We breakfasted and repacked ready to vacate our room. We lodged the baggage with the reception staff and set off towards Boston Common to find the outside location shots of the Cheers bar in the comedy of the same name. Julia’s research told us that the outside shots of Cheers were located on Beacon Street which runs above the common and also has the State house building on it. The extremely popular TV show Cheers was inspired by a neighborhood bar and restaurant in Boston, the former Bull & Finch Pub. The facade of the building was used in the opening sequence of the TV show. The Bull & Finch was eventually re-named Cheers Boston Beacon Hill due to the great notoriety from the TV series. A second location was opened in 2001, Cheers Boston Faneuil Hall, which is a replica of the interior of the bar in the TV show, which we had visited the day before. Inside on the ground floor there is a replica bar and a souvenir shop while in the basement there is another bar. This is as near to finding Cheers as is possible because all the interiors were shot in studio and I can rarely remember the show straying much beyond the bar.
While we had a beer in Cheers Faneuil Hall it was far too early to do the same this morning but we did hear the same “humorous” question asked of the bar staff; “What’s my name?” On the basis that Cheers is a place “Where everyone knows your name”. The long-suffering staff must have got used to a steady diet of this approach but surely they should be allowed to gun down the tenth person to ask in any given day! We took several photos outside the bar and in one of them I look exactly like my father, I blame my bad back, but sadly there are fewer and fewer people to show it to who knew us both.
Our next quest defeated us. We entered the public gardens opposite the bar expecting to find the famous statue of a duck and her ducklings. Make Way for Ducklings is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallard ducks who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston, Massachusetts. The book's popularity led to the construction of a statue by Nancy Schön in the Public Garden of the mother duck and her eight ducklings, which is a popular destination for children and adults alike, but we couldn’t find it! Later research has confirmed that we were looking in the right park and we walked all the way round the lake in question but no ducks!
We headed back towards the hotel and were amused by the squirrels which have no fear of humans and tolerantly pose for photos as long as required. Between the lake and the Boston Common there are sports fields of various types and here we stumbled on a set of eccentrics who were playing a ball game while riding witch’s brooms –it may have been a Harry Potter themed enterprise but they were firmly land-based – defective brooms? They were also behind quite substantial fencing I think that was for the best.
We returned to the hotel and ventured into Parker’s Bar where we had a beer and a piece of Boston Cream Pie each and enjoyed both before moving on to the airport. While we were in the bar there was a wedding party gathering for a later ceremony in one of their function rooms. On the events board the wedding was listed as being between Paul and Randy so it crossed our minds that it might be a bit liberal for Boston but when the bridegroom, I’m assuming Paul, arrived in Army Dress Uniform, based on “don’t ask, don’t tell” we concluded Randy must be a unisex name.
Meanwhile we asked for our bill in the bar and it was even higher than we had allowed for but in error four beers appeared not the two we had drunk. The mistake was cheerfully corrected.
After some confusion about where our luggage had been stored it eventually appeared. One of the bell staff whistled us up a taxi and we were quickly at the airport.
We were flying overnight and the flight would be extended by the time difference and we had no idea what food would be provided so w ate a final meal in the airport. The food was fine but we were amused by a middle-aged man who sat at the table next to us and ordered a bottle of wine with his meal. The waitress told him she couldn’t serve him with a bottle for one person. At this he pushed the chair opposite him back and said that he was waiting for someone. She stuck to her guns and he had to make do with a glass of wine. Nobody joined him while we were there.
Our flight as smooth and uneventful and we got ourselves back to Derbyshire in time to be involved in a basketball match – normal life was resumed.
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 19: Boston (Fenway Park).
We have enjoyed all our visits to sporting venues in the states but Madison Square Garden stands out amongst our memories because of the knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide. We set off to Fenway Park hoping for the same sort of experience – we were not to be disappointed. We took the subway and after some negotiation we agreed on the station to get off as I recall it was not as obvious as Fenway although we passed through a station of that name. Julia researches our visits in advance and using the lap top she can further check up while we are in place. I recall that we got off the train and followed pedestrian signs to Baseball. However, just as we reached a position where there were four options for us to take, there were no signs at all to help us. We may have looked a bit helpless, or perhaps this was not a new situation, a passing delivery truck stopped by us and the driver gave us directions. His first words were “Are you looking for Fenway Park?”
Our directions took us there in about five minutes, we signed up for a tour that was leaving in about ten minutes and off we went.
Our guide was Morrie, I’ve no idea if that’s how he spells it, he is a rabid Red Sox fan and he gives the impression that he works for free just to be allowed in his idols’ home. On our first stairway he stopped and demanded to know if we had any Yankee fans with us – one family admitted their allegiance to the enemy – but Morrie just said he needed to know in order to speak more slowly for their benefit!
He was an entertaining host. We learnt lots from him but two stories will have to suffice.
From our vantage point he made us look across the ballpark to the opposite bleachers all the seats are green except for one single red seat. To quote Wikipedia:
The lone red seat in the right field bleachers (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21) signifies the longest home run ever hit at Fenway. The Ted Williams hit was officially measured at 502 feet, the ball, if unobstructed, would have flown 520 to 535 feet.
The ball landed on Joseph A. Boucher, penetrating his large straw hat and hitting him in the head. A confounded Boucher was later quoted as saying, “How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn't see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I'm glad I did not stand up”.
Morrie’s story is much better he claimed that although Boucher was a Yankees’ fan he was in Boston on business and took in the game, he was dosing in his seat when the ball punched through his straw boater and put him to sleep more fully! When a Boston newspaper reporter got onto the story he interviewed Boucher and discovered that he was now a converted Red Sox fan – the headline read: “Williams hit knocks sense into Yankee fan!”. On a recent anniversary of the event Boucher and his family were invited to attend a match at Fenway Park and they were allocated seats in the red seat area they got into the spirit of the event by all wearing straw boaters!
When we were on the “Green Monster “ he drew our attention to the number 42 in blue alongside several numbers in red. Along with the seven Red Sox who have been honoured by having their number retired there is the 42 representing Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades. The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly, to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.
When this happened the number 42 became unavailable to all players except those already wearing it while they stayed at their current club. Wikipedia puts it like this:
A grandfather clause allowed a handful of players who wore number 42 as a salute to Robinson, such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn, were allowed to continue wearing the number for as long as they stayed with their current team and did not change their number. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in the major leagues to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis.
I felt it was a classy thing for a sport to do and very touchingly explained by our guide.
He also pointed out the scoreboard under the Green Monster which is manually operated. Even though there has been an electronic scoreboard above the bleacher seats in center field at Fenway Park for many years, people still look to the base of the Green Monster at the manual scoreboard to keep track of the action on the field and at other parks around the league. This feature was installed in 1934 and it is one of the few remaining manually-operated scoreboards in baseball. During every home game, there are three operators to keep the scoreboard as up-to-date as possible. Green and red lights signal the number of balls, strikes, and outs, 16-inch-square numbers are used to indicate runs and hits, and 12-by-16 inch square numbers are used to show errors, innings, and the number of the current pitcher. In the mid-1970s, when the wall was remodeled, the scoreboard was changed only to show out-of-town American League scores; however, in 2003, the scoreboard was revised to show National League scores as well. Another update in 2005 added a reference to the current standings in the American League East. Also, if you look closely, you will find the initials of former owners Thomas A Yawkey and his wife Jean R. Yawkey written in Morse code. I was amused to learn that some of the National league scores cannot be changed from inside and thus between innings, an operator emerges from a hidden door and using a ladder changes those scores from outside. Morrie claims that you will never see this on televised matches as showing it is banned.
We also learned that Babe Ruth started his career at Boston as a pitcher using the old soft ball and, in fact, that there had been an old soft ball. Also that the Cy Young award is named after the Boston pitcher.
As a side note while on our tour we had watched a documentary on the Red Sox and it said poignantly that when they broke their long barren spell, since 1918, by winning the World Series in 2004 graves in all Boston cemeteries were decorated with Red Sox clothing and score sheets from the series as a tribute to fans that had lived and died without seeing such success.
We followed Morrie’s directions to walk from the ball park to the Prudential Building to take in the view of the city from the Skywalk Observatory. On our way we passed the one of the most impressive locations for a tennis club ever. At 939 Boyleston Street, I have close friends who live in a tiny village called Boylestone in Derbyshire, the club looks like the frontage of an office block or department store. We bravely entered but the Club seems to be in the basement and accessible by a “members only” elevator. Had there been a reception area available to us I would have asked to have a look round using my English accent and tennis background as a passport. Returning to England and looking the place up I discovered that their tennis is Court or Real tennis not my version and perhaps it would all have been too posh for simple Derbyshire folk.
The Prudential Skywalk was excellent, the free auto commentary is brilliant the only down side is that you are always shooting your photos through glass which at times could do with cleaning. I was easy to put the Freedom Trail into context from above and we could also see Fenway Park and our route from there.
We returned to the hotel by subway and enjoyed tea and cookies in our room. We then took a walk out to the Cheers bar close to the Faneuiel Hall, by chance we were both wearing basketball hoodies, Julia’s was Derby Trailblazers, British National Champions of Mens Division One and mine was East Midlands, Under 15 Boys National Champions, coached by Dave Harris a veteran of British Basketball and assisted by Sarah Booth our daughter. We were soon in conversation over a beer with a guy, a river pilot from Washington State, who was visiting Boston. Amusingly he took us to be New Englanders not English, apparently our accents seem similar to the locals. Having overcome this misunderstanding he was very interested in our basketball development and we have his address and email on the basis we must visit in the future.
We returned to the hotel and Julia continued her research into Boston Comedy clubs, thus it was that we set out later to find the Mottleys Comedy Club with a remembered address and no map. Despite poor preparation and a cold drizzle we were still quite upbeat when we located the club in the basement of a bar quite close to Cheers. We then found a cheap but brilliant Mexican restaurant nearby and had a great meal before returning to the bar. The session was not due to start for another half hour so we sat at the bar for another beer, this is very heavy consumption for us, and chatted to a couple who turned out to be baseball fans.
When we saw the show, under the title “Quarter Life Crisis”, we were only mildly amused. Three guys and a girl took their turns at telling us that they were confused about life in general. I took their point because life still confuses me but strangely I’m not confident enough that my confusion equips me to amuse strangers who are paying for the experience!
We returned to the hotel by 10.00pm and everywhere was pretty dead, it seemed much later by the amount, or lack, of activity.
Our directions took us there in about five minutes, we signed up for a tour that was leaving in about ten minutes and off we went.
Our guide was Morrie, I’ve no idea if that’s how he spells it, he is a rabid Red Sox fan and he gives the impression that he works for free just to be allowed in his idols’ home. On our first stairway he stopped and demanded to know if we had any Yankee fans with us – one family admitted their allegiance to the enemy – but Morrie just said he needed to know in order to speak more slowly for their benefit!
He was an entertaining host. We learnt lots from him but two stories will have to suffice.
From our vantage point he made us look across the ballpark to the opposite bleachers all the seats are green except for one single red seat. To quote Wikipedia:
The lone red seat in the right field bleachers (Section 42, Row 37, Seat 21) signifies the longest home run ever hit at Fenway. The Ted Williams hit was officially measured at 502 feet, the ball, if unobstructed, would have flown 520 to 535 feet.
The ball landed on Joseph A. Boucher, penetrating his large straw hat and hitting him in the head. A confounded Boucher was later quoted as saying, “How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn't see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I'm glad I did not stand up”.
Morrie’s story is much better he claimed that although Boucher was a Yankees’ fan he was in Boston on business and took in the game, he was dosing in his seat when the ball punched through his straw boater and put him to sleep more fully! When a Boston newspaper reporter got onto the story he interviewed Boucher and discovered that he was now a converted Red Sox fan – the headline read: “Williams hit knocks sense into Yankee fan!”. On a recent anniversary of the event Boucher and his family were invited to attend a match at Fenway Park and they were allocated seats in the red seat area they got into the spirit of the event by all wearing straw boaters!
When we were on the “Green Monster “ he drew our attention to the number 42 in blue alongside several numbers in red. Along with the seven Red Sox who have been honoured by having their number retired there is the 42 representing Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was the first black Major League Baseball (MLB) player of the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the first black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for six decades. The example of his character and unquestionable talent challenged the traditional basis of segregation, which then marked many other aspects of American life, and contributed significantly, to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1997, Major League Baseball retired his uniform number, 42, across all major league teams.
When this happened the number 42 became unavailable to all players except those already wearing it while they stayed at their current club. Wikipedia puts it like this:
A grandfather clause allowed a handful of players who wore number 42 as a salute to Robinson, such as the Mets' Butch Huskey and Boston's Mo Vaughn, were allowed to continue wearing the number for as long as they stayed with their current team and did not change their number. The Yankees' Mariano Rivera is the last player in the major leagues to wear jersey number 42 on a regular basis.
I felt it was a classy thing for a sport to do and very touchingly explained by our guide.
He also pointed out the scoreboard under the Green Monster which is manually operated. Even though there has been an electronic scoreboard above the bleacher seats in center field at Fenway Park for many years, people still look to the base of the Green Monster at the manual scoreboard to keep track of the action on the field and at other parks around the league. This feature was installed in 1934 and it is one of the few remaining manually-operated scoreboards in baseball. During every home game, there are three operators to keep the scoreboard as up-to-date as possible. Green and red lights signal the number of balls, strikes, and outs, 16-inch-square numbers are used to indicate runs and hits, and 12-by-16 inch square numbers are used to show errors, innings, and the number of the current pitcher. In the mid-1970s, when the wall was remodeled, the scoreboard was changed only to show out-of-town American League scores; however, in 2003, the scoreboard was revised to show National League scores as well. Another update in 2005 added a reference to the current standings in the American League East. Also, if you look closely, you will find the initials of former owners Thomas A Yawkey and his wife Jean R. Yawkey written in Morse code. I was amused to learn that some of the National league scores cannot be changed from inside and thus between innings, an operator emerges from a hidden door and using a ladder changes those scores from outside. Morrie claims that you will never see this on televised matches as showing it is banned.
We also learned that Babe Ruth started his career at Boston as a pitcher using the old soft ball and, in fact, that there had been an old soft ball. Also that the Cy Young award is named after the Boston pitcher.
As a side note while on our tour we had watched a documentary on the Red Sox and it said poignantly that when they broke their long barren spell, since 1918, by winning the World Series in 2004 graves in all Boston cemeteries were decorated with Red Sox clothing and score sheets from the series as a tribute to fans that had lived and died without seeing such success.
We followed Morrie’s directions to walk from the ball park to the Prudential Building to take in the view of the city from the Skywalk Observatory. On our way we passed the one of the most impressive locations for a tennis club ever. At 939 Boyleston Street, I have close friends who live in a tiny village called Boylestone in Derbyshire, the club looks like the frontage of an office block or department store. We bravely entered but the Club seems to be in the basement and accessible by a “members only” elevator. Had there been a reception area available to us I would have asked to have a look round using my English accent and tennis background as a passport. Returning to England and looking the place up I discovered that their tennis is Court or Real tennis not my version and perhaps it would all have been too posh for simple Derbyshire folk.
The Prudential Skywalk was excellent, the free auto commentary is brilliant the only down side is that you are always shooting your photos through glass which at times could do with cleaning. I was easy to put the Freedom Trail into context from above and we could also see Fenway Park and our route from there.
We returned to the hotel by subway and enjoyed tea and cookies in our room. We then took a walk out to the Cheers bar close to the Faneuiel Hall, by chance we were both wearing basketball hoodies, Julia’s was Derby Trailblazers, British National Champions of Mens Division One and mine was East Midlands, Under 15 Boys National Champions, coached by Dave Harris a veteran of British Basketball and assisted by Sarah Booth our daughter. We were soon in conversation over a beer with a guy, a river pilot from Washington State, who was visiting Boston. Amusingly he took us to be New Englanders not English, apparently our accents seem similar to the locals. Having overcome this misunderstanding he was very interested in our basketball development and we have his address and email on the basis we must visit in the future.
