Thanksgiving at Plymouth Rock

This year's Thanksgiving was rather original. I went to Massachussetts with my friend Marci and her husband, Carlos, (and his little brother, Sergio). Marci's family lives about 30 minutes south of Boston...and about 30 minutes west of Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock is where the first pilgrims, in their plight for religious freedom, stepped off the Mayflower and built their first settlement. After their first tough year, they gathered together at the end of their harvest season to give thanks to God and to the Indians who had helped them survive. Yes, Plymouth Rock was the place of America's First Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving Day, we drove out to Plymouth Rock, and saw the "Rock" which is much smaller than you would expect. We toured the Mayflower 2 (which is a replica of the original ship that the pilgrims used) and then visited Plymouth Plantation, a reconstructed pilgrim village where the volunteer docents act and speak as though they still live back in the 1700's. Since I love history and re-enactment stuff, I had a blast. Afterwards we drove over to Marci's brother's house which is located on Cape Cod and ate Thanksgiving dinner....turkey, stuffing, etc.

On Saturday, we drove up to Boston and spent the day walking around the city and enjoying the "Freedom Trail" free tour put on by the National Park Service. While it was a sunny day, the air was freezing cold. We stopped for a hot chocolate at Dunkin' Donuts (which by the way, happens to have a store on every other block in Massachussets!) I loved Boston...again, a place full of early American history. At the Old South Meeting House where the Boston Tea Party began, we tried on hats from the time period of the American Revolution. We visited the Massachussetts State house, the Boston Massacre site, the home of Paul Revere, and the Old North Church where Robert Newman signalled the approach of the British invasion by placing lanterns in the steeple windows. We shopped at Faneuil Hall, a marketplace since 1742, and strolled through the Italian section of town where as cold as we were, we stopped and ate gelato :)

As we left Massachussetts, I noted that the window's in the homes displayed a single candle light in each window, which I learned is the traditional Christmas decoration in these New England states. Besides the cold weather (and high taxes- so Marci tells me), I believe that I wouldn't mind living in Massachussetts.