Hello from glamorous Paul Revere's house! On Monday we flew off to the east coast for Monica's choir tour and some sight seeing. We had a super fun time visiting many places, and really wore ourselves out each day! We'd often get back to the hotel and everyone would get ready for bed and go to sleep, adults included. Everyone was typically out by 9, which is 8 Texas time, which is close to normal for the kids, but a bit on the early side for Monica and me! One of our stops on the way was to see some of the freedom trail, and specifically we saw Paul Revere's house! Grayson was pretty thrilled by this, because he likes a Pete the Cat book where they go on a road trip around the country, and they stop here as well.
We ended up not taking a direct flight, but stopping in Baltimore on our way. Naturally that means we had to get ice cream! I think we've gotten ice cream every time we've had a layover. Granted, I only remember 2 layovers and 2 ice cream trips, the last one being when we missed our flight to Minnesota and got put on another flight through Chicago later in the day. Anyway, the ice cream was a good preparation for things to come as a heat wave was brewing all along our planned route.
The kids were really good on the flights. Obviously tablets help, but Grayson even had a lot of fun playing with Monica's neck pillow. I'm glad they do well flying.
We first flew into Providence to visit Rhode Island. While there we went down Belleview Boulevard in Newport where there are a lot of historic mansions. We got out and saw The Breakers.
We didn't go in, but instead enjoyed the grounds and walked along a trail that goes along the top of the cliff over the ocean. The grounds were very pretty and there were a lot of gardens around. It was also pretty warm per the aforementioned heat wave, however it seems Texas has helped us get used to "unbearable" heat, as the heat and humidity was manageable throughout our trip. I would have gladly taken cooler weather, but it seems I've adapted to hot and humid at least somewhat.
After our walk along the ocean side cliffs, we grabbed some lunch, and then went to a beach. There's no letting Monica get this close to the ocean and NOT going to the beach! The kids had a ton of fun playing. The girls were out in the ocean jumping over the waves as they came in.
Grayson was playing all kinds of games, crawling around on the ground, building sand castles, running, etc. We all had a great time at the beach.
But the beach can be tiring!! We had an hour or two drive from the beach to our hotel, and that was too much stationary time to not fall asleep.
That night I headed to the Boston temple. It was only 15 or 20 minutes away, and I headed while the kids were getting ready for bed.
The next day we went down to Plymouth (also Plimoth, one of the things I read said that the current spelling of Plymouth was the "most used" spelling in the original writings from the time, but even in the one document it was spelled different ways!). In Plymouth we went to the Plimoth Patuxet museum which showed what things were like in the area when the pilgrims came. There was a burned out log canoe. We're all sitting in it together, but we're very much just on one end. It was very long and could have held 15-20 people I think they said. It was made recently, but using the same technique of burning out the middle that they used to use.
There were various other exhibits, and we finished up in a 17th century village which was a lot of fun. They had several houses to go in and see what things were like, with furniture and tools and all of that.
There were even people there acting the part of 17th century villagers. This lady invited us to come with her to go get some water from the spring nearby. Brooke even helped carry the buckets for a little.
When we got back, we helped her water the garden, and then she talked to us about what life was like a little and asked the kids if they wanted to play a game. She taught us how to play 3 men's morris, which they're playing in the dirt here.
There was even a house where you could dress up and set up a dinner, etc. Grayson and I actually missed this house because he wanted to go back to the car, but I'm glad the girls stuck around because they had a lot of fun here.
As part of the package we also had admission to check out a grist mill and the Mayflower. So when we finished poking around the village, we had lunch (I got a peascod, which was a more time accurate hand pie), and then headed to the grist mill. The river that ran the mill also had a bridge next to the parking lot, so we had to go for Grayson. We saw a turtle swimming around in the water which was pretty fun.
There was also this picture place so the kids would be fish!
The grist mill still operates. A grist mill is a mill that specifically grinds corn. They only run the mill on Saturdays though, so we didn't get to see it in action, but Grayson got to try to lift the millstone.
On the lower level of the mill they had a little water wheel with different tracks you could pour water in to experiment with. Grayson had a lot of fun pouring the water. There was another experiment with pulleys to show how they make things easier to lift, etc. Just some stuff to show how the mill works.
Outside we got to be corns, and they also had a few different versions of hand operated mills, like a mortal and pestle, a mini stone mill, and a modern hand cranked metal grist mill.
From the mill we walked down to the Mayflower. It was about a half mile, and it was pretty hot out, but we all made it. The Mayflower (technically 2) was really cool to see. It was crazy to go below and think of 100ish people all down there for 2-3 months. I could only stand up straight in select areas. It would have been rough down there, and the little windows didn't let in much breeze. It definitely would have been a long hard journey to get across the ocean.
We also had to check out a Myles Standish memorial, as he is my home boy, and I am his direct descendant! The best, most honoring thing that Monica and I were able to find was this statue of his legs! Where is the rest of him? I don't know. Possibly it's only ever been his legs. What we didn't know until we pulled up was that this is pretty much just in someone's front yard...