We returned to the hotel and Julia continued her research into Boston Comedy clubs, thus it was that we set out later to find the Mottleys Comedy Club with a remembered address and no map. Despite poor preparation and a cold drizzle we were still quite upbeat when we located the club in the basement of a bar quite close to Cheers. We then found a cheap but brilliant Mexican restaurant nearby and had a great meal before returning to the bar. The session was not due to start for another half hour so we sat at the bar for another beer, this is very heavy consumption for us, and chatted to a couple who turned out to be baseball fans.
When we saw the show, under the title “Quarter Life Crisis”, we were only mildly amused. Three guys and a girl took their turns at telling us that they were confused about life in general. I took their point because life still confuses me but strangely I’m not confident enough that my confusion equips me to amuse strangers who are paying for the experience!
We returned to the hotel by 10.00pm and everywhere was pretty dead, it seemed much later by the amount, or lack, of activity.
Friday, 3 December 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 18: Boston (Freedom Trail).
In my innocence I did not realise that Omni was a trade name of a set of hotels so I wondered at first what that part of our most expensive hotel’s name meant. Having worked that out by reading in our room I turned my attention to the Parker House Hotel. We had picked it to be one of the most central and historic hotels in Boston – it easily lived up to both. The lobby is immense and furnished to a high standard but giving the impression that nothing has changed in recent times. Research reveals that the PHH has a rich history for which I will quote Wikipedia:
Opened in 1855 by Harvey D. Parker and located on School Street near the corner of Tremont, not far from the seat of the Massachusetts state government, it has long been a rendezvous for politicians. The hotel was home to the Saturday Club, also referred to as the Saturday Night Club, which consisted of literary dignitaries such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. John Wilkes Booth was also once a guest at the hotel.
The Parker House invented American foods such as Boston cream pie and the Parker House roll, and coined the term "scrod".
The original Parker House and later additions were demolished in the 1920s and replaced with an entirely new building. One wing of the original hotel remained open until the new building was completed in 1927.
As the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States, many well-known people have worked at the Parker House, including Hô Chí Minh who was a baker in the bakeshop from 1911 to 1913, Malcolm X who was a busboy in the early 1940s, and Emeril Lagasse.
John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for Congress in the hotel's Press Room, proposed to Jackie Kennedy, as well as held his bachelor party here.
We enjoyed the whole experience of the hotel and found the staff at every level most obliging and friendly. Julia bumped into a porter while she was wearing her Brazilian soccer shirt and he was fascinated to discover that although she was not Brazilian but she had been given the shirt by Brazilian friends. He seemed to make a point of looking out for her from then on.
We set off from the hotel to get breakfast, Dunkin Donut again, and then to walk the freedom trail. At the Boston Common we checked out the price of a guided tour with a costumed guide but they were very expensive and only covered the first two thirds of the trail. We felt that our tracking skills, honed by visiting Texas, would see us through as we were merely following a thick red line on the sidewalk.
As our first point of interest we visited the Massachusetts State House, which is the state capitol and seat of government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The most notable feature of the building is the large dome. The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere's company. (Paul Revere, who stars later in this account, was the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets in a commercially viable manner.)
The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During WWII, the dome was once again painted, this time black, to prevent reflections during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. In 1997, at a cost of more than $300,000, the dome was re-gilded, in 23k gold. The gold dome means that a president, JFK, came from the state.
The dome is topped with a pine cone, symbolizing the importance of Boston's lumber industry in the early colonial days not, as we thought, a pineapple which could only symbolize our stupidity.
From here we walked towards our hotel to visit Park Street Church, a historic stop on the Freedom Trail. It was founded on February 27, 1809. The church became known as "Brimstone Corner", in part because of the missionary character of its preaching, and in part because of the storage of gunpowder during the War of 1812. Next to the church is the Granary Burying Ground which is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery. Located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere and the five victims of the Boston Massacre.
We were of course dealing with some mixed feelings about all the glorification of this rebellion against our lawful control of the colonies but we tried to go with the flow.
Next we reached the Benjamin Franklin statue and former site of the first public school, Boston Latin School which was opposite the side door of our hotel. Several times in the hotel we noticed people breaking their walk on the freedom trail for a drink in the hotel bar, it was either late on the walk and they only had a couple of stops left but if they were travelling in our direction we could see little prospect of them finishing the walk.
On a corner near to the hotel we arrived at The Old South Meeting House (built 1729), in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, which gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time. Around here we were supposed to observe the old bookshop but it escaped us, there was a huge modern bookshop at this crossroads and we also noted the sculptures there as a monument to the suffering of the Irish in the Potato famine.
The Freedom trail next took us to The Old State House, a historic government building located at the intersection of Washington and State Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Built in 1713, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the first elected legislature in the New World. It is now a history museum operated by the Bostonian Society, a nonprofit whose primary focus is the museum. We moved past but later it was a great evening photograph as it was brilliantly lit against a strong night sky.
Next we came upon the site of the Boston Massacre, also known as the Boston riot, an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British redcoats on March 5, 1770, the legal aftermath of which helped spark the rebellion in some of the British American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War. A heavy British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that boiled over into incitement of brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being threatened by a rioting crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, eleven were injured, and two died after the incident. They say history is written by the victors but surely five deaths struggles to be described as a massacre? It hardly ranks with Wounded Knee. The site itself is marked by a metal plaque inset into the middle of a busy road junction.
We then reached Faneuil Hall, located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a well known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty". It is an impressive building and we ventured off the Freedom Trail here to seek out one of the Cheers bars, this one had nothing to do with the TV series in terms of production but was a reasonable facsimile of the bar although it is in what amounts to a conservatory. We pressed on without stopping for a drink but we penciled it in for later.
We were now in Boston’s North End district at The Paul Revere House which was the colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. Paul Revere was the man selected to ride through the night to raise the colonists in defense of their new just before the battles of Lexington and Concord. His famous "Midnight Ride" occurred on the night of April 18/April 19, 1775, when he and William Dawes were instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the movements of the British Army, which was beginning a march from Boston to Lexington, ostensibly to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord. Incidentally the idea that he cried “The British are coming!” cannot be correct as the colonists thought of themselves as the British. My recent reading tells me Revere was a silver smith and he is credited with having made a carving knife passed down through Bartlett family in the “West Wing” TV series but perhaps as fictional as that is my belief that he was a dentist who made George Washington’s wooden false teeth?
Close to Revere’s house we came to Old North Church which is the location from which the famous lantern "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent, again this is incorrect as the British soldiers were coming from the river not the sea. From here we quickly reached the Copp's Hill Burying Ground. It is the second oldest cemetery in Boston It contains the remains of various notable Bostonians from the colonial era.
On the Snow Hill Street side are the many unmarked graves of the African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the foot of the hill. In addition to the graves there are 272 tombs, most of which bear inscriptions that are still legible. Amongst these well marked headstones there is one of an activist who died before the War of Independence and this is chipped and pitted by musket balls from the Red Coats practising their aim on him.
We now crossed the river over a bridge next to the new home of the Boston Celtics, Julia did not enjoy the crossing as the path was metal mesh and the river moved clearly below it, I was struggling to walk upright due to my back but we were determined to finish the trail. Many times since my nephews did their 65 miles in a day charity walk we have drawn inspiration from their effort and we refused to give in.
Over the river are two final stages of the trail. First we followed the line to the naval dockyards housing USS Constitution. She is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel. Launched in 1797, Constitution was one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane and Levant. The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. As a fully commissioned US Navy ship, her crew of 60 officers and sailors participate in ceremonies, and we were given a free guided tour by a Naval Aviator. He was at pains to point out that her unique claim to fame lay in her being both commissioned and afloat as there are older vessels but none that fulfill both these conditions. He also pointed out that with a something and zero record the Constitution had easily the best record in Boston versus any of the sporting franchises. We were shown below decks and it was pointed out to us that the entire gun-deck was cleared for action including dismantling the captain’s cabin to allow the ship to fight effectively. Although much bigger than the Mayflower it still seemed small to cope with oceans and the thought of fighting other ships of similar sizes using gunpowder and steel make anyone think it must have been hellish. Incidentally I remember strange snippets of information at times and the one I recall is that the ships youngest crew members were between 12 and 15 but they had two of the most dangerous jobs in battle. The powder magazines had small hatches to minimize the fire risk so these boys carried gunpowder to the gunners and those who were not doing that carried messages between the ship’s officers and were therefore preferred targets for the enemy snipers. We also enjoyed the “Old Ironsides” museum on the base but then we set off for our final landmark.
We found our way to the Bunker Hill Monument was built to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill. The 221 foot granite obelisk was erected between 1827 and 1843 in Charlestown, Massachusetts with granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, conveyed to the site via the Granite Railway, built specially for that purpose, followed by a trip by barge. There are 294 steps to the top. The Bunker Hill Monument is not on Bunker Hill but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place. The Monument Association, which had purchased the battlefield site, was forced to sell off all but the hill's summit in order to complete the monument. Like many notable battles the winning side didn’t get the glory, although the British troops drove the colonists under William Prescott, who is credited with the “Don’t fire until you can see the whites of their eyes” line, from their positions on Breeds Hill they suffered such casualties that it was remarked by the colonists that they were happy to sell hills at that price to the enemy.
We found our way back to the hotel by underground and later after icing my back we walked round the block to another pub and had another excellent bar meal. There was American football on the TV and I fear I made a fool of myself trying to explain the game to Julia when I have only the most rudimentary grasp of its rules but we enjoyed the spectacle.
Opened in 1855 by Harvey D. Parker and located on School Street near the corner of Tremont, not far from the seat of the Massachusetts state government, it has long been a rendezvous for politicians. The hotel was home to the Saturday Club, also referred to as the Saturday Night Club, which consisted of literary dignitaries such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. John Wilkes Booth was also once a guest at the hotel.
The Parker House invented American foods such as Boston cream pie and the Parker House roll, and coined the term "scrod".
The original Parker House and later additions were demolished in the 1920s and replaced with an entirely new building. One wing of the original hotel remained open until the new building was completed in 1927.
As the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States, many well-known people have worked at the Parker House, including Hô Chí Minh who was a baker in the bakeshop from 1911 to 1913, Malcolm X who was a busboy in the early 1940s, and Emeril Lagasse.
John F. Kennedy announced his candidacy for Congress in the hotel's Press Room, proposed to Jackie Kennedy, as well as held his bachelor party here.
We enjoyed the whole experience of the hotel and found the staff at every level most obliging and friendly. Julia bumped into a porter while she was wearing her Brazilian soccer shirt and he was fascinated to discover that although she was not Brazilian but she had been given the shirt by Brazilian friends. He seemed to make a point of looking out for her from then on.
We set off from the hotel to get breakfast, Dunkin Donut again, and then to walk the freedom trail. At the Boston Common we checked out the price of a guided tour with a costumed guide but they were very expensive and only covered the first two thirds of the trail. We felt that our tracking skills, honed by visiting Texas, would see us through as we were merely following a thick red line on the sidewalk.
As our first point of interest we visited the Massachusetts State House, which is the state capitol and seat of government of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The building houses the Massachusetts General Court and the offices of the Governor of Massachusetts. The most notable feature of the building is the large dome. The original wood dome, which leaked, was covered with copper in 1802 by Paul Revere's company. (Paul Revere, who stars later in this account, was the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets in a commercially viable manner.)
The dome was first painted gray and then light yellow before being gilded with gold leaf in 1874. During WWII, the dome was once again painted, this time black, to prevent reflections during blackouts and to protect the city and building from bombing attacks. In 1997, at a cost of more than $300,000, the dome was re-gilded, in 23k gold. The gold dome means that a president, JFK, came from the state.
The dome is topped with a pine cone, symbolizing the importance of Boston's lumber industry in the early colonial days not, as we thought, a pineapple which could only symbolize our stupidity.
From here we walked towards our hotel to visit Park Street Church, a historic stop on the Freedom Trail. It was founded on February 27, 1809. The church became known as "Brimstone Corner", in part because of the missionary character of its preaching, and in part because of the storage of gunpowder during the War of 1812. Next to the church is the Granary Burying Ground which is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery. Located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere and the five victims of the Boston Massacre.
We were of course dealing with some mixed feelings about all the glorification of this rebellion against our lawful control of the colonies but we tried to go with the flow.
Next we reached the Benjamin Franklin statue and former site of the first public school, Boston Latin School which was opposite the side door of our hotel. Several times in the hotel we noticed people breaking their walk on the freedom trail for a drink in the hotel bar, it was either late on the walk and they only had a couple of stops left but if they were travelling in our direction we could see little prospect of them finishing the walk.
On a corner near to the hotel we arrived at The Old South Meeting House (built 1729), in the Downtown Crossing area of Boston, Massachusetts, which gained fame as the organizing point for the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. 5,000 colonists gathered at the Meeting House, the largest building in Boston at the time. Around here we were supposed to observe the old bookshop but it escaped us, there was a huge modern bookshop at this crossroads and we also noted the sculptures there as a monument to the suffering of the Irish in the Potato famine.
The Freedom trail next took us to The Old State House, a historic government building located at the intersection of Washington and State Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Built in 1713, it is the oldest surviving public building in Boston, and the seat of the first elected legislature in the New World. It is now a history museum operated by the Bostonian Society, a nonprofit whose primary focus is the museum. We moved past but later it was a great evening photograph as it was brilliantly lit against a strong night sky.
Next we came upon the site of the Boston Massacre, also known as the Boston riot, an incident that led to the deaths of five civilians at the hands of British redcoats on March 5, 1770, the legal aftermath of which helped spark the rebellion in some of the British American colonies, which culminated in the American Revolutionary War. A heavy British military presence in Boston led to a tense situation that boiled over into incitement of brawls between soldiers and civilians and eventually led to troops discharging their muskets after being threatened by a rioting crowd. Three civilians were killed at the scene of the shooting, eleven were injured, and two died after the incident. They say history is written by the victors but surely five deaths struggles to be described as a massacre? It hardly ranks with Wounded Knee. The site itself is marked by a metal plaque inset into the middle of a busy road junction.
We then reached Faneuil Hall, located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts, has been a marketplace and a meeting hall since 1742. It was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain, and is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a well known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty". It is an impressive building and we ventured off the Freedom Trail here to seek out one of the Cheers bars, this one had nothing to do with the TV series in terms of production but was a reasonable facsimile of the bar although it is in what amounts to a conservatory. We pressed on without stopping for a drink but we penciled it in for later.
We were now in Boston’s North End district at The Paul Revere House which was the colonial home of American patriot Paul Revere during the time of the American Revolution. Paul Revere was the man selected to ride through the night to raise the colonists in defense of their new just before the battles of Lexington and Concord. His famous "Midnight Ride" occurred on the night of April 18/April 19, 1775, when he and William Dawes were instructed by Dr. Joseph Warren to ride from Boston to Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the movements of the British Army, which was beginning a march from Boston to Lexington, ostensibly to arrest Hancock and Adams and seize the weapons stores in Concord. Incidentally the idea that he cried “The British are coming!” cannot be correct as the colonists thought of themselves as the British. My recent reading tells me Revere was a silver smith and he is credited with having made a carving knife passed down through Bartlett family in the “West Wing” TV series but perhaps as fictional as that is my belief that he was a dentist who made George Washington’s wooden false teeth?
Close to Revere’s house we came to Old North Church which is the location from which the famous lantern "One if by land, and two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent, again this is incorrect as the British soldiers were coming from the river not the sea. From here we quickly reached the Copp's Hill Burying Ground. It is the second oldest cemetery in Boston It contains the remains of various notable Bostonians from the colonial era.
On the Snow Hill Street side are the many unmarked graves of the African Americans who lived in the "New Guinea" community at the foot of the hill. In addition to the graves there are 272 tombs, most of which bear inscriptions that are still legible. Amongst these well marked headstones there is one of an activist who died before the War of Independence and this is chipped and pitted by musket balls from the Red Coats practising their aim on him.
