Boston Trip Post #1: North Adams and Plymouth

We just got back from a really fun family vacation to Boston. We have been wanting to go there for several years, so it was nice to have this goal realized. I really love the bonding time that our family has when we go on these types of sightseeing trips, because we really focus on going to museums and sites that will be of personal interest to specific members of our family. So in a way, these trips give us a chance to think about each other and what others would like to see, in addition to the neat things that we actually are seeing along the way.

I was worried about the red-eye flight out to Boston with Lucy in tow, but it wasn't too bad. She wasn't awesome on the flight, but she wasn't terrible. She did sleep for a good portion of the way, but she had about four instances where she got uncomfortable and let out very loud, high-pitched screams. We sat at the back of the plane, and you could see all of the sleeping people in front of us stir and adjust position after each of Lucy's screams. Oh dear.

Although we flew into Boston, the first days of our trip were spent outside of the city. We landed in Boston early in the morning. We then drove, bleary-eyed, three hours west to North Adams, so that J could see a semi-permanent Sol LeWitt installation at the Mass MoCA. My brother A drove up to meet us, along with two of his friends. It was really fun to see them,  even if just for part of an afternoon. You know your brother loves you if he's willing to drive for a few hours to see you in middle-of-nowhere North Adams, knowing that you will be sleep deprived and unwashed after a long red-eye flight.

The museum was quite fun. I especially liked the installation Eclipse (about passenger pigeons - more info HERE), Jena Priebe's installation The Secret Lives of Books and Moisture Content by Lee Boroson. And J was in heaven with three floors of Sol LeWitt wall drawings. The museum grounds are massive - they cover thirteen acres and the galleries are housed in old 19th-century factory buildings. Although the Sol LeWitt installations were relegated to only one part of the museum, the installation was still enormous. Understandably, things began to get a bit tedious for the kids near the end. We also made the mistake of starting on the third floor, which meant we went anachronistically through LeWitt's career, looking first at the bright drawings of his late life, until we ended up at the very specific and pinpointed instructions for line drawings in his earlier career. If we had started with the highly conceptual, intense line drawings first, I think the kids might have fared a bit better.

One of my favorite photos from the whole trip

 

My brother A took this shot of Sam, near the end of our visit. The composition is really nice, and it also captures Sam's semi-patient-yet-bored state by the time we had meandered through a whole floor of line drawings.

We rented a minivan, which was a little bit larger than what we actually needed, but I knew that Sam would be tired and would want to stretch out and sleep in the car after our red-eye flight. He slept most of the way to and from North Adams. After we left the museum, he and Lucy fell asleep almost immediately.

Before arriving in Boston on our way back from North Adams, we quickly drove past Walden Pond. The weather was very, very cold, but we stepped out of the car quickly to take a picture and admire the view.

As soon as we arrived at our Air BnB location, these two weary travelers stretched out on this furry sheepskin rug in the living room.

The townhouse was charming, and some of the molding and decor had enough of an older feel to really make us feel like we visiting one of the original colonies. I'm also glad that we had a little bit more space; the rate for this place wasn't too different than the rates for a single hotel room!

J and I slept in here the first night, and decided that the mattress was too soft. We switched to another bedroom the second night, only to find that the Memory Foam mattress was too hard. Both of us independently came to the realization that we were somewhat copying Goldilocks's experience at The Three Bears' home, which is funny.

Sam slept in this small room for most of the nights.

We didn't anticipate keeping our car rental for the whole week, so we planned to drive down to Plymouth the following morning. The temperature these first two days was below freezing, and our bodies weren't acclimated to the weather at all. We bundled up as best as we could, but we still were very, very cold!

We first visited Plymouth Rock and then went to Plimoth Plantation to visit the Wampanoag Homestead and a reconstruction of a 17th-century English village. We were disappointed that the reconstruction of the Mayflower ship was not open yet for the season, but we still had fun seeing some of these other things in the area.

Sam learned about Plymouth Rock earlier this year in school, so I think this was neat for him to actually see. We also learned that Plymouth Rock used to be about three times larger than it appears today, which is interesting (read more HERE and also HERE - this latter post shares the information we read on a sign at the Plymouth Rock site). Part of the rock was chipped off by a descendant of William Bradford, and now that section belongs to the Smithsonian.

Lucy's nonplussed expression, as she peeks out from a polar bear hat, is one of my favorite things about this picture. Plymouth Rock leaves her unmoved.

On the hill overlooking the Plymouth Rock memorial is a large bronze statue of Massasoit by Cyrus Dallin. It was such a surprise to see this statue here, and it brought back some fond memories of the Springville Art Museum (which has pieces by Dallin in its collection) and also BYU campus (which has a bronze cast of this same statue on the west side of the HBLL library). When I was at BYU, I maybe knew at one point that the bronze cast of this statue was a representation of the tribal leader who was kind to the pilgrims, but I had forgotten. (If anything, I just remember joking with other students about how the statue's attire didn't follow the Honor Code.) I'm glad that now I've seen a cast of this statue in a context more appropriate to Massasoit's history.

 Inside a reconstruction of a Wampanoag home, to demonstrate how Massasoit and his family would have lived during the time that the pilgrims arrived.

The 17th-century English village reconstruction. There were actors in the homes who assumed the persona of different historical figures who once lived in the actual village, which was fun. The fires going in the hearths of these homes provided a little warmth, but not much in spite of the cold. I had a new appreciation for the pilgrims who first lived in the area during the winter of 1620-21.

 

I happened to shoot this picture when an actor emerged from one of the houses. You can see him in costume in the background.