We continued our travels from the Hudson River Valley of New York into the Berkshires of Massachusetts. This area is in the mountains and home to the Tanglewood Music Festivals, where the Boston Symphony delights local summertime visitors. The fall foliage was definitely waning here and even throughout Massachusetts never reached the brilliance of the Adirondacks, it had a wide palette of dusty colors and muted shades. This could, in part, be due to cloudy days and rain showers approximately half of the days. We spent two weeks in Massachusetts visiting the colonial and revolutionary historical sites and the many seaside towns and beaches that this area offers. Pat’s pen-pal from the 7th grade and longtime friend from Devonshire England joined us in Boston and it was especially interesting getting the British historical viewpoint as well. This area’s written history all starts with the Pilgrims coming to America and landing on Plymouth Rock. When we were in England, we saw that the Pilgrims actually started out from Dartmouth. Pilgrims did, if fact, set sail from Dartmouth and from Southampton before Plymouth. Due to leaking boats, probably encouraged by reluctant sailors, they had to twice return for repairs. Finally they successfully set sail from Plymouth. Otherwise we may have had a Dartmouth or Southampton Rock.
They were aiming for Virginia and missed it landing on the Cape Cod peninsula (oops for 17th century navigation). After trouble with local Indians on the Cape (Pilgrims allegedly stole their corn/maze), they headed across the cape and arrived at Plymouth. There is a replica of the Mayflower in Plymouth. Our biggest surprise was how small it was. It is difficult to imagine 107 pilgrims and 30 sailors all on that ship. There were insufficient beds and it didn’t appear to be enough floor space for all to lie down at the same time. To think of living in that density for a 65 day stormy crossing helped to understand what a commitment to travel it must have been. While only 2 died in the crossing, half would die during the following winter.
The Puritans continued to arrive, settling in Salem and Boston as well. They were not “fun” people (for example, not someone you would hire to plan a party for you) and religiously devoted to one belief, intolerant of any other thinking. The growing differing of beliefs and the lack of tolerance for each other started the Witch Hunts of Salem. While, we learned, there were no witches “burned at the stake” here, only 19 were hanged, and 1 was pressed to death,. Over 200 were accused and 156 jailed (both men and women). The key to these prosecutions was that only spectral evidence was necessary for a guilty verdict. Spectral evidence is if someone saw you in a dream choking them, then you were a witch. Spectral evidence was finally dismissed, but it took until 2001 for the last of them to be cleared of the charges.
Boston is also famous for its baked beans. The tradition started with the Puritans. Since the Puritans would not work on Sunday, they made baked beans and put them into a crock. The beans were eaten throughout the next day. The Boston Beanery is directly across from the Granary Burial Grounds, so you can have a cold Sam Adams (beer) while overlooking a cold Sam Adams (grave). Later according to the Puritans, ice cream sodas with the fizz were deemed too “stimulating” for a Sunday, so the ice cream sundae was invented to be eaten instead on Sundays.
As probably everyone knows, Boston has a walking tour of historic sites called the Freedom Trail. There is always an imaginative magical presence around old historical buildings, cemeteries, and locales. The disappointing part of this is that these sites are located on busy streets and surrounded by skyscrapers. This subtracts from the ability to relive and to imagine how it was then. One new piece of trivia that we learned this trip was that there were many spies in Boston during the revolution days. They were exposed when asked “what figure is on the weathervane atop the state house?” If he didn’t know, he was arrested. The answer is in one of our photos. We found the people of Boston helpful, pleasant, while still maintaining their famous accent (mostly not pronouncing any final “r” in any word). I guess that the pirates took them all--- arrrrrh!!
The story goes that you can never find a Bostonian vacationing outside of Massachusetts. The reason is not local pride, but rather the roads are so narrow, windy, slow-going through towns, traffic and traffic lights, that they can’t get out of their state! We found this to be true, especially for travelers as us who prefer the “blue” highways. We didn’t find the drivers aggressive like the former days, but still taking advantage of every slot to enter traffic, regardless of how small or who has the right-of-way.
We followed the start of the American Revolution by tracking Paul Revere’s and William Dawes’s famous rides from Boston to Lexington and Concord. We learned that they did not actually say “the British are coming” as Longfellow says in his poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” since at that time everyone was British. They actually were alerting that the regular army was coming, so the phrase, while not quite as poetic, was “The Regulars are coming”!!
As we continue our visits to Ivy League colleges, Harvard was a must. Harvard is the oldest University in the US, founded in 1636. We found a strange tradition on campus: students who have applied for admission are more apt to be accepted if they pose touching the show of John Harvard’s statue. The shoe is completely polished from all the touching and there was a long line of students to get their picture taken.