We now crossed the river over a bridge next to the new home of the Boston Celtics, Julia did not enjoy the crossing as the path was metal mesh and the river moved clearly below it, I was struggling to walk upright due to my back but we were determined to finish the trail. Many times since my nephews did their 65 miles in a day charity walk we have drawn inspiration from their effort and we refused to give in.
Over the river are two final stages of the trail. First we followed the line to the naval dockyards housing USS Constitution. She is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. Named by President George Washington after the Constitution of the United States of America, she is the world's oldest floating commissioned naval vessel. Launched in 1797, Constitution was one of six original frigates authorized for construction by the Naval Act of 1794. Constitution is most famous for her actions during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, when she captured numerous merchant ships and defeated five British warships: HMS Guerriere, Java, Pictou, Cyane and Levant. The battle with Guerriere earned her the nickname of "Old Ironsides" and public adoration that has repeatedly saved her from scrapping. As a fully commissioned US Navy ship, her crew of 60 officers and sailors participate in ceremonies, and we were given a free guided tour by a Naval Aviator. He was at pains to point out that her unique claim to fame lay in her being both commissioned and afloat as there are older vessels but none that fulfill both these conditions. He also pointed out that with a something and zero record the Constitution had easily the best record in Boston versus any of the sporting franchises. We were shown below decks and it was pointed out to us that the entire gun-deck was cleared for action including dismantling the captain’s cabin to allow the ship to fight effectively. Although much bigger than the Mayflower it still seemed small to cope with oceans and the thought of fighting other ships of similar sizes using gunpowder and steel make anyone think it must have been hellish. Incidentally I remember strange snippets of information at times and the one I recall is that the ships youngest crew members were between 12 and 15 but they had two of the most dangerous jobs in battle. The powder magazines had small hatches to minimize the fire risk so these boys carried gunpowder to the gunners and those who were not doing that carried messages between the ship’s officers and were therefore preferred targets for the enemy snipers. We also enjoyed the “Old Ironsides” museum on the base but then we set off for our final landmark.
We found our way to the Bunker Hill Monument was built to commemorate the Battle of Bunker Hill. The 221 foot granite obelisk was erected between 1827 and 1843 in Charlestown, Massachusetts with granite from Quincy, Massachusetts, conveyed to the site via the Granite Railway, built specially for that purpose, followed by a trip by barge. There are 294 steps to the top. The Bunker Hill Monument is not on Bunker Hill but instead on Breed's Hill, where most of the fighting in the misnamed Battle of Bunker Hill actually took place. The Monument Association, which had purchased the battlefield site, was forced to sell off all but the hill's summit in order to complete the monument. Like many notable battles the winning side didn’t get the glory, although the British troops drove the colonists under William Prescott, who is credited with the “Don’t fire until you can see the whites of their eyes” line, from their positions on Breeds Hill they suffered such casualties that it was remarked by the colonists that they were happy to sell hills at that price to the enemy.
We found our way back to the hotel by underground and later after icing my back we walked round the block to another pub and had another excellent bar meal. There was American football on the TV and I fear I made a fool of myself trying to explain the game to Julia when I have only the most rudimentary grasp of its rules but we enjoyed the spectacle.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 17: Hyannis to Boston via Plymouth.
We set off early intending to pick up breakfast on the way out of Hyannis, after two false starts at local delis we were again at a Dunkin Donuts but this time they got the order correct. We needed an early start because we wanted to use our last day with the car to visit the Plimouth Plantation and Plymouth Rock.
We arrived at the Plimouth plantation, which is a replica of the first settlement which has been overtaken by the development of the town of Plymouth. The spelling Plimouth is to recognise the original spelling and to distinguish between the two places.
We arrived at the plantation and paid for tickets which gave us access to the plantation and Mayflower II which is docked in Plymouth.
We watched a short video before setting off into the plantation, partly to get our historic bearings but also to avoid the party of school kids who arrived at about the same time as us. The video told us that there were two major parts to the plantation. The first we would come to was the Native American, Wampanoag, village, which represented the traditional ways and life-style of the Wampanoag. It is staffed by modern Native People from a variety of nations (not in period character, but in traditional dress) who explain and demonstrate how the Wampanoag's ancestors lived and interacted with the settlers but also answer questions regarding their modern lives. We would then progress to the largest open-air section of the museum which is called the 1627 English Village, and it approximates the assumed layout of the original settlement, which is generally accepted to have been built 2.5 miles to the northwest, along today's Leyden Street and Burial Hill. This area is staffed by actors who have the characters and vocabulary of the original settlers.
The video and notices on the way to the Wampanoag village urged us to be respectful of the Native American heritage and suggesting that we did not greet them with “How” or call anyone “Chief”, it struck us as significant but depressing that these warnings were needed.
At the village we saw Native Americans making canoes, drying pelts of animals and cooking food. It was incongruous to get modern answers from them, and the school children asked some very interesting questions. While we were in this area it was also strange to see a party of Amish visitors doing exactly what we were doing. We also wondered how they had travelled there as there were no horse-drawn carriages in the car park.
We moved on through brilliant scenery alongside a lake and then up a hill to arrive at the plantation. Here it really felt like a step back in time despite the appallingly behaved school kids. If you asked one of the inhabitants a question they answered in old English dialect but, more impressively, they only answered within the limits of the understanding of the times they represented.
Someone asked, “Did you come over on the original Mayflower?”
He replied, “Aye, that was the name of the ship but I warrant there have been many ships of that name.”
We saw men thatching a building and others tending to animals but the most impressive character was a gentlewoman who told us that she had come to the New World because she had four daughters and in the normal course of events there was no prospect of producing a dowry for all four thus leaving two or three unmarried. The voyage to America had been a calculated gamble and she was aggrieved that having landed in New England rather than Virginia where they held title to lands, they were being charged extra money for every improvement they brought to the village. She also replied that the furniture in her house was English brought from her home but she had sold four times as much to raise the money for the voyage and provisions. She was upset that an entire bedroom’s furnishings had been spent on a musket and ammunition which they would have had no use for in England.
All through the village the school children ran wild, it must have annoyed the actors but in their characters they would have found it impossible to believe! Then we reached the church/strongpoint which doubled as a place of worship and the redoubt where the villagers would have retreated to in the event of being overrun by the Native Americans. On the upper storey of the building canons from the ship had been run out through gaps in the walls, here I watched a kid climb along the barrel to hang outside. He returned in his own time and nobody seemed concerned.
We decided to move on to Plymouth Rock. We parked on the sea front and walked back towards the Rock and Mayflower II. One was much more impressive than the other. To quote the web:
Visiting Mayflower II is an extraordinary experience. The details of the ship, from the solid oak timbers and tarred hemp rigging, to the wood and horn lanterns and hand-colored maps, have all been carefully recreated to give you a sense of what the original 17th-century vessel was like. Come aboard and learn about the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower, the perils of maritime travel, and the tools of 17th-century navigation. Explore the cramped quarters of the ship's passengers. Peer down into the lower level "hold," where the food, clothing, furniture, tools and other items necessary to start a colony were stored. Admire the "spacious" Master's cabin, and compare it to the wet and windy accommodations of the common sailors. You will also hear the tale of a modern Englishman's dream to build and sail Mayflower II as a symbol of American and British unity after WWII.
Mayflower II has many stories to tell and many people to tell them. You will meet staff in modern-day clothing who speak from a present-day perspective. They can talk with you about the original Mayflower as well as the reproduction vessel Mayflower II. Along side are reproductions of a 17th-century shallop and a ship's boat. On board, you may also meet role players in period costume who will share their personal accounts of shipboard life, playing the part of Mayflower passengers (popularly known as the “Pilgrims”) or sailors.
We have to agree with the above it was remarkable. Before we got onboard we learned about the Mayflower II, which is a replica of the 17th century Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World. The replica was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimouth Plantation, combining the American museum's ship blueprints with construction by old traditional methods of English shipbuilders. On April 20, 1957, recreating the original voyage, Mayflower II was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, under the command of Alan Villiers. The ship is seaworthy and sailed to Providence, Rhode Island in 2002. We noted that within a few details (electric lights added and ladder replaced with a lower-deck staircase), the ship is considered a faithful replica, with solid oak timbers, tarred hemp rigging, and hand-coloured maps, but the British Coast Guard insisted on a wheel being fitted to steer the ship rather than the arrangement which had served well for the first Mayflower.
Onboard we met the only in-character actor; he played the part of one of two master mariners employed on the voyage. He was bitter about the poor decisions taken by the company. Having set off twice at suitable times the Mayflower had turned back due to problems with the ship, they set off for the third time too late in the year. If they had set sail in summer it would have taken about six weeks to cross the Atlantic but travelling later meant a rougher voyage which took nine and a half weeks. Having arrived so late, it was harder to build a settlement and the during the winter the passengers remained on board the Mayflower, suffering an outbreak of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis. When it ended, there were only 53 passengers, just more than half, still alive. Likewise, half of the crew died as well. In spring, they built huts ashore, and in March 1621, the surviving passengers left the Mayflower. On April 15, 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth to return to England, where she arrived in May 1621.
Ironically there was nothing special to recognise about the Mayflower so it was not preserved, in fact in 1623, a year after the death of Captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was most likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London.
We enjoyed the Mayflower II but I had always assumed that Plymouth Rock referred to an area or a significant rocky outcrop used for navigation, instead we found it to be, well, a rock and putting it in a temple-like setting still made it a rock!
We made tracks towards Boston, the SatNav got confused when we were very close to our hotel but the Mark One Eyeball spotted our route and we were soon parked outside the Omni Parker House. We were very impressed by the OPH but I will leave that for the next chapter. We were able to check in and take our baggage to our room before setting off to return the car to the Hertz Rental Centre.
I am always impressed by the slickness of car hire and return these days, a quick scan of the car and a signature on our paperwork and we were free to go. We took the shuttle towards the airport and alighted at the underground station and were quickly back to the hotel.
We found ourselves very comfortable in the hotel and only ventured out later to eat, the hotel prices were such that we couldn’t even consider eating there. Within two blocks we found the Beantown Pub and we enjoyed a reasonable and filling meal.
We arrived at the Plimouth plantation, which is a replica of the first settlement which has been overtaken by the development of the town of Plymouth. The spelling Plimouth is to recognise the original spelling and to distinguish between the two places.
We arrived at the plantation and paid for tickets which gave us access to the plantation and Mayflower II which is docked in Plymouth.
We watched a short video before setting off into the plantation, partly to get our historic bearings but also to avoid the party of school kids who arrived at about the same time as us. The video told us that there were two major parts to the plantation. The first we would come to was the Native American, Wampanoag, village, which represented the traditional ways and life-style of the Wampanoag. It is staffed by modern Native People from a variety of nations (not in period character, but in traditional dress) who explain and demonstrate how the Wampanoag's ancestors lived and interacted with the settlers but also answer questions regarding their modern lives. We would then progress to the largest open-air section of the museum which is called the 1627 English Village, and it approximates the assumed layout of the original settlement, which is generally accepted to have been built 2.5 miles to the northwest, along today's Leyden Street and Burial Hill. This area is staffed by actors who have the characters and vocabulary of the original settlers.
The video and notices on the way to the Wampanoag village urged us to be respectful of the Native American heritage and suggesting that we did not greet them with “How” or call anyone “Chief”, it struck us as significant but depressing that these warnings were needed.
At the village we saw Native Americans making canoes, drying pelts of animals and cooking food. It was incongruous to get modern answers from them, and the school children asked some very interesting questions. While we were in this area it was also strange to see a party of Amish visitors doing exactly what we were doing. We also wondered how they had travelled there as there were no horse-drawn carriages in the car park.
We moved on through brilliant scenery alongside a lake and then up a hill to arrive at the plantation. Here it really felt like a step back in time despite the appallingly behaved school kids. If you asked one of the inhabitants a question they answered in old English dialect but, more impressively, they only answered within the limits of the understanding of the times they represented.
Someone asked, “Did you come over on the original Mayflower?”
He replied, “Aye, that was the name of the ship but I warrant there have been many ships of that name.”
We saw men thatching a building and others tending to animals but the most impressive character was a gentlewoman who told us that she had come to the New World because she had four daughters and in the normal course of events there was no prospect of producing a dowry for all four thus leaving two or three unmarried. The voyage to America had been a calculated gamble and she was aggrieved that having landed in New England rather than Virginia where they held title to lands, they were being charged extra money for every improvement they brought to the village. She also replied that the furniture in her house was English brought from her home but she had sold four times as much to raise the money for the voyage and provisions. She was upset that an entire bedroom’s furnishings had been spent on a musket and ammunition which they would have had no use for in England.
All through the village the school children ran wild, it must have annoyed the actors but in their characters they would have found it impossible to believe! Then we reached the church/strongpoint which doubled as a place of worship and the redoubt where the villagers would have retreated to in the event of being overrun by the Native Americans. On the upper storey of the building canons from the ship had been run out through gaps in the walls, here I watched a kid climb along the barrel to hang outside. He returned in his own time and nobody seemed concerned.
We decided to move on to Plymouth Rock. We parked on the sea front and walked back towards the Rock and Mayflower II. One was much more impressive than the other. To quote the web:
Visiting Mayflower II is an extraordinary experience. The details of the ship, from the solid oak timbers and tarred hemp rigging, to the wood and horn lanterns and hand-colored maps, have all been carefully recreated to give you a sense of what the original 17th-century vessel was like. Come aboard and learn about the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower, the perils of maritime travel, and the tools of 17th-century navigation. Explore the cramped quarters of the ship's passengers. Peer down into the lower level "hold," where the food, clothing, furniture, tools and other items necessary to start a colony were stored. Admire the "spacious" Master's cabin, and compare it to the wet and windy accommodations of the common sailors. You will also hear the tale of a modern Englishman's dream to build and sail Mayflower II as a symbol of American and British unity after WWII.
Mayflower II has many stories to tell and many people to tell them. You will meet staff in modern-day clothing who speak from a present-day perspective. They can talk with you about the original Mayflower as well as the reproduction vessel Mayflower II. Along side are reproductions of a 17th-century shallop and a ship's boat. On board, you may also meet role players in period costume who will share their personal accounts of shipboard life, playing the part of Mayflower passengers (popularly known as the “Pilgrims”) or sailors.
We have to agree with the above it was remarkable. Before we got onboard we learned about the Mayflower II, which is a replica of the 17th century Mayflower, celebrated for transporting the Pilgrims to the New World. The replica was built in Devon, England, during 1955–1956, in a collaboration between Englishman Warwick Charlton and Plimouth Plantation, combining the American museum's ship blueprints with construction by old traditional methods of English shipbuilders. On April 20, 1957, recreating the original voyage, Mayflower II was sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, under the command of Alan Villiers. The ship is seaworthy and sailed to Providence, Rhode Island in 2002. We noted that within a few details (electric lights added and ladder replaced with a lower-deck staircase), the ship is considered a faithful replica, with solid oak timbers, tarred hemp rigging, and hand-coloured maps, but the British Coast Guard insisted on a wheel being fitted to steer the ship rather than the arrangement which had served well for the first Mayflower.
Onboard we met the only in-character actor; he played the part of one of two master mariners employed on the voyage. He was bitter about the poor decisions taken by the company. Having set off twice at suitable times the Mayflower had turned back due to problems with the ship, they set off for the third time too late in the year. If they had set sail in summer it would have taken about six weeks to cross the Atlantic but travelling later meant a rougher voyage which took nine and a half weeks. Having arrived so late, it was harder to build a settlement and the during the winter the passengers remained on board the Mayflower, suffering an outbreak of a contagious disease described as a mixture of scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis. When it ended, there were only 53 passengers, just more than half, still alive. Likewise, half of the crew died as well. In spring, they built huts ashore, and in March 1621, the surviving passengers left the Mayflower. On April 15, 1621, the Mayflower set sail from Plymouth to return to England, where she arrived in May 1621.
