Travels Part 2

Here is the continuation of our adventures out East. After leaving New York and the girls, we journeyed to Massachussetts to a timeshare in the Berkshires. We enjoyed playing a little golf and exploring the Norman Rockwell Museum before heading to Boston and a stay with Paul's cousin Dede. The first thing we did was head to a Red Sox game. The sausages were outstanding - the Red Sox lost!
On Thursday we spent the day walking the Freedom Trail. It really made history come alive. From Boston Common to the Old North Church we stopped at every location to read and absorb the incredible history tucked away in modern Boston. Here is Paul Revere on his famous ride.
You walk across the bridge over the Charles River and climb aboard Old Ironsides before hiking up Bunker Hill (which is really Breed's Hill). The ship is manned by modern day Navy guys who have to learn her history as well as how to sail with 1800 style rigging!
On Friday we headed to Plymouth to see the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock, as well as exploring Plimoth Plantation and eating some incredible seafood at the harbor. It was the 50th anniversary of the Mayflower II this year, and they were sailing this 1600 style ship several weekends this summer, too. It is amazing how over 100 people lived for two months onboard this little ship.

At Plimoth Plantation, the people who work there play the role of real historical Pilgrims and need to act like it is 1627. You can talk to them and they will respond from the point of view the original Pilgrims had. The Wampanaog Village has Native Americans who demonstrate life in the 1600's also. This man was building a dugout canoe by burning and scraping out the center of a log!

I guess I will post Travels Part 3 next week before school starts. After that, who knows if I'll have anything more to tell about that would be interesting to put in a blog! My sister already did the pickle canning event (though she didn't get the picture of the pickles in the bathtub, so you can look forward to a shot of that sometime in September - heh heh).

Travels Part 1

On June 4 we headed for New York to bring Alison her stuff, as she got a permanent job at the Olympic Training site in Lake Placid. We stayed at Christie's new cabin at Bloomingdale, a small community outside of Saranac Lake. Alison was working a lot and couldn't spend very much time with us, but she did get us in to the Olympic venues for some fun. Here we had a bobsled run on the 1980 Olympic track. Good thing we had a professional driver and brakeman. We went 65 miles per hour around all those curves!
The next day we drove up to the top of Whiteface Mountain - where the downhill ski events took place in 1980. The last 26 stories you have to climb, or take an elevator. Of course, we chose to climb! What a awesome view.
In the background of the next picture you can see Lake Placid. It's a good thing we had our own personal guide. Christie had been up there before, and could point out all the sights.
You can see all the way to Lake Champlain and Vermont from the top. The temptation is to just sit on a rock and soak in the beauty of God's creation.

While we were there we also had time to golf, visit Paul Smith's College where Christie works, hike in the Visitor's Interpretive Center which is part of the 14,000 acres of the campus, go out to eat several times, and worship together at Chrisitie's church on Sunday. It was really a very special time. We love the Adirondacks and can now enjoy it year 'round by reading Paul's Father's Day gift - a magazine subscription to a very cool magazine all about the area. But ... our vacation wasn't over yet! Stay tuned for the next posting with a visual journal of historic Boston!