My daughter, Daria Bishop and her husband, Andy Bishop, have a wonderful website and a blog you will enjoy.

Entering Grand Fromage's salon from the aft of the boat. Our comfy couch. The table goes up and down electrically for use as either a coffee table or as a dining room table.
Across from the couch are two very comfortable chairs. The 50" flat screen TV comes out of a cabinet in front of the little red box to the right of the chairs.
The salon looking down from the galley.

The area up the steps from the salon has three functions: galley, helm station and dinette. This picture shows the dinette, a corner of the galley with the helm station behind.

Helm station where Captain Robert drives the boat if it is cold or rainy. To the right of the helm station are the steps going down to the staterooms.

The helm station, galley and tip of the dinette table from the steps going down.

The galley. The steps behind the dinette are going up to the flybridge.

The dinette and steps to flybridge. The flybridge is our favorite place to drive Grand Fromage. We have wonderful visability plus the outdoor experience.

This is the guest room or the VIP stateroom. There is a private bathroom with shower attached.

The master stateroom. The door on the right goes to the engine room.

A little more of the master stateroom plus a peek into the master bath.

The port stateroom. There is a bunk that comes down from the wall above the bed. There is a bathroom with shower next to the port stateroom

Thanks a huge bunch for these great pictures of Grand Fromage, Daria!!!!

Aug 9 - 13, 2009 - Plymouth, MA

We absolutely could not believe that we had actually made it to Plymouth, MA on Grand Fromage. Click here for the Wikipedia article on Plymouth, MA.

Plymouth is brimming with tourists, but there is a small town feel. It seemed like the perfect place to offload a scooter and do some exploring.

The keyboard on Robert's computer was behaving in a truly bizarre manner...randomly, it wouldn't type T, U, 3, or Q. I did many diagnostics and finally came up with the highly technical answer...."It's broke". So, first stop in Plymouth was out to Staples to buy a new keyboard and mouse for Robert's computer. How historical can you get???? Back on Grand Fromage, we successfully installed the new keyboard and mouse.

Since we were right next to the Mayflower replica, that was our first serious sightseeing venue. Click here for information on Mayflower 2, the replica, Here is the Wikipedia entry on the Mayflower.

Exploring Mayflower 2 was extremely interesting. There were people in period costumes who were acting out particular characters from the Mayflower in the time period of 1620. There were also docents who were not in period costumes and were not acting out a role. This second group interacted from the current perspective.

Conditions on board Mayflower were pretty unbelievable...at least from the perspective of two people who live very comfortably on a boat for six months a year. There were 102 passengers, plus crew. The passengers, except for rare occasions when invited to come up on the upper deck, spent the entire voyage in the dark lower deck. It was gross.

One of the period characters
Robert walking on the deck
Looking up

Second sightseeing stop was Plymouth Rock. To protect the rock from scavengers, over time a fancy portico has been erected around the rock. To me, it was pretty funny.
The rock

Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum, is a three mile ride out of town. It is divided into two parts, the Indian Wampanoag tribal settlement and a settler village representing life in 1627.

The first thing you see as you enter the Plimoth Plantation visitor center is this funny statue of The Mooflower. Being simple folk, we thought it was hilarious.

Our first day visit to Plimoth Plantation we went to the Indian settlement of the Wampanoag tribe. The docents in this area are members of either this tribe or of another native American nation. Although they wore native dress, they are not representing historical characters and speak as modern people.

The tribal members were extremely interesting and I gained some new perspectives.

On our second day in Plimoth Plantation, we went to the colonial village. In this area, the staff is in period costumes and each plays a character from 1627. It's a lot of fun and extremely interesting.

Robert is walking up to the wooden walls of the colonial village. On the other side of the wall is a two story building. The first floor served as the worship center. The second floor was the fort area, complete with canon.
The path going down to the village
The houses were all constructed in a similar manner, with thatch roofs.
Some of the period characters

We greatly enjoyed Plymouth. In all honesty, however, Mystic, CT was a step above in every way. Mystic Seaport was immaculately clean with exceptionally courteous and friendly staff. Every process, including the purchase of tickets and memberships was efficient. The folks at Plimoth Plantation were pleasant enough, but the processes weren't efficient. In the exhibit area, there were piles of stuff that didn't belong, especially in the tribal area. It didn't seem well maintained. The gardens were weedy. The administration of Mystic Seaport was definitely superior.