Ironically there was nothing special to recognise about the Mayflower so it was not preserved, in fact in 1623, a year after the death of Captain Christopher Jones, the Mayflower was most likely dismantled for scrap lumber in Rotherhithe, London.
We enjoyed the Mayflower II but I had always assumed that Plymouth Rock referred to an area or a significant rocky outcrop used for navigation, instead we found it to be, well, a rock and putting it in a temple-like setting still made it a rock!
We made tracks towards Boston, the SatNav got confused when we were very close to our hotel but the Mark One Eyeball spotted our route and we were soon parked outside the Omni Parker House. We were very impressed by the OPH but I will leave that for the next chapter. We were able to check in and take our baggage to our room before setting off to return the car to the Hertz Rental Centre.
I am always impressed by the slickness of car hire and return these days, a quick scan of the car and a signature on our paperwork and we were free to go. We took the shuttle towards the airport and alighted at the underground station and were quickly back to the hotel.
We found ourselves very comfortable in the hotel and only ventured out later to eat, the hotel prices were such that we couldn’t even consider eating there. Within two blocks we found the Beantown Pub and we enjoyed a reasonable and filling meal.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 16: Hyannis & Provincetown
We breakfasted in the hotel and this was a mistake, we got up later than we had planned and went into breakfast near to the time that they would have closed. Rather than disappoint us they served us but the buffet was past its best and they were already laying out the room for an evening function.
While writing about the hotel I might as well add a few general comments, it was I feel the weakest performer in our list of hotels, the free WiFi did not extend to our room and the patio doors onto the car park were “secured” by an ad hoc piece of metal which could have been unbalanced by a determined squirrel let alone a human trying to gain entrance from outside. Neither of these things was significant as it turned out but the fact that we were often in the lobby using the WiFi there meant that we observed other failings of the hotel. On the first evening a coach party arrived. One couple placed their luggage successfully in their room and went out of the room only to find on their return that their key no longer worked and the hotel staff was unable to let them in. This meant that the same lady was sitting in the same place in the lobby when we set off for dinner as she was when we returned. Getting ahead of myself, the following evening one of two coach parties which had stayed the previous night returned as planned only to find they had been checked out rather than the other party which was not returning. The problem was not helped by the fact that the returning guests had been allowed to leave their baggage in their rooms but now couldn’t get in. It took a considerable time to get this sorted while the social event was building up in the restaurant area and some of those guests were being assigned the rooms which were already occupied.
Meanwhile back to us in the morning, we drove out of Hyannis towards Provincetown where the pilgrims had first anchored. We had decided to check out Provincetown at least in part because of this article:
Provincetown History Page
Provincetown is without a doubt the most eclectic of all Cape Cod towns.
How did it get this way? Is it because the Pilgrims who landed first in Provincetown decided the place wasn't for them so they sailed across the bay to found Plimouth?
Possibly, because as soon it was abandoned by the sober colonists it apparently became a port of call for the less upstanding of those who plied the oceans during the 1600s. According to Donald Wood's "Cape Cod - A Guide," the sand dunes of what was then called Cape Cod (what we now call Provincetown) sheltered "a wild, undisciplined and unprincipled crew of traders and fishermen from nearly all parts of Europe. Drinking, gambling and bacchanalian carousals were continued sometimes for weeks with unrestrained license." As settlers moved down the Cape from Sandwich and Barnstable and Yarmouth towards the tip, the town of Truro was incorporated in 1709 and the sandy hook known as Cape Cod and its big harbor was included. But this didn't stop the activities of the smugglers and the privateers who frequented the wild area. Finally, more English settlers arrived, the wilder elements were somewhat tamed, and Provincetown was incorporated in 1727. As a town, it then declined until the end of the French and Indian Wars when deepwater whaling became an industry. Provincetown's great harbor came alive. By the War of 1812 Provincetown had a thousand residents. During the war these residents remained neutral and after the war, as whaling activities grew, whaling captains, replenishing their crews in the Cape Verdes and Azores brought Portugese to Provincetown. As the whaling phased out, Provincetown became a center for the Portugese fishermen whose descendents are part of the backbone of Provincetown's economy today.
While fishing continues to represent a major part of life in Provincetown, today there is another side to Provincetown, which began at the turn of the 20th century when Charles Hawthorne established an art school. As an art colony Provincetown flourished and in 1915 when the Provincetown Players was established, it became a mecca for theater. Eugene O'Neill joined the players in 1916. Art, theater and fishing still exist side by side in Provincetown. As do alternative lifestyles.
As a place to visit Provincetown is popular for many reasons. Want to go whale watching? The MacMillan Wharf is the place to start. Want to people watch? The human parade up and down bustling Commercial Street is an endless opportunity to satisfy the urge. Want to climb higher than anywhere else on Cape Cod and then indulge in some history? Climb the Pilgrim Monument, rising 252 feet above the 100 foot hill it sits on. Its cornerstone was laid in 1907 as President Teddy Roosevelt looked on and President Taft attended its dedication in 1910. For all the details and more of Provincetown's history, the excellent Provincetown Museum is at the base of the monument. Exhibits range from memorabilia of Adm. Donald MacMillan's Arctic expeditions to the history of Provincetown-Boston Airlines, the first commuter airline in the country, founded in 1949 by John C. Van Arsdale.
We found parking difficult but that actually helped us as we were forced to drive through the area and from that we got our bearings quite well. We parked outside the town on the coast and took some pleasing photos, looking along the coast, back towards the town, featuring the brightly painted wooden houses on stilts to allow for high tides. We also got our first clear view of the Pilgrim Monument.
We drove back into town and parked in a large lot next to the whaling pier. We investigated the possibility of a whale watching voyage but it would have taken up too much of our visit with no guarantee of seeing whales. My whale expert niece, Kelly, told us we were heading to New England at a poor time for seeing whales and she should know having worked for the Whale Center of New England in Gloucester MA. We enjoyed the pier and the harbour area before setting off to find the Pilgrim Monument. It was hard uphill walking for me as my back was still hurting but we found the base of the monument and paid over our $7 to go up the tower.
The Pilgrim Monument commemorates the history of the Mayflower Pilgrims, their arrival and stay in Provincetown Harbor, and the signing of the Mayflower Compact. It is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. Visitors can walk to the top on a series of stairs and ramps. During the climb, we saw many interior stones donated by cities, towns, and organizations from all over the United States. The strange thing for us is that these names are almost all English town names which probably reflected home towns of the settlers either before or after the Mayflower. The view from the top is spectacular and we watched the Whale Watching boat leave harbour from the top of the tower.
On our return from the tower we enjoyed the museum which clarified the timeline of the pilgrims including their residence in Holland and their earlier attempts to leave England in pursuit of freedom of religion which did not prevail there at the time.
On our walk back towards the car we noted a plaque on a building commemorating the Ryder Homestead which as part of the “Underground Railway” had sheltered escaping slaves on their way to freedom in Canada, I only hope they were well prepared to deal with the Canadian Immigration Officials!
We also took in the memorial to the Mayflower Compact, which incidentally bears the signatures of the major players amongst the pilgrims amongst them William Bradford who is a relative of Julia’s Headmistress at Rosliston School.
We decided to sample a Lobster Roll having seen them advertised everywhere along the coast, we agreed to share one and I opted for their plainest version, just with butter. The experience was best summed up as an anticlimax; in fact the fresh tasty bread roll was the highlight. It was a $12 disappointment.
On our return towards Hyannis we switched off the SatNav and tried to follow the coastal road with mixed success. We did however find the world’s most deserted beach. We parked in a rest area next to a closed bar/restaurant where we were warned to keep off the dunes and that there was no life guard on duty. We resisted the temptation to frolic on the dunes and swim!
We returned to Hyannis with the assistance of the SatNav.
After tea in our room, you should be familiar with the routine by now; we went down to the indoor pool. We discovered that a rebellious spirit prevailed, while we swam in the pool, in the hot-tub were two middle-aged men drinking beer from bottles against the rules of the establishment as displayed prominently. Then, while we took their places in the hot-tub, without a drink, a couple took our place in the pool and found each other irresistible. They may not have been aware of us tucked to one side but they must surely have noticed the viewing area from the lobby! Discretion took us out of the situation.
This was our final full day with a car so we needed to fill the tank for the final time and we did this on our way to find somewhere to eat. The attendant pointed us in the direction of a local Mall and here we found a TGI Friday and one of our best meals of the holiday. Julia chose a chicken dish which was spicier than she could handle but we swapped and the both enjoyed our meals. It was also excellent value if a little less scenic than some of the other places we had eaten.
While writing about the hotel I might as well add a few general comments, it was I feel the weakest performer in our list of hotels, the free WiFi did not extend to our room and the patio doors onto the car park were “secured” by an ad hoc piece of metal which could have been unbalanced by a determined squirrel let alone a human trying to gain entrance from outside. Neither of these things was significant as it turned out but the fact that we were often in the lobby using the WiFi there meant that we observed other failings of the hotel. On the first evening a coach party arrived. One couple placed their luggage successfully in their room and went out of the room only to find on their return that their key no longer worked and the hotel staff was unable to let them in. This meant that the same lady was sitting in the same place in the lobby when we set off for dinner as she was when we returned. Getting ahead of myself, the following evening one of two coach parties which had stayed the previous night returned as planned only to find they had been checked out rather than the other party which was not returning. The problem was not helped by the fact that the returning guests had been allowed to leave their baggage in their rooms but now couldn’t get in. It took a considerable time to get this sorted while the social event was building up in the restaurant area and some of those guests were being assigned the rooms which were already occupied.
Meanwhile back to us in the morning, we drove out of Hyannis towards Provincetown where the pilgrims had first anchored. We had decided to check out Provincetown at least in part because of this article:
Provincetown History Page
Provincetown is without a doubt the most eclectic of all Cape Cod towns.
How did it get this way? Is it because the Pilgrims who landed first in Provincetown decided the place wasn't for them so they sailed across the bay to found Plimouth?
Possibly, because as soon it was abandoned by the sober colonists it apparently became a port of call for the less upstanding of those who plied the oceans during the 1600s. According to Donald Wood's "Cape Cod - A Guide," the sand dunes of what was then called Cape Cod (what we now call Provincetown) sheltered "a wild, undisciplined and unprincipled crew of traders and fishermen from nearly all parts of Europe. Drinking, gambling and bacchanalian carousals were continued sometimes for weeks with unrestrained license." As settlers moved down the Cape from Sandwich and Barnstable and Yarmouth towards the tip, the town of Truro was incorporated in 1709 and the sandy hook known as Cape Cod and its big harbor was included. But this didn't stop the activities of the smugglers and the privateers who frequented the wild area. Finally, more English settlers arrived, the wilder elements were somewhat tamed, and Provincetown was incorporated in 1727. As a town, it then declined until the end of the French and Indian Wars when deepwater whaling became an industry. Provincetown's great harbor came alive. By the War of 1812 Provincetown had a thousand residents. During the war these residents remained neutral and after the war, as whaling activities grew, whaling captains, replenishing their crews in the Cape Verdes and Azores brought Portugese to Provincetown. As the whaling phased out, Provincetown became a center for the Portugese fishermen whose descendents are part of the backbone of Provincetown's economy today.
While fishing continues to represent a major part of life in Provincetown, today there is another side to Provincetown, which began at the turn of the 20th century when Charles Hawthorne established an art school. As an art colony Provincetown flourished and in 1915 when the Provincetown Players was established, it became a mecca for theater. Eugene O'Neill joined the players in 1916. Art, theater and fishing still exist side by side in Provincetown. As do alternative lifestyles.
As a place to visit Provincetown is popular for many reasons. Want to go whale watching? The MacMillan Wharf is the place to start. Want to people watch? The human parade up and down bustling Commercial Street is an endless opportunity to satisfy the urge. Want to climb higher than anywhere else on Cape Cod and then indulge in some history? Climb the Pilgrim Monument, rising 252 feet above the 100 foot hill it sits on. Its cornerstone was laid in 1907 as President Teddy Roosevelt looked on and President Taft attended its dedication in 1910. For all the details and more of Provincetown's history, the excellent Provincetown Museum is at the base of the monument. Exhibits range from memorabilia of Adm. Donald MacMillan's Arctic expeditions to the history of Provincetown-Boston Airlines, the first commuter airline in the country, founded in 1949 by John C. Van Arsdale.
We found parking difficult but that actually helped us as we were forced to drive through the area and from that we got our bearings quite well. We parked outside the town on the coast and took some pleasing photos, looking along the coast, back towards the town, featuring the brightly painted wooden houses on stilts to allow for high tides. We also got our first clear view of the Pilgrim Monument.
We drove back into town and parked in a large lot next to the whaling pier. We investigated the possibility of a whale watching voyage but it would have taken up too much of our visit with no guarantee of seeing whales. My whale expert niece, Kelly, told us we were heading to New England at a poor time for seeing whales and she should know having worked for the Whale Center of New England in Gloucester MA. We enjoyed the pier and the harbour area before setting off to find the Pilgrim Monument. It was hard uphill walking for me as my back was still hurting but we found the base of the monument and paid over our $7 to go up the tower.
The Pilgrim Monument commemorates the history of the Mayflower Pilgrims, their arrival and stay in Provincetown Harbor, and the signing of the Mayflower Compact. It is the tallest all-granite structure in the United States. Visitors can walk to the top on a series of stairs and ramps. During the climb, we saw many interior stones donated by cities, towns, and organizations from all over the United States. The strange thing for us is that these names are almost all English town names which probably reflected home towns of the settlers either before or after the Mayflower. The view from the top is spectacular and we watched the Whale Watching boat leave harbour from the top of the tower.
On our return from the tower we enjoyed the museum which clarified the timeline of the pilgrims including their residence in Holland and their earlier attempts to leave England in pursuit of freedom of religion which did not prevail there at the time.
On our walk back towards the car we noted a plaque on a building commemorating the Ryder Homestead which as part of the “Underground Railway” had sheltered escaping slaves on their way to freedom in Canada, I only hope they were well prepared to deal with the Canadian Immigration Officials!
We also took in the memorial to the Mayflower Compact, which incidentally bears the signatures of the major players amongst the pilgrims amongst them William Bradford who is a relative of Julia’s Headmistress at Rosliston School.
We decided to sample a Lobster Roll having seen them advertised everywhere along the coast, we agreed to share one and I opted for their plainest version, just with butter. The experience was best summed up as an anticlimax; in fact the fresh tasty bread roll was the highlight. It was a $12 disappointment.
On our return towards Hyannis we switched off the SatNav and tried to follow the coastal road with mixed success. We did however find the world’s most deserted beach. We parked in a rest area next to a closed bar/restaurant where we were warned to keep off the dunes and that there was no life guard on duty. We resisted the temptation to frolic on the dunes and swim!
We returned to Hyannis with the assistance of the SatNav.
After tea in our room, you should be familiar with the routine by now; we went down to the indoor pool. We discovered that a rebellious spirit prevailed, while we swam in the pool, in the hot-tub were two middle-aged men drinking beer from bottles against the rules of the establishment as displayed prominently. Then, while we took their places in the hot-tub, without a drink, a couple took our place in the pool and found each other irresistible. They may not have been aware of us tucked to one side but they must surely have noticed the viewing area from the lobby! Discretion took us out of the situation.
This was our final full day with a car so we needed to fill the tank for the final time and we did this on our way to find somewhere to eat. The attendant pointed us in the direction of a local Mall and here we found a TGI Friday and one of our best meals of the holiday. Julia chose a chicken dish which was spicier than she could handle but we swapped and the both enjoyed our meals. It was also excellent value if a little less scenic than some of the other places we had eaten.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 15: Newport to Hyannis via Pawtucket
This was to be Julia’s heritage day, she had always known that she had relatives in New England but the prospect of going there had galvanized her into action. She learned from her mother that her mother was one of twelve children who grew up in the Ilkeston area a town between Derby and Nottingham, where lace making was a flourishing trade. Before the war two of the sisters, Ida and Bess, had taken their skill to Pawtucket where there was a need for lace-makers. Thinking how far away from Derbyshire New England is even when flying makes their decision to head for a new life in America all the more remarkable. Iris, Julia’s mum, had sent cards and letters to them for years before they both passed and she still had their addresses, as well as the address of a friend of theirs, Angie, who outlived them both.
