USA Trip Report Part Two: New England Coast

What I really should be doing:
Cooking dinner
Finishing my travel journal
Folding washing
etc

But I have started this and feel the need to do more.

Right so as I said we got our car, a Chevrolet HRR , which shall herein be known as The Red Box, or TRB for short. And JAMMED our stuff in it. I'd forgotten any provison for maps so we were going off printed directions from Google Maps, which actually worked pretty good unless we wanted to deviate at all. We headed out of the city and into Connecticutt, we wanted to stop for lunch somewhere and there were lovely rivers and bays all over the place. Eventually we headed off the freeway and tried to follow our nose to some kind of picturesque waterway to lunch by. We ended up by a dumpy park in a dumpy suburb in I-have-no-idea-where. We ate and ran back to TRB. We got to Mystic Seaport (click on this pic to get it bigger, it's funny!)

in time to spend a couple of hours there. The family set off to look at boats and boat stuff,

And more boats and more boat stuff

I was boat and boat stuffed out in about, oh 10 minutes, so I sat and sketched the interesting houses across the river.

We had 3ish hours there which was plenty of time for me, but not nearly enough for my boat loving husband. We headed to the motel in Narragansett, Rhode Island for the next two nights, which turned out to be a tiny room with 2 queen beds and absolutely nowhere for the 5th person, let alone 5 suitcases. So we found another motel, which was much bigger with more room facilities for $10/night more. Here is Mia doing her travel journal that evening in the room.

It turned out that the location, while pretty, was miles from anywhere and not at all convenient. Oh well.

Next day Richard and Jordan, who did not feel sufficiently boated out went back to Mystic Seaport for more torture. The short folks and I were collected by Connors penfriend and his Mom and taken to Newport to wander past the mansions, and around a lovely ocean drive, then back to their home where the boys played happily. I took the camera, without a battery, so I'm without photos. You'll have to trust me, we had a lovely day. That evening we went for a wander on the beach then drove to the local lighthouse. The really fascinating thing about this beach for me was that it was a "state beach" which means the public have access to it. They have private beaches in the US, all fenced off, where you have to pay or be a member or own it to be there. I'm rather keen on our public beaches in Aussie and NZ.

Next day we jumped in the car, drove via the mansions and ocean drive again for Richard and Jordan to gawp and then on to Plymouth to visit Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower.

The Plantation was really interesting and it was a good way to finish our US history unit. There is a Wampanoag Village and a Pilgrim Village. This lovely woman in the Wampanoag village was so helpful and interesting. We learnt a lot about the way the Wampanoag had lived.

The pilgrim village was also fascinating, and a bit of a giggle as the people there were in Character from the 1700s. We lucked in to homeschoolers day, so I got a ton of information (and cheaper prices, yay!!) which I have yet to look at, but I'll get to it soon as it looks really good.

In stark contrast to the last accommodation that I'd booked the one in Plymouth was charming. If you are a large hotel person it's probably not for you, but The Blue Anchor Motel is the cutest Mom and Pop motel you ever did see. The people running it were absolutely lovely, it was only 4 rooms and so central to Plymouth. It was two bedrooms with a fridge and microwave and terrace with a table and chairs, just lovely. And as a bonus I wasn't expecting, wi-fi. Richard and I were sitting outside on a lovely evening with a wine/beer and pondering life, and wondered what on earth the children were doing as they were quiet rather than squabbling for the first time in FOR EVAH, went in and they had found board games on shelves and were busy playing them. There were books too. Here's the main room:

The next morning we got up and packed up TRB and headed for Andrea and Garys. But that's for the third installment. And I'm going to go do the other stuff that needs doing first. So you'll have to wait until tomorrow.