We found Old Sturbridge Village delightful and very relaxing after the busy city. It depicts rural New England life of the 1830s, with all of the skills needed then such as coopers and blacksmiths.
A trip to Gloucester shows us how tough and dangerous the fishing methods were and how many fishermen lives were lost. The Perfect Storm was filmed here and based on actual events. The Crow’s Nest is still there to provide a drink and meeting place for the locals and visitors. The fishermen’s memorial is at a central place on the wharf. A plaque lists all 5,368 fishermen lost at sea since 1860, and listed under 1991 are the 6 men lost in the Andrea Gail as depicted in the film.
A bit of a break was to go to Walden Ponds and to feel the natural setting that Thoreau writes about. We saw a model of his cabin which held all of his possessions, which is about the size of our camper. We admired his simplicity of life which reinforced our desire to continue likewise.
The peninsula of Cape Cod in Massachusetts is described as a forearm, with Chatam being the elbow and Provincetown being in the fist. We were visiting post-season so the crowds and gridlock were gone. So was the reason for it, lying out on the many beautiful sandy beaches. It is one of the few protected “National Seashores.” Coast Guard Beach is listed on many of the top ten beaches lists, but there were many there we would nominate. There is a Marconi Station historic site, one of the sites where Marconi first sent a wireless signal to England. Many lighthouses are on the Cape, but the Highland Lighthouse is the oldest on the Cape, commissioned in 1797 by George Washington himself. Provincetown is an artsy eclectic community, reminiscent of Key West, an historical seaport town with old, small streets and buildings and lots of shops, restaurants, & galleries.
“Cape Cod architecture” conjures up an image in most of us. The original Cape Cod design was a simple cedar-shingled abode from 1730, using local materials. Cedar shingles weather the salt quite well, and are turned to a grey color in time. It was later that dormers or “doghouses” were added in the roofs. There are zillions of this style house all over the Cape.
Cape Cod is also a cranberry bog heaven. These were first used by Native Americans, later “cultivated” on the Cape when it was learned that the sand blowing over them markedly improved them. Cranberries are harvested in Sep & Oct so we are timely. Is this why cranberries go with Thanksgiving turkey?
We reluctantly moved on from Cape Cod wishing we had more time to explore the beaches of the National Seashore. As we drove away the lyrics of the old Patti Paige song came to mind: “If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, Quaint little villages here and there: If you spend an evening you'll want to stay, Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay, You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod!”
We ferried to Martha’s Vineyard and back for a sunny day on the island. It turns out the ‘season’ over there means the shops and restaurants all close up and the proprietors leave the island. So we amused ourselves with the views, and looking at the houses of the very rich and the very famous. It has high-profile residents, movie stars, politicians, writers, and artists that are household names. It is so exclusive that they once considered succeeding from the State of Massachusetts to become the 51st state. The cost of living on the island is 60 percent higher than the national average and housing prices are 96 percent higher. More than half of the residents are summer-only and it is not obvious where they get their groceries. The Spielberg film Jaws was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard, and interestingly enough, we learned that great white sharks were in the area while we were there.
New Bedford Mass has a Whaling Museum depicting the whaling port in its heyday. During 1815-1835 New Bedford was the largest whaling port in the world. 400 whaling ships sailed from New Bedford of the world’s then 735 whaling ships. Then whales became scarcer and harder to find and many went to Oregon and Washington to be nearer the more abundant hunting areas. We saw many New England style homes in Portland OR and on the west coast of Washington. They apparently brought this with them. The men that didn’t leave for that reason left when the California Gold Rush occurred. Finally petroleum was discovered in Pennsylvania and replaced whale oil as it was much cheaper. That was the death of the whaling industry and the beginning of the economic demise of the New Bedford.
Providence, even though the capital of the smallest state, has the largest capitol building in New England with a massive dome and rotunda. The building was used in the movie Armistead as representative of the US capitol at that time. Brown University, another Ivy League school, is in Providence.
If there were no people to speak of on Martha’s Vineyard, they must have all gone to Newport, Rhode Island. For late October, we never expected this many tourists. Newport is scenic but like many beautiful places, has become loved to death and overrun with people. Newport has preserved many of the early nineteenth century mansions from the Gilded Age, belonging to the likes of Cornelius Vanderbilt and John Astor. There is a “cliff walk” that runs 3.5 miles along the top of the cliff overlooking the ocean that passes some of these mansions and is indeed scenic. Newport now contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the United States, having been founded in 1639. Oh how the New Englanders love their history! We loved it too and sharing a bit of it with you here. If you have experiences in New England, we would love to hear of them.
Until next time, Happy Trails!
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