After breakfast in the Dunkin Donuts we had spotted the previous night, which incidentally maintained the Newport tradition of getting the order wrong. We were able to get the order corrected and we set off having put Angie’s address into the SatNav. Pawtucket was not as industrial as we had expected and we found Angie’s house without any problem – it looked easily old enough to be unchanged since Iris had been writing to Angie. The house looked to be perhaps three flats and probably still occupied but we had no reason to enquire further so we moved on. The next address took us to a major junction, and was a huge seemingly recent block of flats. We took photos but really doubted that this monster featured in Ida and Bess’s lives. When we returned to England Iris confirmed to our surprise that the two ladies had retired to that block of apartments which was at that time reserved for women. Thinking about the size of the building Julia asked if there had been an apartment number which went with the address but Iris was adamant that her letters had always got there without such detail.
On the same road we had spotted in guide books and maps there was Slater Mill, an exhibit of an industrial mill built on the Blackstone River very much in the style of Derbyshire mills on the Dove or Derwent. Slater Mill is named after an English man “Slater the Traitor” who brought the mill machine technology to New England in secret and in considerable danger. As it was Columbus Day the museum was open and we decided to sign up for a conducted tour. We paid our $11 each, $1 discount for being members of the AA the British equivalent of the AAA, driving association. The young lady, in period costume, who took our money was excited to learn we were British, over-exited to hear we came from Derbyshire and almost overcome with excitement when we told her Julia’s relatives had come to work in the area!
Located on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Slater Mill is a museum complex dedicated to bringing one of the most exciting and significant periods of American history to life. Visitors to the site experience a time when an America of small farmers and craftsmen was poised to become the industrial leader of the world
In the Slater Mill itself, visitors are surrounded by vintage textile machinery bathed in the light of large windows. With expert commentary from costumed interpreters they can imagine the lives of the people – many of them children – who made the early mills come alive. In the nearby Wilkinson Mill they can feel the throb of the great 16,000-pound mill wheel, a replica of the original wheel that harnessed the power of the Blackstone River to make the era’s finest tools. Children get up close and personal with early production processes as they provide the power and operate miniature machinery in the Apprentice Alcove. And in the Sylvanus Brown House they can look back to a time when spinning, weaving, cooking and quilting were the stuff of everyday life.
The story of Slater Mill is the story of innovation, of labor, of artisans, of women’s rights, of the cotton economy, of immigration and assimilation, as well as the story of industry. It is culturally, educationally and historically important for people of all ages and origins to be able to come, see, touch, learn and be inspired at Slater Mill.
Our tour started in the garden of the Sylvanus Brown House and an enthusiastic man showed us round the house and the Wilkinson Mill although the mill wheel was not turning. On the shop floor above the wheel the machines were switched on using electricity rather than water-power, and we realised how noisy and dangerous the environment had been for the workers, the moving machine parts were lubricated with grease which pretty much coated everywhere including the floor so the workers operated barefoot to increase their grip and developed sign language to communicate above the noise. Most of them were close to stone deaf before they retired but in all of this they counted themselves very lucky to work there as they were paid about four times what they could earn in agriculture. The Wilkinson Mill produced machine parts for the cotton and lace industries which thrived along the Blackstone River.
Our guide to the Slater mill was the young lady from reception, her excitement seemed to increase as she took us through the exhibits most of which were in working order but some could not be switched on due to health and safety regulations.
The first machine which she showed us was a cotton picking machine, not picking the cotton from the bush but picking the seeds and impurities from the already picked cotton. The machine performed its task thirty times faster than it had been done previously by hand. She said that it was the invention and adoption of these machines which perpetuated slavery in the south because it had been uneconomic to farm cotton using slaves and owners were thinking of abandoning the practice.
We enjoyed the tour and set off again towards Cape Cod in mid afternoon. We planned on visiting the Whaling Museum but as we were running late we reset the satnav and followed its directions to the Heritage House Hotel in Hyannis.
Having checked in and taken tea in our room we drove through the harbour area to the Kennedy Memorial on the Lewis Bay waterfront and beside it the Korean War Memorial which in turn is next to Veterans' Park Beach. This was our first chance to walk on a beach this holiday. While we were there we noted several groups of three people, each group consisting of a photographer, a model and a director/minder. The group which claimed our attention was one where the female model was proudly pregnant, think basketball sized bump, in a bikini. We could only assume their pictures were for specialised tastes or she had agreed to the session some nine or ten months before.
The light was beautiful and I could quite understand the urge to capture some photographs and having done so we headed back to the hotel.
As was becoming our custom, I took a walk along Main Street to check out the restaurants while Julia swam. Everywhere seemed expensive so I had made no decision when we set off later together to settle on a place to eat. We had some domestic tension when Julia realised that she had forgotten her glasses and could not read menus or prices. Ever the gentleman, I set off back to the hotel still moving poorly due to my tweaked back. In the room I couldn’t find the glasses but picked up her spare pair, I finally caught up with her towards the far end of the street and we re-traced our steps. We finally settled on a cheap Thai restaurant with two starters and a main for $8. I was not amused when Julia opened her jacket to reveal her glasses hooked into her shirt! Oh how we laughed!
The meal was cheap and cheerful the two starters were balanced on the side of the main plate but everything was tasty.
We returned to the hotel as it started to rain.
After breakfast in the Dunkin Donuts we had spotted the previous night, which incidentally maintained the Newport tradition of getting the order wrong. We were able to get the order corrected and we set off having put Angie’s address into the SatNav. Pawtucket was not as industrial as we had expected and we found Angie’s house without any problem – it looked easily old enough to be unchanged since Iris had been writing to Angie. The house looked to be perhaps three flats and probably still occupied but we had no reason to enquire further so we moved on. The next address took us to a major junction, and was a huge seemingly recent block of flats. We took photos but really doubted that this monster featured in Ida and Bess’s lives. When we returned to England Iris confirmed to our surprise that the two ladies had retired to that block of apartments which was at that time reserved for women. Thinking about the size of the building Julia asked if there had been an apartment number which went with the address but Iris was adamant that her letters had always got there without such detail.
On the same road we had spotted in guide books and maps there was Slater Mill, an exhibit of an industrial mill built on the Blackstone River very much in the style of Derbyshire mills on the Dove or Derwent. Slater Mill is named after an English man “Slater the Traitor” who brought the mill machine technology to New England in secret and in considerable danger. As it was Columbus Day the museum was open and we decided to sign up for a conducted tour. We paid our $11 each, $1 discount for being members of the AA the British equivalent of the AAA, driving association. The young lady, in period costume, who took our money was excited to learn we were British, over-exited to hear we came from Derbyshire and almost overcome with excitement when we told her Julia’s relatives had come to work in the area!
Located on the Blackstone River in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Slater Mill is a museum complex dedicated to bringing one of the most exciting and significant periods of American history to life. Visitors to the site experience a time when an America of small farmers and craftsmen was poised to become the industrial leader of the world
In the Slater Mill itself, visitors are surrounded by vintage textile machinery bathed in the light of large windows. With expert commentary from costumed interpreters they can imagine the lives of the people – many of them children – who made the early mills come alive. In the nearby Wilkinson Mill they can feel the throb of the great 16,000-pound mill wheel, a replica of the original wheel that harnessed the power of the Blackstone River to make the era’s finest tools. Children get up close and personal with early production processes as they provide the power and operate miniature machinery in the Apprentice Alcove. And in the Sylvanus Brown House they can look back to a time when spinning, weaving, cooking and quilting were the stuff of everyday life.
The story of Slater Mill is the story of innovation, of labor, of artisans, of women’s rights, of the cotton economy, of immigration and assimilation, as well as the story of industry. It is culturally, educationally and historically important for people of all ages and origins to be able to come, see, touch, learn and be inspired at Slater Mill.
Our tour started in the garden of the Sylvanus Brown House and an enthusiastic man showed us round the house and the Wilkinson Mill although the mill wheel was not turning. On the shop floor above the wheel the machines were switched on using electricity rather than water-power, and we realised how noisy and dangerous the environment had been for the workers, the moving machine parts were lubricated with grease which pretty much coated everywhere including the floor so the workers operated barefoot to increase their grip and developed sign language to communicate above the noise. Most of them were close to stone deaf before they retired but in all of this they counted themselves very lucky to work there as they were paid about four times what they could earn in agriculture. The Wilkinson Mill produced machine parts for the cotton and lace industries which thrived along the Blackstone River.
Our guide to the Slater mill was the young lady from reception, her excitement seemed to increase as she took us through the exhibits most of which were in working order but some could not be switched on due to health and safety regulations.
The first machine which she showed us was a cotton picking machine, not picking the cotton from the bush but picking the seeds and impurities from the already picked cotton. The machine performed its task thirty times faster than it had been done previously by hand. She said that it was the invention and adoption of these machines which perpetuated slavery in the south because it had been uneconomic to farm cotton using slaves and owners were thinking of abandoning the practice.
We enjoyed the tour and set off again towards Cape Cod in mid afternoon. We planned on visiting the Whaling Museum but as we were running late we reset the satnav and followed its directions to the Heritage House Hotel in Hyannis.
Having checked in and taken tea in our room we drove through the harbour area to the Kennedy Memorial on the Lewis Bay waterfront and beside it the Korean War Memorial which in turn is next to Veterans' Park Beach. This was our first chance to walk on a beach this holiday. While we were there we noted several groups of three people, each group consisting of a photographer, a model and a director/minder. The group which claimed our attention was one where the female model was proudly pregnant, think basketball sized bump, in a bikini. We could only assume their pictures were for specialised tastes or she had agreed to the session some nine or ten months before.
The light was beautiful and I could quite understand the urge to capture some photographs and having done so we headed back to the hotel.
As was becoming our custom, I took a walk along Main Street to check out the restaurants while Julia swam. Everywhere seemed expensive so I had made no decision when we set off later together to settle on a place to eat. We had some domestic tension when Julia realised that she had forgotten her glasses and could not read menus or prices. Ever the gentleman, I set off back to the hotel still moving poorly due to my tweaked back. In the room I couldn’t find the glasses but picked up her spare pair, I finally caught up with her towards the far end of the street and we re-traced our steps. We finally settled on a cheap Thai restaurant with two starters and a main for $8. I was not amused when Julia opened her jacket to reveal her glasses hooked into her shirt! Oh how we laughed!
The meal was cheap and cheerful the two starters were balanced on the side of the main plate but everything was tasty.
We returned to the hotel as it started to rain.
Sunday, 28 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 14: Newport
We had taken advice from the reception staff about Newport and had planned, using the map they had provided, driving into Newport to buy breakfast then driving the route round the coast, known unsurprisingly as Ocean Drive, this would take us into the mansion area of the town where we would find the Tennis Hall of Fame and other houses to visit before we finished with the Cliff Walk.
It was Sunday so we were not hugely shocked to find few eating establishments open. We chose the Ocean Breeze Café, there was free of charge unlimited people watching but strangely we seemed to watch other people getting served while we waited and waited, some of the people served before us had arrived after us but as we are English we are pre-programmed not to complain. Perhaps that was the premise of an experiment we were unwittingly the subject of because when the order finally arrived it was wrong! The genius behind the experiment would now have claimed victory when we refused to object but in fact we were being pragmatic, we could not waste the rest of the day waiting for a re-cooked order.
After this annoying start we moved to phase two of the master plan. The Ocean Drive was stunning; every corner took us to another small bay. They were mainly rocky with moored motor boats and small dwellings which in fairness probably cost small fortunes.
We decided to take our photos on our return journey so we pressed on to the mansions situated on Bellevue Avenue; they are placed on the coast to provide an ocean view behind and a civilized location at their front. On Bellevue Avenue is the Tennis hall of Fame situated in the Newport Casino, which still operates as a members’ tennis club and the only grass courts available for public hire in the USA. Casino is a misleading name so I include the following to clarify, before reading it please bear in mind the adage that the “rich are different to us”.
The Newport Casino, home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, was first opened on July 26, 1880. The origins of the Newport Casino unfold as follows. The setting was Newport, Rhode Island, August 1879. James Gordon Bennett, the influential publisher of America’s leading newspaper the New York Herald, and Captain Henry Augustus Candy, retired officer of the Queen’s 9th Royal Lancers and skillful British Polo player, were the two key figures in the origins of the Newport Casino. Bennett, as a summer resident, was a member of the Newport Reading Room, a gentlemen-only club, which was a gathering place for prominent Newporters. As Bennett’s guest, Captain Candy also enjoyed the benefits of Reading Room membership. The story goes that one late summer day, the two men were up for some amusing entertainment and Bennett presumably bet or dared Captain Candy to ride his polo horse up onto the front porch of the Reading Room. Candy, without hesitation, mounted his horse and rode onto the porch…and then proceeded into the club! Although Candy won the afternoon wager, club members expressed their displeasure at the insulting disruption. The Governors of the Reading Room were also not amused and revoked the guest privileges of Captain Candy. Bennett was not one to be chastised and tempers flared, all resulting in the end of Bennett’s Reading Room membership.
Bennett’s loss was our gain, as Bennett turned his attention to building an establishment; a “new club house” to serve summer visitors that would be both public and private. In the late fall of 1879, Bennett commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to design and build the facility. McKim, Mead and White was the premier architectural firm of the late 19th and early 20th Century, and the Newport Casino was one of the firm’s earliest projects. Stanford White has often been credited with the Victorian shingle-style design of the Casino, although it was Charles McKim who was responsible for capturing the symmetry and balance of the Bellevue Avenue façade, inclusive of its revenue producing storefronts. The name, Newport Casino, was never meant to refer to gaming and gambling, as the word casino stems from the Italian word cascina, meaning “little summer house.”
Construction underway, the Newport Casino complex was built in only six months. On July 26th, a soft opening was held with guest admittance by invitation only. One week later, on August 2nd, the public was invited to inspect the premises and more than 3,000 attended. The Newport Casino offered a block of shops on Bellevue Avenue, a restaurant and gentlemen’s lodging. Archery, billiards, concerts, dancing, dining, horse shows, lawn bowling, reading, tea parties and theatricals, along with the staples of its present day offerings of lawn tennis, croquet, and court tennis, were all part of the social scene. Writing three days after the opening, the Newport News boasted, “It is doubtful if a more lively place can be found.”
With its centralized three-story clock tower, the main building consisted of ground floor shops and second story clubrooms (clubrooms solely for the private members). The Billiards Room was the most popular of the club rooms, lofty and spacious with full-size windows overlooking the courtyard. Towards the east of the property bordering Freebody Street was the Casino Theatre and Court Tennis building. A full-length piazza porch with upper and lower levels connected these two impressive structures.We parked in the lot of a mall opposite the THoF and went in. The initial area before entering the museum is hugely impressive the buildings of the club/museum wrap round a well tended grass court. Having been brought up playing on grass I would suggest that the grass itself was a little longer than perfect but I think that it was that length as play for the season had finished a week or two before and the courts were being allowed to recover. Since tennis is an upper class sport it will not come as a shock that this club, deep in the oldest wealthy area of the country, hosted the first national championships which grew, in turn, into the US Open.
Having paid admission we could wander the exhibits inside the museum and also the gardens and courts not open to the non-paying public.
In the museum we saw many tennis collectables and I now make my claim to fame. I would wager that of their many guests I would be the one who has hit with the oldest racket, on the wall amongst many others was a three stemmed wooden tennis racket, the Hazel Streamline, my uncle John had one when I had just taken up tennis and I got to use it. Strangely it disappeared somewhere between then and now and my cousins cannot recall its existence. I now see these rackets on sale for hundreds of pounds.
