One thing we didn't realize was how large the island of Martha's Vineyard is. We had planned on taking the bus around to different villages during the day, but because of the size of the island and the number of transfers between buses that we would have to do, we became discouraged realizing we wouldn't have time to visit everything we wanted to see. We decided to prioritize the things that were most interesting to us - unfortunately, the top destination we wanted to see was at the far end of the island. We made the trek and are glad we did as it was beautiful. Here we are overlooking Aquinnah Cliffs. The cliffs are made of clay and the site is a center of the Native American Wampanoag tribe culture.
Overlooking the cliffs and helping to protect ships in the area is the Gay Head Lighthouse. The island community actually moved the lighthouse inland about 129 feet in 2015, and they had a very interesting exhibit inside describing the process. They had to move it because erosion along the cliffs threatened to send the lighthouse tumbling into the ocean in the forseeable future, but now geologists think it is safe for at least another 150 years. Here are the girls inside the lighthouse.
And here we are waving down to Tanja from the lighthouse.
Some more nice pictures of us with the cliffs in the background.
We took a walk along a path to get to the Aquinnah beach to make sure we could splash and play before it was time to get back on the buses and make our way back to the ferry for our return trip to our hotel on the mainland of Cape Cod.
Derek was (and continues to be) fascinated with his belly button.
The next day, we drove to Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum and cultural center showcasing the original 1620's settlement at Plymouth Colony and all of their hardships. We learned about the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower ship in 1620 and the native people who already lived there. The Pilgrims were English puritans who were a group of English Reformed Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices.
The plantation is divided into different sections. The first section is the Wampanoag Homesite where Native American individuals from the Wampanoag and other tribes are dressed in historically accurate clothing amid a historically accurate recreated homesite. Derek was pretty tired, but he really loved this soft deerskin, and he spent a lot of time laying his head down against it. I think he wasn't quite sure what to make of it when he was wrapped up in it, but it was cute nonetheless.
Here's everyone in a dugout canoe. They told the story of a group of modern day Native Americans who decided to try and take one of these canoes out into the ocean to go to one of the islands the way their ancestors would have, so they arranged for a big sendoff at the ferry port, and then the plan was for the ferry to bring the dignitaries, journalists, etc. over to the island to welcome the men when they rowed into port on the island (I can't remember if it was Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard). In any event, the canoe was so fast, it ended up beating the ferry to the island, at least partially because the ferry took its normal time loading up with passengers.
Here is one of the houses - this would have been the summer house as the walls were what amount to woven reeds thatched together. The winter home is made from bark.
Inside one of their homes - I enjoyed testing the girls to see if they could identify each animal based on its fur.
Derek happy to be there - an example of a winter home is in the background.
After an interesting, but misleadingly named "Craft Center" that implied to us we would get a chance to have the kids do crafts instead of watching others do the crafts, we went to the recreation of the Plymouth Colony. The colony was staffed with costumed interpreters who had studied and assumed the identity of specific individuals who came over on the Mayflower ship. We put the girls to work on the farm:
The accurately recreated houses were simplistic:
This location had a personal connection for our family, since Tanja had two 10th and two 11th great-grandparents who were passengers on the Mayflower. John Tilley and Joan Hurst were passengers along with their daughter Elizabeth. Elizabeth would grow up to marry John Howland, who was also a passenger. John Howland came over as an indentured servant. Below is an accurate recreation of the Howland house. It was one of the houses in Plymouth without a chimney. John and Elizabeth Howland had 10 children, who all lived to adulthood. Unfortunately, the house was closed as it is being renovated into a new exhibit and we were told that John Howland was out fishing, so Tanja was unable to "meet" her 10th great grandfather. The girls were also disappointed.
The conditions in Plymouth were very harsh and a large percentage of the people died on the voyage or within a few years. The first 'Thanksgiving' or Harvest Feast took place in Plymouth in 1621 after the local Wampanoag tribe helped save the pilgrims from starvation. The replica ship of the Mayflower is being renovated until 2019, so we will have to make another trip back to Plimouth Plantation when the ship is open for touring, and on a day when the John and Elizabath Howland actors are available to talk to.
That evening, we went to Woods Hole, a charming village on the Cape. We took some time to visit their aquarium, a marine life science center, and walk downtown before taking a walk along the water on the Shining Sea Bikeway path. Here are the girls on the bikeway.
The next day, we hopped on the ferry again to go to Nantucket. Tanja commented when we got to Nantucket how much more wealthy it seemed than Martha's Vineyard based on the clothes of the people there. I admit I hadn't noticed it, but after she mentioned it, I started paying more attention and agreed. Nantucket was much smaller than Martha's Vineyard area-wise, which worked out great for us since we could get around and see everything we wanted to without needing to ride multiple buses. Our first major stop in Nantucket was the Whaling Museum. Nantucket was a major hub of the international whaling industry back in the 19th century. Tanja and I would have loved to spend more time in the museum there, but the kids weren't particularly interested in leaving the children's area where they had toys, coloring pages, and lots of dress up clothes. We wound up taking turns going through the museum exhibits for 15-20 minutes at a time while the other stayed in the children's room watching the kids.