The next day we went into downtown Boston and walked the freedom trail! It happened to run right by where we parked, and while we were trying to walk to some sights we were walking along it without even knowing it. They have a brick line in the sidewalk to show the path so it's easier to follow. We first walked past Paul Revere's house as shown above, and then headed to the Old North church where the lanterns were held up. On our way we came across this statue of Paul Revere on his ride, and did a pretty accurate recreation.
In this little park there were pigeons, and Grayson ALWYAS wants to capture a bird. He chases pigeons, he chases seagulls at the beach. He just really wants to catch a bird, and when we told him we needed to move on before he had one in hand he was pretty upset.
But we needed to get to the Old North church! The church had a scavenger hunt for kids with clues marked by a cat, so Grayson was instantly interested. It was fun to read some of the history and we walked through, and we were able to find all of the scavenger hunt items and the kids all got a sticker of the cat.
We slightly detoured from the freedom trail to go on the cannoli trail and stopped at Mike's Pastries.
Back along the trail we stopped at a bench to eat our cannoli. There were some fountains you could play in right by us, and everyone went through after to get clean again. I had a picture and video from the fountain, but someone sent their kids to pee in the fountains, so half way through a half naked boy walks in... so I don't think I'll post that.
Continuing along the trail we arrived at Quincy Market and headed in to get some lunch.
Grayson got a muffin, which he was happy to share with the birds outside. If only they'd just get a little closer...
When we got back to the hotel that night I took the kids swimming. They always love a good hotel pool.
The next day we packed up in the car and headed to Palmyra. We headed straight for the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith's family house. Here we are outside the original Smith family home. There were 2 homes and a barn there that we got to tour, and hear about some of Joseph Smith's family life.
Afterwards we headed into the Sacred Grove and walked around for a while. It was so pretty and everyone had a really great time.
Afterwards we went to the Grandin building, which is the original place the Book of Mormon was printed.
It was a museum where they taught us how books were made back in the 1800's. It was pretty cool to see all the different things they had to do. They also had these letters on display. These letters were found between the floorboards when the building was renovated, and are believed to have been original letters that were used in the first printing of the Book of Mormon. There are a lot of m's in there.
That night, in a new hotel, Grayson's sleeping mat was moved from the room Monica and I were in to next to the couch bed the girls were on. The temptation was too strong and he ended up in the bed with everyone else! This is apparently the time I'll remember to mention that Monica had a few video shoots in the morning while were were out here, and this morning was one of them. So for us that meant getting to relax in the hotel and have a slower breakfast in the morning.
Once Monica was back the plan was to go to the Palmyra temple. While I was in the temple, Monica and the kids went to pick up lunch and had a picnic. While Monica was in the temple, I took the kids to a park to play. The kids really like playing pirates at playgrounds. Each structure is a boat and we run to a boat and then the lookout watches for the pirates to come again. Whenever the pirates are spotted we all run to the next boat, and so on, and so forth. We had a pretty good time for a while, and then I became a sea monster and the kids could only stop me with their leaves they found on the ground.
And speaking of those pirate attacks, we never ended up relying on the available artillery, which was probably a missed opportunity.
Here we all are outside of the Palmyra temple when we went back to pick Monica up!
That evening Monica had an outdoor concert, and during all the preparations I took the kids back to the hotel for a swim. When we came to watch we brought a picnic dinner and enjoyed the start of the show.
I say we enjoyed the start because then it started to rain! We had our beach blanket, and I don't think water goes through, so I tried to get everyone under it to wait out the storm, but that was not good enough and there was a little bit of freaking out by the kids, so we headed for the car. It seemed like the concert was over, but then the rain only lasted for like 5 or 10 minutes, and was over before everyone could even get into cars/the church building that was right there, so the choir turned around and headed back out.
The audio equipment either got ruined or unplugged in the rain, so on the restart they invited everyone to circle around the choir. I was able to coax the kids out of the car and we got to hear the rest of the concert. It was getting decently dark out at this point with the cloud cover and getting later at night, so the concert was cut short and they only sang some of their prepared songs, but it was still great.
Afterwards we were able to find Monica, who was even more wet than we were! She did amazing, and it's always fun to get to hear her sing!
The next day was Sunday, and we headed back to that same stake center for church. When we got there, there were 4 tour busses in the parking lot from some youth trip that was in the area. The building was packed, and we were lucky to get seats in the back of the gym! It was pretty cool to see so many people all together for Sacrament meeting though.
After church, we went to the Hill Cumorah. In the visitor center we watched the Book of Mormon video about Moroni with the plates, and it was AMAZING! It was pretty impactful to think of him wandering for so long carrying so much weight with him the whole way. Then we got to go walk on the hill, and it was very pretty. It was a fun hike up to the top.
At the top there was this cool statue of Moroni. When we were there, the wind was blowing the clouds just such that if you stood looking up at it, it looked like the statue was falling over on you! Anyway, we all had a good time hiking the paths and enjoying nature, and I had a good time contemplating Moroni's challenges and trials he went through to get the Book of Mormon to us.
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