The hall of fame part of the museum left me a bit cold as I knew pretty much all of the inductees and their bios told me very little I didn’t know already. The museum part was pretty varied, there were old drawing rooms of vintage furniture and then there are modern glass cases with players’ kit and equipment. It was an impressive experience overall and it got better when we left the building and walked the grounds. There are multiple grass tennis courts, a clay court and a block of indoor courts. We then came upon a Real Tennis court, the oldest form of tennis played originally by such as King Henry VIII, the most famous example of a court being the one at Hampton Court, a royal residence. We wandered onto the viewing gallery and met up with a member of the club who was running a National Real Tennis championship which unfortunately was taking a break while we were there. While we in England call this brand of tennis “Real” the Americans imported it as “Court” tennis, both names seem to imply superiority to simple outdoor tennis.
After the THoF we drove back along Bellevue Avenue and parked in the car park for the Rosecliff Mansion, however we decided against buying the house with our entrance fee so we set off to find the Cliff Walk. We took a considerable time to find our way through to the walk, once on the walk we found it a little disappointing. The walk was billed as being flanked by the ocean on one side and massive houses on the other, which was true enough in its way but the ocean along there is bland compared to many other stretches in New England and the houses have protected their privacy with walls and fences. The owners of the mansions both famous and lesser have tried to avoid being overlooked from the walk even to the point of digging tunnels under their land to allow them and their guests to see, and get to, the shoreline without being bothered by poor people.
It was enjoyable and quite strenuous walking often over scattered boulders and we found our way back to the car after about two hours.
Now we retraced our path along the ocean drive and stopped twice for photos. We then stopped off in a larger bay where there was a pair of cruise liners anchored here we got into a discussion with an American couple of veteran cruisers whereas we were representing the cruisers of more limited experience.
We returned to the hotel and later went to the local estate where we ate at the 99 Restaurant which we found very economic and welcoming. We located at the same time a Dunkin Donuts which was penciled in as our breakfast venue the following day.
It was Sunday so we were not hugely shocked to find few eating establishments open. We chose the Ocean Breeze Café, there was free of charge unlimited people watching but strangely we seemed to watch other people getting served while we waited and waited, some of the people served before us had arrived after us but as we are English we are pre-programmed not to complain. Perhaps that was the premise of an experiment we were unwittingly the subject of because when the order finally arrived it was wrong! The genius behind the experiment would now have claimed victory when we refused to object but in fact we were being pragmatic, we could not waste the rest of the day waiting for a re-cooked order.
After this annoying start we moved to phase two of the master plan. The Ocean Drive was stunning; every corner took us to another small bay. They were mainly rocky with moored motor boats and small dwellings which in fairness probably cost small fortunes.
We decided to take our photos on our return journey so we pressed on to the mansions situated on Bellevue Avenue; they are placed on the coast to provide an ocean view behind and a civilized location at their front. On Bellevue Avenue is the Tennis hall of Fame situated in the Newport Casino, which still operates as a members’ tennis club and the only grass courts available for public hire in the USA. Casino is a misleading name so I include the following to clarify, before reading it please bear in mind the adage that the “rich are different to us”.
The Newport Casino, home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum, was first opened on July 26, 1880. The origins of the Newport Casino unfold as follows. The setting was Newport, Rhode Island, August 1879. James Gordon Bennett, the influential publisher of America’s leading newspaper the New York Herald, and Captain Henry Augustus Candy, retired officer of the Queen’s 9th Royal Lancers and skillful British Polo player, were the two key figures in the origins of the Newport Casino. Bennett, as a summer resident, was a member of the Newport Reading Room, a gentlemen-only club, which was a gathering place for prominent Newporters. As Bennett’s guest, Captain Candy also enjoyed the benefits of Reading Room membership. The story goes that one late summer day, the two men were up for some amusing entertainment and Bennett presumably bet or dared Captain Candy to ride his polo horse up onto the front porch of the Reading Room. Candy, without hesitation, mounted his horse and rode onto the porch…and then proceeded into the club! Although Candy won the afternoon wager, club members expressed their displeasure at the insulting disruption. The Governors of the Reading Room were also not amused and revoked the guest privileges of Captain Candy. Bennett was not one to be chastised and tempers flared, all resulting in the end of Bennett’s Reading Room membership.
Bennett’s loss was our gain, as Bennett turned his attention to building an establishment; a “new club house” to serve summer visitors that would be both public and private. In the late fall of 1879, Bennett commissioned the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White to design and build the facility. McKim, Mead and White was the premier architectural firm of the late 19th and early 20th Century, and the Newport Casino was one of the firm’s earliest projects. Stanford White has often been credited with the Victorian shingle-style design of the Casino, although it was Charles McKim who was responsible for capturing the symmetry and balance of the Bellevue Avenue façade, inclusive of its revenue producing storefronts. The name, Newport Casino, was never meant to refer to gaming and gambling, as the word casino stems from the Italian word cascina, meaning “little summer house.”
Construction underway, the Newport Casino complex was built in only six months. On July 26th, a soft opening was held with guest admittance by invitation only. One week later, on August 2nd, the public was invited to inspect the premises and more than 3,000 attended. The Newport Casino offered a block of shops on Bellevue Avenue, a restaurant and gentlemen’s lodging. Archery, billiards, concerts, dancing, dining, horse shows, lawn bowling, reading, tea parties and theatricals, along with the staples of its present day offerings of lawn tennis, croquet, and court tennis, were all part of the social scene. Writing three days after the opening, the Newport News boasted, “It is doubtful if a more lively place can be found.”
With its centralized three-story clock tower, the main building consisted of ground floor shops and second story clubrooms (clubrooms solely for the private members). The Billiards Room was the most popular of the club rooms, lofty and spacious with full-size windows overlooking the courtyard. Towards the east of the property bordering Freebody Street was the Casino Theatre and Court Tennis building. A full-length piazza porch with upper and lower levels connected these two impressive structures.We parked in the lot of a mall opposite the THoF and went in. The initial area before entering the museum is hugely impressive the buildings of the club/museum wrap round a well tended grass court. Having been brought up playing on grass I would suggest that the grass itself was a little longer than perfect but I think that it was that length as play for the season had finished a week or two before and the courts were being allowed to recover. Since tennis is an upper class sport it will not come as a shock that this club, deep in the oldest wealthy area of the country, hosted the first national championships which grew, in turn, into the US Open.
Having paid admission we could wander the exhibits inside the museum and also the gardens and courts not open to the non-paying public.
In the museum we saw many tennis collectables and I now make my claim to fame. I would wager that of their many guests I would be the one who has hit with the oldest racket, on the wall amongst many others was a three stemmed wooden tennis racket, the Hazel Streamline, my uncle John had one when I had just taken up tennis and I got to use it. Strangely it disappeared somewhere between then and now and my cousins cannot recall its existence. I now see these rackets on sale for hundreds of pounds.
The hall of fame part of the museum left me a bit cold as I knew pretty much all of the inductees and their bios told me very little I didn’t know already. The museum part was pretty varied, there were old drawing rooms of vintage furniture and then there are modern glass cases with players’ kit and equipment. It was an impressive experience overall and it got better when we left the building and walked the grounds. There are multiple grass tennis courts, a clay court and a block of indoor courts. We then came upon a Real Tennis court, the oldest form of tennis played originally by such as King Henry VIII, the most famous example of a court being the one at Hampton Court, a royal residence. We wandered onto the viewing gallery and met up with a member of the club who was running a National Real Tennis championship which unfortunately was taking a break while we were there. While we in England call this brand of tennis “Real” the Americans imported it as “Court” tennis, both names seem to imply superiority to simple outdoor tennis.
After the THoF we drove back along Bellevue Avenue and parked in the car park for the Rosecliff Mansion, however we decided against buying the house with our entrance fee so we set off to find the Cliff Walk. We took a considerable time to find our way through to the walk, once on the walk we found it a little disappointing. The walk was billed as being flanked by the ocean on one side and massive houses on the other, which was true enough in its way but the ocean along there is bland compared to many other stretches in New England and the houses have protected their privacy with walls and fences. The owners of the mansions both famous and lesser have tried to avoid being overlooked from the walk even to the point of digging tunnels under their land to allow them and their guests to see, and get to, the shoreline without being bothered by poor people.
It was enjoyable and quite strenuous walking often over scattered boulders and we found our way back to the car after about two hours.
Now we retraced our path along the ocean drive and stopped twice for photos. We then stopped off in a larger bay where there was a pair of cruise liners anchored here we got into a discussion with an American couple of veteran cruisers whereas we were representing the cruisers of more limited experience.
We returned to the hotel and later went to the local estate where we ate at the 99 Restaurant which we found very economic and welcoming. We located at the same time a Dunkin Donuts which was penciled in as our breakfast venue the following day.
Friday, 26 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 13: Lee to Newport via Mystic
We breakfasted in the Indian restaurant and the covered patio next to the outside pool. The breakfast area was too congested with food and equipment before the guests were added to the mix. Shortly after, but unconnected to, our arrival the power in the area went off and a circuit breaker had to be reset. This had the strange affect of breaking the timer on the waffle iron – by now we were highly experienced in dealing with waffle makers. We read the instructions, sprayed the iron with oil when required and always turned the device at the start. The ping usually announced when the waffle was ready but now no ping. We managed but it was enough to throw off several of our fellow guests.
There were two groups of travellers who we found ourselves fascinated by. They were a couple of about our age and a younger, somewhat overweight, couple with two very loud children. Our prejudices were such that we expected to find ourselves more aligned with the older couple but it didn’t finish up that way. The younger wife occupied the waffle maker feeding her noisy children while her husband disappeared, supporting our prejudice as stated. However the older husband was quite loud in his criticism of nearly everything and particularly his waffle which was only a mess because he had not followed the instructions. When he dropped something down himself we had the spectacle of his wife wiping him down as if he were a child, meanwhile the younger mother was sitting with her young children when the girl spilled her juice. The father was absent but in fact was in the cooking area timing the waffles for other guests using his mobile phone. The young boy shot off to get paper napkins and deal with the spillage. The grumpy couple continued to annoy us but we sort of agreed with them when the younger family deserted their messy table. Wrong again; they were only greeting some family members who were part of a surprise meeting concocted by the wives of the party. They returned to the table while the “timer” husband went to ask the reception desk about the charge to their visitors to have breakfast. Again I was backing the wrong horse; there were notices around trying to ensure all breakfast food was consumed in the eating area so I assumed they would charge any outsiders but the hotel were gracious and invited the visitors to eat for free. After breakfast the younger family cleared their table while the grumpy older couple left their mess to be cleared.
After breakfast we needed to move on promptly as we had several plans for our journey. Having loaded the car I returned to the hotel reception to check out, as usual no money changed hands but I did realise for the first time that our room on the car park side of the block was inferior to the lake side rooms with their balconies overlooking the lake.
Close to our route we had noted the Old Sturbridge Village, which is a living museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, which re-creates life in rural New England during the 1790s through 1830s. It is the largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres. We decided to look in on it, and if it was cheap, we would spend a maximum of an hour there. We came off the freeway and found it easily but it was expensive, over $20 each, which we reckon would have been good value for a day long stay but not for the short time we could allocate. We tried to rejoin the freeway but this time we encountered large lines for the toll booths. These were made worse by there only being one booth which accepted cash. Our mood was not improved by our battle to hold position in the line with cars leaving to risk the automated tolls and more vehicles forcing their way in!
Our spirits quickly picked up as we cleared the toll area and set off for Mystic.
We needed to hit Mystic for two reasons, we had all enjoyed the film Mystic Pizza and it was our best chance to add another state to our list, Connecticut.
We were totally charmed by Mystic; we parked in a residential area and walked back towards the centre of town which was the other side of the Mystic River, a draw bridge was due to be raised when we remembered that we had not locked the car, I returned to rectify this while Julia took possession of the camera and captured the bridge opening.
We found Mystic Pizza, but we already knew that the film was made elsewhere, and took photos. There was a big line to eat there but we did not have that in mind. We ate home made ice-cream next to the bridge and wandered the sea port area, I had reclaimed the camera by now or we would have only six photos to show for our visit. Julia struggles with the digital concept and still seems to think as if we had limited film.
Reluctantly we moved on to Newport and once again the satnav did us proud. We arrived at the last Best Western of this tour, the Mainstay.
At reception there was an English guest reporting on her dissatisfaction about pretty much everything concerning her stay, not a good omen, but we found the hotel great. The staff was helpful and everything was as it should be. Having settled into our room and enjoyed our tea, the travel kettle never let us down; I went out to explore hopefully to return with milk. Within easy walking distance, even for me still struggling with a sore back, I found an estate with a Wal-Mart and a 99 restaurant which we knew nothing about. I returned with milk, cookies and a new watch. Ageing is a daunting prospect but preferable to the alternative. I now have to buy big faced digital watches in order to read them without my glasses, fortunately they all seem to have similar set-up menus, because the first one I bought had a big face with big numerals but instructions with tiny printing that I couldn’t read even with my glasses! At school there were no such problems, unable to text on a new phone I would throw it to a pupil and they would have the skill masted in seconds and me taught in minutes.
On my victorious return to the hotel we decided to eat there. The food was excellent, stuffed scrod and cold beer filled us. There was a military feel to the bar/restaurant area because of the nearby submarine base but there was no rowdiness and we found it easy to get a good night’s sleep.
There were two groups of travellers who we found ourselves fascinated by. They were a couple of about our age and a younger, somewhat overweight, couple with two very loud children. Our prejudices were such that we expected to find ourselves more aligned with the older couple but it didn’t finish up that way. The younger wife occupied the waffle maker feeding her noisy children while her husband disappeared, supporting our prejudice as stated. However the older husband was quite loud in his criticism of nearly everything and particularly his waffle which was only a mess because he had not followed the instructions. When he dropped something down himself we had the spectacle of his wife wiping him down as if he were a child, meanwhile the younger mother was sitting with her young children when the girl spilled her juice. The father was absent but in fact was in the cooking area timing the waffles for other guests using his mobile phone. The young boy shot off to get paper napkins and deal with the spillage. The grumpy couple continued to annoy us but we sort of agreed with them when the younger family deserted their messy table. Wrong again; they were only greeting some family members who were part of a surprise meeting concocted by the wives of the party. They returned to the table while the “timer” husband went to ask the reception desk about the charge to their visitors to have breakfast. Again I was backing the wrong horse; there were notices around trying to ensure all breakfast food was consumed in the eating area so I assumed they would charge any outsiders but the hotel were gracious and invited the visitors to eat for free. After breakfast the younger family cleared their table while the grumpy older couple left their mess to be cleared.
After breakfast we needed to move on promptly as we had several plans for our journey. Having loaded the car I returned to the hotel reception to check out, as usual no money changed hands but I did realise for the first time that our room on the car park side of the block was inferior to the lake side rooms with their balconies overlooking the lake.
Close to our route we had noted the Old Sturbridge Village, which is a living museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, which re-creates life in rural New England during the 1790s through 1830s. It is the largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres. We decided to look in on it, and if it was cheap, we would spend a maximum of an hour there. We came off the freeway and found it easily but it was expensive, over $20 each, which we reckon would have been good value for a day long stay but not for the short time we could allocate. We tried to rejoin the freeway but this time we encountered large lines for the toll booths. These were made worse by there only being one booth which accepted cash. Our mood was not improved by our battle to hold position in the line with cars leaving to risk the automated tolls and more vehicles forcing their way in!
Our spirits quickly picked up as we cleared the toll area and set off for Mystic.
We needed to hit Mystic for two reasons, we had all enjoyed the film Mystic Pizza and it was our best chance to add another state to our list, Connecticut.
We were totally charmed by Mystic; we parked in a residential area and walked back towards the centre of town which was the other side of the Mystic River, a draw bridge was due to be raised when we remembered that we had not locked the car, I returned to rectify this while Julia took possession of the camera and captured the bridge opening.
We found Mystic Pizza, but we already knew that the film was made elsewhere, and took photos. There was a big line to eat there but we did not have that in mind. We ate home made ice-cream next to the bridge and wandered the sea port area, I had reclaimed the camera by now or we would have only six photos to show for our visit. Julia struggles with the digital concept and still seems to think as if we had limited film.