Karina in particular really enjoyed dressing up. She was imagining she was dressing like 'Laura' from the Little House on the Prairie books that Tanja has been reading to her each night for several months.
Derek needed to participate as well.
We noticed that gardening seemed to be a popular pastime on both Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard since there were so many homes with beautiful flower gardens. Hydrangeas like these were everywhere.
We toured the Old Gaol (how they spelled "jail" back when it was in use). I told the girls I was going to lock them up in jail if they didn't behave. It was interesting to know that the "prisoners" of this jail seemed to have it pretty easy - they could leave their cells, go outside, and do a lot of things basically at will. I guess being an island, they weren't going to get very far if they tried to escape, and the dangerous criminals were sent to rougher prisons on the mainland. According to our tour guide, having that as a threat hanging over the prisoners kept them in line.
Next up was the Children's Beach. The kids loved playing here. They had a nice playground right next to the water, so kids could play and run around on the playground equipment, a patch of grass, the sand on the beach, then splash in the water before doing it all again.
Lydia had fun chasing after some ducks in the water.
Karina climbed to the top of this jungle gym rope structure.
Derek loved digging in the sand, and how much fun it was to throw it up in the air. We weren't especially thrilled trying to clean sand out of his hair afterward...
Karina was very impressive - she kept working hard on these monkey bars and eventually made it to the fourth or fifth bar before dropping down.
Lydia and Tanja worked on a sand castle (really, just a big pile of sand) that was very nicely decorated with shells that they found along the beach.
Before leaving Nantucket, we went to Brant Point Lighthouse, which was at the mouth of one of the harbors. It was built in 1746 and has been operating since then. In the distance of this next picture, there is a pirate ship that sails around the harbor and fires its cannons for tourists and pirate wanna-bes.
Derek really loves kisses, cuddles, and tickles.
Before we left Cape Cod, we spent one more morning on the beach. It was a struggle finding "the best one" to go to. The first one we went to that morning had very rocky/shelly sand, and no waves. So we abandoned our free parking to go to the more touristy beach that charged for parking, had full bathrooms and a snack bar, etc. Still no real waves to speak of, and the water was full of seaweed, but the sand was nice, and there was another girl there who was friendly and our kids quickly had a friend to play with. Here we are at the beach in Yarmouth, where Karina decided she wanted to be buried in the big hole that we dug.
It was hard for her to get out.
Lydia needed to have a turn too.
Derek liked using other people's beach toys. This shovel belonged to the friendly girl.
Lydia practiced drawing shapes in the sand.
Then it was time to get on the road. We had one more overnight stop to make in Rhode Island to make the drive home a little easier. While we were there, we toured a couple of the Gilded Age mansions in Newport. Tanja had recently finished reading a book for book club called "How to Marry an English Lord" about high society women from extremely wealthy American families who couldn't find suitable husbands in America because they came from "new money", so they married British noblemen who had titles, but could no longer afford their "great houses" (think Downton Abbey). She was very excited to see some of the homes that she had read about in the book, and I am glad she picked it out as an activity, because I found the homes to be beautiful, if over-the-top, and the stories told touring them to be fascinating. My main concern was that she would see something in one of these massive homes and decide that we should try to replicate it somehow in our house.
The first home we went to was the Marble House and it belonged to Alva Vanderbilt. It was called the Marble House because of the copious amounts of marble used in its construction. Supposedly, Alva was the premier hostess for all the summer parties, so there was always a lot of entertaining when they were in town. Her daughter, Consuela, was one of the people Tanja read about in her book that was married off to a British duke. I still chuckle that these homes were referred to as "cottages", and were only lived in by the owners a few weeks out of the year. Here are the girls in front of the Marble House.
And the view of the ocean right outside their backyard.
Next we went to the most famous of the Newport historical mansions, The Breakers, owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt. As large as the Marble House was, it was dwarfed by The Breakers. I had learned about the phrase "conspicuous consumption" in school when we studied this era of American history, but seeing it up close brought a new understanding. This picture is overlooking the ballroom.
The Breakers has a beautiful back porch. In the heat of the summertime, the Vanderbilts would open the doorways to the porch and let the sea breeze come in and cool their massive "cottage". It probably was very relaxing.
We found a nice bench in the gardens along the side of The Breakers to take a picture.
The next morning, we were on our way back home. Our kids were pretty good travelers, all things considered. I am very glad we have the rear entertainment DVD player in our van. I admit, initially, I was worried that Lydia was going to keep requesting Finding Dory to watch, as it has become her current favorite movie. But she actually rotated around to a few different things. Karina on the other hand completely surprised me and became fixated on The Princess and the Frog - I think they probably watched it six or more times during the trip, all per Karina's request. It keeps them entertained and lets us drive the long distances to see the places we want to see, so I guess it's worth it.
No comments:
Post a Comment