Grown-Up Field Trip: Part 1

 A few months ago, I had several close friends come to me with questions about my birthday:

What do you have planned? 

Well, nothing yet.

What do you want to do? 

Maybe just a dinner or something. 

and then the questions followed with 

Because I have a wedding/wedding shower on your birthday.....

Oh....

With the first friend, I didn't think much of it but then when #2 and #3 came around I started to get a little upset/disappointed. Don't my closest and most loyal friends know that they are to leave October 22nd open forever and always? 

Instead of sulking about the situation, I decided to plan a trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Yes, of all the places to plan a birthday celebration, I chose Plymouth. With my love of genealogy and my connection to the area, I was determined to go, with. or without. anyone! At first, it was just going to be me on this lovely voyage but then my mom worked her magic, and was able to get off work, so she and my youngest sister were able to join me! 

The weekend started out great with a major victory for my brother. They were the big upset win over the undefeated East Paulding Raiders. The final score was 29-23! 


I can honestly say, the entire visitor section was beaming! We were all so proud of our Greyhounds! 

My Brother and his team mates singing the fight song after their victory!

Our flight the next morning was at 815 and we made it into Boston around noonish. We walked through Quincy Market to see all the yummy foods before sitting down for lunch at Wagamamas. I first fell in love with Wagamamas when I studied in London during Jan Term. The food is fresh, delicious and quick!  And just my luck, they have one in Boston! My meal was just like I remembered and what made it even better was that mom liked it too! 

Pretty view of South Quincy Market

After lunch, we drove to our hotel in Plymouth, checked in and immediately hit the road again to see the sites. Our first destination: Plymouth Rock. 

I was warned before I left about the size of the rock. "It's not very big, you know!" or "Don't be disappointed when you actually see the rock." I was realistic however; I knew that pieces of it had been chipped away by souvenir seekers and that it had been moved several times, especially during the Revolutionary War. There is still something to be said about seeing the rock, though. Maybe it means more to me because my 9th Great-Grandfather was the 'first' to step on it but I still thought it was flippin cool, in the words of my father! 

THE Plymouth Rock

After we saw the rock, we moved on to the Mayflower II. The Mayflower II is a replica of the originial that sailed almost 400 years ago. The ship, in comparison to the amount of passengers onboard (102), was tiny and with the rough seas that they endured, the Captain probably kept them all underneath for their protection. We learned the next day, that there was supposed to be a second ship, The Speedwell, going over but the Captain did not agree with what the Pilgrims were seeking (religious freedom), so he rigged the masts incorrectly and played dumb, leaving the ship unsailable and making everyone merge onto one ship, the Mayflower. 

The Mayflower II

Our first day was a little rushed because we had an early dinner reservation at the Plimouth Plantation for their Harvest Dinner. Yes, we're strange, we know. I was actually a little disappointed that dinner was inside! We have done an Irish dinner inside a castle before and so I was totally ready for that setting. I was prepared for dinner in a Pilgrim house or even just outside with a table and bench. The food was actually good and their was a lot of it! It was all family style and you were only given a pewter plate (salad size), a steel knife (with rust) and a soup spoon. I'll be honest with you, at lunch before we left Boston, we kept saying "Eat as much as you can because you don't know if dinner is going to be any good." Well, we were stuffed at the end of the night, which happened to be just after seven. 

Our menu for the Harvest Dinner

Because of our early morning wake up call and with much of Plymouth already closed, we decided to call it a night for the day. Eleven hours later though, I did not regret our decision one bit! For now we were rested for our official and exciting full day ahead!