Reluctantly we moved on to Newport and once again the satnav did us proud. We arrived at the last Best Western of this tour, the Mainstay.
At reception there was an English guest reporting on her dissatisfaction about pretty much everything concerning her stay, not a good omen, but we found the hotel great. The staff was helpful and everything was as it should be. Having settled into our room and enjoyed our tea, the travel kettle never let us down; I went out to explore hopefully to return with milk. Within easy walking distance, even for me still struggling with a sore back, I found an estate with a Wal-Mart and a 99 restaurant which we knew nothing about. I returned with milk, cookies and a new watch. Ageing is a daunting prospect but preferable to the alternative. I now have to buy big faced digital watches in order to read them without my glasses, fortunately they all seem to have similar set-up menus, because the first one I bought had a big face with big numerals but instructions with tiny printing that I couldn’t read even with my glasses! At school there were no such problems, unable to text on a new phone I would throw it to a pupil and they would have the skill masted in seconds and me taught in minutes.
On my victorious return to the hotel we decided to eat there. The food was excellent, stuffed scrod and cold beer filled us. There was a military feel to the bar/restaurant area because of the nearby submarine base but there was no rowdiness and we found it easy to get a good night’s sleep.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 10: Corning to Lee
We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and looked to move on early as we had decided to stop off at Springfield to see the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Springfield Armory. When I say stop off we were in fact over-shooting Lee by about 30 miles because the following day we were heading onto Newport and wanted to visit Mystic en route.
Since Niagara we had repacked so that we only needed one bag in the hotel while the other, filled with dirty clothes, could remain in the boot (trunk) of the car.
When I took the baggage out to the car I twinged my back, although it was not as bad as sometimes I knew that it was not going to get much better sitting in a car for hours on end.
We found the Basketball Hall of Fame without a problem and got parked up. I was stiff getting out of the car but it eased as I walked in.
The BHoF was hugely impressive; we started on the top floor which was basically a gallery with the inductees listed in order of their induction, the walls are covered with photos and below that there are display cabinets with artifacts related to the inductees. Out of too many things to list I remember the ball with which Wilt Chamberlain scored his 25000th point.
The next floor down had galleries featuring coaches and players but with an emphasis on Michael Jordan. Amongst his life story I found no evidence for something I believe about him so anyone can support me in this if they find any evidence for it. I believe Michael picked 23 as his number because his older brother played in 45 and he would be happy to be half the player his brother was.
Finally the ground floor has a hardwood court and racks of balls which anyone can use. Amongst the miscellaneous shirts, balls and shoes on display there are interactive exhibits, you can try to jump up for hanging balls to test your rebounding skills and on a small court you can play virtual basketball against the computer.
While we were there also on display was the Chris Webber Collection. This is comprised of African-American art and cultural artifacts dating back to the 1700s. Included items like first-edition books by Booker T. Washington, and personal writings from Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. enhance the cultural and social significance of the exhibit. It occurred to us that he may have been inspired to collect such items after April 5, 1993, at Michigan's second consecutive NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game, Webber called a time-out with 11 seconds left in the game when his team, down 73–71, did not have any remaining, resulting in a technical foul that effectively clinched the game for North Carolina. The game marked the end of Webber's acclaimed two year collegiate basketball career. In the collection is a very kind letter from Bill Clinton, then president, he hand wrote:
April 9, 1992
Dear Chris,
I have been thinking of you a lot since I sat glued to the TV during the championship game.
I know that there may be nothing I or anyone else can say to ease the pain and discouragement of what happened.
Still, for whatever it's worth, you, and your team, were terrific. And part of playing for high stakes under great pressure is the constant risk of error. I know. I have lost two political races and made countless mistakes over the last twenty years. What matters is the intensity, integrity, and courage you bring to the effort. That is certainly what you have done. You can always regret what occurred but don't let it get you down or take away the satisfaction of what you have accomplished.
You have a great future. Hang in there.
Sincerely, Bill Clinton
Surely receiving such a letter may have inspired him to collect in this area.
We were slightly disappointed that although it is described in one of our guide books we did not see a moving pavement from which you try to shoot baskets in a series of “Hoops through the Ages”. I suspect it is a device they set up when the hall is busier.
There was a slightly pointed series of posters which displayed the following:
1962 Wilt Chamberlain – salary $65,000 – averaged over 50 points per game.
1971 Kareem Abdul Jabbar – salary $249,996 – averaged over 31 points per game.
2005 Lebron James – salary $4,320,360 – averaged over 27 points per game.
I wonder what salary Wilt Chamberlain could command playing today?
Before I move on I would mention one of the 2010 inductees, Bob Hurley Snr. He is described as a legend among coaches at any level; Bob Hurley has led St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City, New Jersey to 25 State Parochial School championships, three USA Today national titles and over 900 wins. Hurley gained national attention when his son Bobby graduated and became a four-year starter and All-American at Duke University. Bobby, along with Grant Hill and Christian Laettner, led Duke to two NCAA titles. Over the years, Hurley has been offered a number of college coaching jobs. He has turned them all down.
My only concern is that he is one of only three high school coaches inducted and he was more famous as a father than for doing such a great job himself.
After we finished at the BHoF we set off again to visit the Springfield Armory, we had an address which we put into the SatNav but we still found ourselves sitting in a school’s car park. I asked a couple of students who directed me to the school administration and they in turn directed us to the Armory which was in the same set of grounds – it was all a bit low-key.
The Springfield Armory was the primary center for the manufacture of U.S. military small arms and the site of many important technological advances in gun manufacture. Many different models produced at the armory from 1794 to 1968 were referred to as "Springfield rifles". The other major gun manufacturing center was the Harpers Ferry Armory, until its destruction during the American Civil War. It is now the home of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. It was a free museum and we had an hour to enjoy it before it closed at 5.00pm.
We watched an introductory video and as we progressed round the exhibits there were brilliant explanatory videos which showed how the various stages of firearms worked from muzzle loading to fully automatic. The museum was in two parts, one for the huge range of firearms and weapons they had collected there and the other for the developing industrial machinery used to make the weapons.
Soon after five we were back on the road to the Quality Inn at Lee, which featured in the hotel, strangely, The Bombay Indian Restaurant. Having driven as much it was tempting but it seemed expensive and Indian is a cuisine where you have to be in that mood.
After checking through the various pamphlets in the room we decided to drive into Lee and choose between a sports bar and a family restaurant.
Both restaurants had addresses on Main Street so it was a lottery as to which appeared first – The Locker Room Sports Bar was the winner. We parked on the street and headed in. We got seats at a table by the door and were greeted by the bar manager. We waited a while at our table and eventually one of the waitresses took our drinks order. Clearly we were not specific enough in that we would prefer our drinks that particular evening. We had menus and had decided on our choices but nobody seemed that interested.
The bar manager, who was an English guy from Essex, managed to point his staff in our direction again and we got our drinks, we also managed to order a pizza for me and chicken wings and salad for Julia. In conversation it emerged that he had spent the summer coaching at sports camps and was now doing this job through the winter. Strangely he found it much more surprising that we were there as tourists.
Being a sports bar we were not surprised to see local teams celebrated with displays round the bar area, their most successful sporting outfit was the local high school’s ladies basketball team and apparently they were well represented on the waiting staff. Perhaps they play a very physical brand of the game in that area and have sustained head injuries affecting their memories. Waitresses were often wandering round the bar offering orders to all and sundry before someone claimed their meal. Near us a group of three all got their starters together then two of them were served their main course and offered dessert before the third member of the group got her main course. When we got our meals they were fine except that it arrived with an extra large salad along with the normal sized one – we rejected it but still got charged for it until our Essex friend intervened.
Although it was the most disorganized staff we were quite happy with the evening, the food and drink were good, we were in no hurry and there was a good atmosphere.
When we returned to the hotel; the car park was absolutely packed and the Indian Restaurant was throbbing so perhaps it was well worth the high prices.
Since Niagara we had repacked so that we only needed one bag in the hotel while the other, filled with dirty clothes, could remain in the boot (trunk) of the car.
When I took the baggage out to the car I twinged my back, although it was not as bad as sometimes I knew that it was not going to get much better sitting in a car for hours on end.
We found the Basketball Hall of Fame without a problem and got parked up. I was stiff getting out of the car but it eased as I walked in.
The BHoF was hugely impressive; we started on the top floor which was basically a gallery with the inductees listed in order of their induction, the walls are covered with photos and below that there are display cabinets with artifacts related to the inductees. Out of too many things to list I remember the ball with which Wilt Chamberlain scored his 25000th point.
The next floor down had galleries featuring coaches and players but with an emphasis on Michael Jordan. Amongst his life story I found no evidence for something I believe about him so anyone can support me in this if they find any evidence for it. I believe Michael picked 23 as his number because his older brother played in 45 and he would be happy to be half the player his brother was.
Finally the ground floor has a hardwood court and racks of balls which anyone can use. Amongst the miscellaneous shirts, balls and shoes on display there are interactive exhibits, you can try to jump up for hanging balls to test your rebounding skills and on a small court you can play virtual basketball against the computer.
While we were there also on display was the Chris Webber Collection. This is comprised of African-American art and cultural artifacts dating back to the 1700s. Included items like first-edition books by Booker T. Washington, and personal writings from Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King, Jr. enhance the cultural and social significance of the exhibit. It occurred to us that he may have been inspired to collect such items after April 5, 1993, at Michigan's second consecutive NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship game, Webber called a time-out with 11 seconds left in the game when his team, down 73–71, did not have any remaining, resulting in a technical foul that effectively clinched the game for North Carolina. The game marked the end of Webber's acclaimed two year collegiate basketball career. In the collection is a very kind letter from Bill Clinton, then president, he hand wrote:
April 9, 1992
Dear Chris,
I have been thinking of you a lot since I sat glued to the TV during the championship game.
I know that there may be nothing I or anyone else can say to ease the pain and discouragement of what happened.
Still, for whatever it's worth, you, and your team, were terrific. And part of playing for high stakes under great pressure is the constant risk of error. I know. I have lost two political races and made countless mistakes over the last twenty years. What matters is the intensity, integrity, and courage you bring to the effort. That is certainly what you have done. You can always regret what occurred but don't let it get you down or take away the satisfaction of what you have accomplished.
You have a great future. Hang in there.
Sincerely, Bill Clinton
Surely receiving such a letter may have inspired him to collect in this area.
We were slightly disappointed that although it is described in one of our guide books we did not see a moving pavement from which you try to shoot baskets in a series of “Hoops through the Ages”. I suspect it is a device they set up when the hall is busier.
There was a slightly pointed series of posters which displayed the following:
1962 Wilt Chamberlain – salary $65,000 – averaged over 50 points per game.
1971 Kareem Abdul Jabbar – salary $249,996 – averaged over 31 points per game.
2005 Lebron James – salary $4,320,360 – averaged over 27 points per game.
I wonder what salary Wilt Chamberlain could command playing today?
Before I move on I would mention one of the 2010 inductees, Bob Hurley Snr. He is described as a legend among coaches at any level; Bob Hurley has led St. Anthony's High School in Jersey City, New Jersey to 25 State Parochial School championships, three USA Today national titles and over 900 wins. Hurley gained national attention when his son Bobby graduated and became a four-year starter and All-American at Duke University. Bobby, along with Grant Hill and Christian Laettner, led Duke to two NCAA titles. Over the years, Hurley has been offered a number of college coaching jobs. He has turned them all down.
My only concern is that he is one of only three high school coaches inducted and he was more famous as a father than for doing such a great job himself.
After we finished at the BHoF we set off again to visit the Springfield Armory, we had an address which we put into the SatNav but we still found ourselves sitting in a school’s car park. I asked a couple of students who directed me to the school administration and they in turn directed us to the Armory which was in the same set of grounds – it was all a bit low-key.
The Springfield Armory was the primary center for the manufacture of U.S. military small arms and the site of many important technological advances in gun manufacture. Many different models produced at the armory from 1794 to 1968 were referred to as "Springfield rifles". The other major gun manufacturing center was the Harpers Ferry Armory, until its destruction during the American Civil War. It is now the home of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. It was a free museum and we had an hour to enjoy it before it closed at 5.00pm.
We watched an introductory video and as we progressed round the exhibits there were brilliant explanatory videos which showed how the various stages of firearms worked from muzzle loading to fully automatic. The museum was in two parts, one for the huge range of firearms and weapons they had collected there and the other for the developing industrial machinery used to make the weapons.
Soon after five we were back on the road to the Quality Inn at Lee, which featured in the hotel, strangely, The Bombay Indian Restaurant. Having driven as much it was tempting but it seemed expensive and Indian is a cuisine where you have to be in that mood.
After checking through the various pamphlets in the room we decided to drive into Lee and choose between a sports bar and a family restaurant.
Both restaurants had addresses on Main Street so it was a lottery as to which appeared first – The Locker Room Sports Bar was the winner. We parked on the street and headed in. We got seats at a table by the door and were greeted by the bar manager. We waited a while at our table and eventually one of the waitresses took our drinks order. Clearly we were not specific enough in that we would prefer our drinks that particular evening. We had menus and had decided on our choices but nobody seemed that interested.
The bar manager, who was an English guy from Essex, managed to point his staff in our direction again and we got our drinks, we also managed to order a pizza for me and chicken wings and salad for Julia. In conversation it emerged that he had spent the summer coaching at sports camps and was now doing this job through the winter. Strangely he found it much more surprising that we were there as tourists.
Being a sports bar we were not surprised to see local teams celebrated with displays round the bar area, their most successful sporting outfit was the local high school’s ladies basketball team and apparently they were well represented on the waiting staff. Perhaps they play a very physical brand of the game in that area and have sustained head injuries affecting their memories. Waitresses were often wandering round the bar offering orders to all and sundry before someone claimed their meal. Near us a group of three all got their starters together then two of them were served their main course and offered dessert before the third member of the group got her main course. When we got our meals they were fine except that it arrived with an extra large salad along with the normal sized one – we rejected it but still got charged for it until our Essex friend intervened.
Although it was the most disorganized staff we were quite happy with the evening, the food and drink were good, we were in no hurry and there was a good atmosphere.
When we returned to the hotel; the car park was absolutely packed and the Indian Restaurant was throbbing so perhaps it was well worth the high prices.
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 10: Niagara Falls to Corning
Right away we feel the need to apologise to Corning as we totally failed to do it justice – sorry.
We set off from Niagara after a most satisfactory buffet breakfast which we found opposite the front entrance of the hotel, in a diner style building possibly related to the “My Cousin Vinny’s” restaurant. The set price was reasonable and the service was excellent.
We had a journey of some 150 miles and two hours forty minutes ahead of us so we set off shortly after breakfast. We found our way to the Rainbow Bridge and crossed it to the USA. I would love to tell you that we were greeted like long lost friends by the American Immigration service but they, in the person of the officer at the check point, were equally gruff and businesslike as our Canadian. Being fair I suspect that most interactions at the border are filmed for security purposes and no official would want to be seen laughing and joking with us if we were later identified as terrorists, although I do remember filling in a form previously where I promised that I was not.
Niagara had marked a middle point in our adventure and we were now making our way back to New England proper in a two day drive across New York State which doesn’t count.
We had decided to stop off at Watkins Glen State Park on our way to Corning because our notes from American Driving Vacations said cryptically, “If you did not have the opportunity to visit WGSP, you can do so on the way to Corning” Looking at our route map I cannot imagine any part of our previous journey that had passed close enough to make dropping in even remotely possible.
It was also a good thing that we reached Watkins Glen as we were nearing Corning so much of the journey was out of the way. We pulled into the State Park parking lot, having paid our $8 per car, at the bottom entrance of the park. We were notified that there was no shuttle bus running back down from the top of the park but we would not have taken it anyway.
Watkins Glen State Park is located on the edge of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, south of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County. The main feature of the park is the hiking trail that climbs up through the gorge, passing over and under waterfalls. The park has a lower part that is next to the village and an upper part that is open woodland.
