Six Weeks in New England - Apr/May 2010 - Part III

[I finally finished this blog, and divided it into three sections. Sections II and III should actually have been posted back in May.] I drove up the coast of New Hampshire, to Hampton Beach, Rye Beach, Portsmouth (which I loved!), and continued on up the coast of Maine - to Nubble Light (again), and Kennebunkport.

I had clam chowder almost every day, and seafood at every opportunity. I had the best seafood or clam chowder I've ever had in my life - several times, at several different places! :-) I had lobster salad, lobster rolls (liked them!), lobster pie, lobster pasta, and plain old boiled lobster.

A friend and I drove to New York City and saw the play "Wicked" on Broadway - what fun! It was my first Broadway play. We both really like it. We also drove into Boston to the JFK Library, which moved and impressed both of us. What a beautiful location, right on the harbor, what a beautiful building (designed by I.M. Pei). Both of us were very moved by JFK's life and death and admire him tremendously; the library is a fitting memorial to his life.

My friend Laura came up to Concord from southern Massachusetts, we had lunch together, and she showed me around the town, as she grew up there. My last day in Massachusetts, I drove down to Mansfield, and saw the mother-in-law home she and Bill live in, when they aren't out RV-ing around the country! The rhododendrons were blooming when I was in New England, in several different vibrant colors: white, pink, rose, purple. I had never seen rhododendrons before; they look like balled or clumped azaleas. Laura's son had a big, beautiful pink rhodendron in his yard, as tall as the first story of his house. Laura drove me down to Plymouth and showed me around there as well. I loved Plimoth Plantation - both the re-creation of Plimoth Colony and the Wampanoag village. We chatted with Rev. William Bradshaw and with a young woman in Plimoth, and watched a woman tanning a hide and a warrier burning out the inside of a canoe in the Wampanoag village.
This was the best history re-enactment I've seen. I am intrigued by the idea of spending a Thanksgiving there - with the re-creation of the original Thanksgiving, right in that very spot. Maybe I'll do that one of these days! I got to see Plymouth Rock (it's just a rock) and was quite impressed with the tour of Mayflower II. We got a feel for a little of what it would have been like to have been stuck on that ship, with 99 other colonists, and our goats and chickens, and the crew, crossing the Atlantic. What a trip!