Watkins Glen State Park is in a 400-foot-deep narrow gorge cut through rock by a stream that was left hanging when glaciers of the Ice age deepened the Seneca valley, increasing the tributary stream gradient to create rapids and waterfalls wherever there were layers of hard rock. The rocks of the area are sedimentary of Devonian age that are part of a dissected plateau that was uplifted with little faulting or distortion. They consist mostly of soft shales, with some layers of harder sandstone and limestone. The park features a trail by which one can climb or descend the gorge. Hundreds of stone steps climb over, under, and along the waterfalls. There are three trails: Indian, Gorge and Southern Rim. The Gorge and Southern Rim trails are closer to the waterfalls. The Indian trail takes you to the upper entrance, through the woods.
We took the Gorge Trail up and in due course followed Indian Trail down. I have been mentioning my use of the camera throughout the trip but this day we were obviously under equipped in that respect, it was “tripod day” ever twist and turn of the gorge was accompanied by a photographer complete with tripod pointing thousands of dollars of equipment up or down the running water. They mainly had a long-suffering attitude which grudgingly allowed us to share the park with them as long as we showed proper respect.
The path up the gorge was impressive, not Niagara impressive but still beautiful, and on several occasions we had to pass behind the falls and here there was no glass between us and the water. No rain capes had been issued but I was less protective of the camera having seen what it could withstand.
We followed a group of college boys up the trail and, being younger and fitter than us, they would have left us far behind except for their pauses to put their lives at risk leaning over big drops and sitting on bridge rails while taking and posing for photographs. My father used to remark, “the Lord looks after the stupid” often related to something I was doing, and it seems firstly he was right and, secondly, they put a lot of faith in that theory.
At the very top of the park there is the upper entrance with a picnic area with a concession stand, and outside of the park, fenced off with warning signs a disused railroad bridge. We last saw the college boys on the top span of the bridge hopefully they made their way down safely.
We came down the park by following the Indian Trail which was a quieter and dryer route than the way up. There were good views in places of the gorge but, more excitingly for us, since we presented no threat to the local Chipmunks they scampered quite close to us. I got a pleasing shot of one watching us from a tree stump.
It was perhaps 3.00pm when we returned to the car park and we then drove back into the village and parked again by the lake/marina. Here we got talking to a local sailor, who took tourists onto Lake Seneca in his yacht, he reckoned his season was almost over and he would only be going out if booked in advance. He also told us that there was a passage out of Seneca Lake meaning that he could navigate to pretty much anywhere from there. He was interested in our itinerary and was impressed by our mileage up that point but he couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm for Newport which was where we were heading in two days.
We arrived at our hotel, the Fairfield Inn Marriott without quite reaching Corning although we did pass its celebrated Museum of Glass.
The hotel was excellent and located on an estate with several shops and restaurants, we were resolved to eat locally and cheaply so we never ventured into Corning. I took a walk round the area and managed to put some credit on the AT&T phone that I had bought last year in Texas but was refusing to work this time. The credit on it previously had evaporated and I had to pay to add some more. I may be judging New England harshly but I felt that the same problem presented in Texas would have seen the store guy tracking down my previous credit.
My Adidas digital wristwatch had reset itself to midnight a couple of times on the trip so I started to look for a replacement but nothing took my eye.
In the immediate area, easy walking distance, there were several restaurants, a Wendy’s, a Chinese Buffet and Bob Evans, which when I looked at the menu seemed extremely reasonable. So we chose it, the food bragged about being simple and wholesome, think school dinners without the charisma. The food was filling and tasty enough but we made an error, the tea was dreadful, a tea bag of no particular flavour in water which was hot rather than boiling. After Niagara it was nice to be eating at a reasonable price and we left the restaurant having only parted with $30 including the tip.
We set off from Niagara after a most satisfactory buffet breakfast which we found opposite the front entrance of the hotel, in a diner style building possibly related to the “My Cousin Vinny’s” restaurant. The set price was reasonable and the service was excellent.
We had a journey of some 150 miles and two hours forty minutes ahead of us so we set off shortly after breakfast. We found our way to the Rainbow Bridge and crossed it to the USA. I would love to tell you that we were greeted like long lost friends by the American Immigration service but they, in the person of the officer at the check point, were equally gruff and businesslike as our Canadian. Being fair I suspect that most interactions at the border are filmed for security purposes and no official would want to be seen laughing and joking with us if we were later identified as terrorists, although I do remember filling in a form previously where I promised that I was not.
Niagara had marked a middle point in our adventure and we were now making our way back to New England proper in a two day drive across New York State which doesn’t count.
We had decided to stop off at Watkins Glen State Park on our way to Corning because our notes from American Driving Vacations said cryptically, “If you did not have the opportunity to visit WGSP, you can do so on the way to Corning” Looking at our route map I cannot imagine any part of our previous journey that had passed close enough to make dropping in even remotely possible.
It was also a good thing that we reached Watkins Glen as we were nearing Corning so much of the journey was out of the way. We pulled into the State Park parking lot, having paid our $8 per car, at the bottom entrance of the park. We were notified that there was no shuttle bus running back down from the top of the park but we would not have taken it anyway.
Watkins Glen State Park is located on the edge of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, south of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County. The main feature of the park is the hiking trail that climbs up through the gorge, passing over and under waterfalls. The park has a lower part that is next to the village and an upper part that is open woodland.
Watkins Glen State Park is in a 400-foot-deep narrow gorge cut through rock by a stream that was left hanging when glaciers of the Ice age deepened the Seneca valley, increasing the tributary stream gradient to create rapids and waterfalls wherever there were layers of hard rock. The rocks of the area are sedimentary of Devonian age that are part of a dissected plateau that was uplifted with little faulting or distortion. They consist mostly of soft shales, with some layers of harder sandstone and limestone. The park features a trail by which one can climb or descend the gorge. Hundreds of stone steps climb over, under, and along the waterfalls. There are three trails: Indian, Gorge and Southern Rim. The Gorge and Southern Rim trails are closer to the waterfalls. The Indian trail takes you to the upper entrance, through the woods.
We took the Gorge Trail up and in due course followed Indian Trail down. I have been mentioning my use of the camera throughout the trip but this day we were obviously under equipped in that respect, it was “tripod day” ever twist and turn of the gorge was accompanied by a photographer complete with tripod pointing thousands of dollars of equipment up or down the running water. They mainly had a long-suffering attitude which grudgingly allowed us to share the park with them as long as we showed proper respect.
The path up the gorge was impressive, not Niagara impressive but still beautiful, and on several occasions we had to pass behind the falls and here there was no glass between us and the water. No rain capes had been issued but I was less protective of the camera having seen what it could withstand.
We followed a group of college boys up the trail and, being younger and fitter than us, they would have left us far behind except for their pauses to put their lives at risk leaning over big drops and sitting on bridge rails while taking and posing for photographs. My father used to remark, “the Lord looks after the stupid” often related to something I was doing, and it seems firstly he was right and, secondly, they put a lot of faith in that theory.
At the very top of the park there is the upper entrance with a picnic area with a concession stand, and outside of the park, fenced off with warning signs a disused railroad bridge. We last saw the college boys on the top span of the bridge hopefully they made their way down safely.
We came down the park by following the Indian Trail which was a quieter and dryer route than the way up. There were good views in places of the gorge but, more excitingly for us, since we presented no threat to the local Chipmunks they scampered quite close to us. I got a pleasing shot of one watching us from a tree stump.
It was perhaps 3.00pm when we returned to the car park and we then drove back into the village and parked again by the lake/marina. Here we got talking to a local sailor, who took tourists onto Lake Seneca in his yacht, he reckoned his season was almost over and he would only be going out if booked in advance. He also told us that there was a passage out of Seneca Lake meaning that he could navigate to pretty much anywhere from there. He was interested in our itinerary and was impressed by our mileage up that point but he couldn’t summon up any enthusiasm for Newport which was where we were heading in two days.
We arrived at our hotel, the Fairfield Inn Marriott without quite reaching Corning although we did pass its celebrated Museum of Glass.
The hotel was excellent and located on an estate with several shops and restaurants, we were resolved to eat locally and cheaply so we never ventured into Corning. I took a walk round the area and managed to put some credit on the AT&T phone that I had bought last year in Texas but was refusing to work this time. The credit on it previously had evaporated and I had to pay to add some more. I may be judging New England harshly but I felt that the same problem presented in Texas would have seen the store guy tracking down my previous credit.
My Adidas digital wristwatch had reset itself to midnight a couple of times on the trip so I started to look for a replacement but nothing took my eye.
In the immediate area, easy walking distance, there were several restaurants, a Wendy’s, a Chinese Buffet and Bob Evans, which when I looked at the menu seemed extremely reasonable. So we chose it, the food bragged about being simple and wholesome, think school dinners without the charisma. The food was filling and tasty enough but we made an error, the tea was dreadful, a tea bag of no particular flavour in water which was hot rather than boiling. After Niagara it was nice to be eating at a reasonable price and we left the restaurant having only parted with $30 including the tip.
Monday, 8 November 2010
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 10: Niagara Falls
Julia threw open the curtains at about 8.00am and enjoyed the view as would have anyone glancing our way as she was straight out of bed and wearing nothing, such was her excitement about the place we found ourselves. We have remarked several times that we need to pinch ourselves to test if we are dreaming, since retirement we have seen amongst other places Pompeii, The Pyramids of Gisa, Mount Vesuvius, Venice and now Niagara Falls. Julia being a geologist finds the natural sights the most exciting and the falls had her gripped.
We retraced my steps from the day before and found the IHOP, but, as it was attached to another hotel, it was expensive to eat the basic stack of three pancakes.
After breakfast we set off to explore the falls area. We refused the hillside railway and looked for an alternative way down to the water’s edge which we failed to find; reluctantly we paid up for the railway. A journey of about three minutes down the hillside took us to the Table Rock House Plaza where we were to purchase our attraction tickets. The Joint ticket which gave us four attractions seemed expensive so we decided to buy a ticket to “Behind the Falls” and later one to ride on the “Maid of the Mist”. However after enjoying the view from a midway observation platform we saw the huge line for the “Behind the Falls”, I offered to go back and buy a joint ticket as there had been no line there. When I returned the line had shrunk dramatically but we still gained a small advantage as we were able to go in ahead of those queuing by taking the pre paid line.
We were photographed against a blue screen in order that we could select the backdrop of our choice on our return through. It seems strange that one of nature’s wonders is right there but they fake the photographs using computer effects, I cannot understand why they don’t make me taller and thinner and put me in front of the Grand Canyon!
After the photograph we were given yellow rain capes to protect us from the spray.
To quote the brochure:
Visitors to Niagara Falls can enjoy the thunder of the waters from a completely different perspective by visiting The Journey Behind The Falls attraction. The observation platform at the base of the falls is easily reached by elevators and a network of tunnels. Two other tunnels provide a close-up view of the Falls from behind. The tunnels extend only 46 metres behind the waterfall, so there is not a lot of walking and you can explore it all at your leisure: the excursion is completely self-guided.
The view of the falls through the openings at the end of the tunnels is merely of a solid sheet of water but the awe comes from the noise and vibration caused by the volume of water rushing down. After being behind the falls we emerged onto an observation platform and photographed and videoed the horse shoe shaped falls. While we were there the Maid of the Mist arrived at the foot of the falls, it pushed its engines hard to get deep into the spray where it held its position for several minutes before retreating. I’m sure the force of the water pushes the boat down river without much help from the engine. The demand for the boat trip is such that at any given moment there are three Maids of the Mist in action.
As we left the BTF area we took in the “Niagara’s Fury – The Creation of the Falls” the least impressive of our four attractions. Once again we were issued with rain capes and we stood and watched a folksy film about a beaver on school detention having to write an essay on the geology that created the Falls – I thought Julia might be spellbound by this but no it was a bit too Alvin and the Chipmunks even for her! Following the film we were ushered into a circular area, suspiciously with a metal grid for a floor, and told to hang onto the supports which rose from the floor. Now we experienced the Fury!!!
To quote;
The temperature will drop. Water will bubble and spray while snow falls all around. Standing on a massive platform you will feel the wrath of Mother Nature as the floor tilts and trembles beneath you. This is Niagara's Fury! Niagara Parks has recreated the amazing sights and sounds of the Creation of Niagara Falls. Incredible images developed with technology used previously only in satellites and medicine will immerse you in a 4D Universal Studios-style attraction.
If you are me you’ll struggle to be impressed.
We handed in our rain capes and moved on towards the Maid of the Mist.
We passed in our voucher, got issued with blue rain capes and boarded the next boat, within minutes we set off past the American Falls noting as we went the smaller falls alongside, called the Bridesmaid. The American Falls is higher than the Canadian and more dangerous because of there being more rocks at its base so nobody has ever attempted to go over them in a barrel.
Before we reached the Canadian Falls we had the spot pointed out where a young boy was picked up alive having been swept over the Falls in a small canoe wearing only a life jacket – his father was with him but didn’t survive. The boy was picked up by one of the MOTM’s which was carrying tourists at the time.
As we neared the base of the falls we were drenched by the spray, deafened by the noise and struggling against the water pressure – we were so impressed!
We have some great pictures and video - despite my worrying both cameras survived – I was really fearful for their survival when every surface was wet to the touch.
Next we caught the free people mover along the shoreline to the final of our booked attractions, the White Water Walk. Here we again took an elevator down to the river side and walked along a boardwalk slightly above the river close enough to fully appreciate the power of the rapids and the speed of the river. At the start of the walk there was a display of the feats of daring attempted in the area. Look up Daredevils of Niagara Falls on Google or your favourite search engine it has to be read to be believed. Here are some examples:
Going over the falls in a barrel:
July 11th 1920 - Englishman Charles G. Stephens equipped his wooden barrel with an anvil for ballast. Charles tied himself to the anvil for security. After the plunge, Chuck’s right arm was the only item left in the barrel.
July 5th 1930 - A Greek waiter named George L. Statakis suffocated to death after his barrel was trapped behind the falls for more than 14 hours.
The one I remember from the display was a woman who went over the falls in a barrel accompanied by her pet dog, she suffocated in the barrel before she was rescued because her dog blocked the only air hole by putting its nose through it thus cutting off any air into the barrel but surviving itself – Man’s best friend?
Tightrope walking over the Falls:
On June 30, 1859, the “Great Blondin” walked along a tightrope suspended above the rapids of Niagara Falls, becoming the first man to walk across the Falls. His first tightrope walk across Niagara Falls earned him international fame, and he repeated the walk in many different fashions. According to the Niagara Parks Commission, by his career’s end, Blondin had crossed Niagara Falls on tightrope while carrying a wheelbarrow, cooking an omelet, carrying his manager on his back, and doing a somersault on stilts. The number of times Blondin crossed Niagara varies by account from eight to 21.
It was a restful finish to the attractions and we were able to catch the free bus back to the hotel. After a brew in our room, once again Julia had a swim or bath while I took some great photos of the Canadian falls with a rainbow caused by the sun shining through the mist. I was also charged with finding the evening’s restaurant and I chose “My Cousin Vinney’s” party due to my affection for the film of the same name and partly because I thought it was unconnected to any hotel.
Sadly I was wrong on the second count and the place charged like a wounded bull, we passed the $70 mark for the first and only time and the meal was no better than average.
However Julia refused to be downhearted as we went to bed with one of the great sights of the world.
We retraced my steps from the day before and found the IHOP, but, as it was attached to another hotel, it was expensive to eat the basic stack of three pancakes.
After breakfast we set off to explore the falls area. We refused the hillside railway and looked for an alternative way down to the water’s edge which we failed to find; reluctantly we paid up for the railway. A journey of about three minutes down the hillside took us to the Table Rock House Plaza where we were to purchase our attraction tickets. The Joint ticket which gave us four attractions seemed expensive so we decided to buy a ticket to “Behind the Falls” and later one to ride on the “Maid of the Mist”. However after enjoying the view from a midway observation platform we saw the huge line for the “Behind the Falls”, I offered to go back and buy a joint ticket as there had been no line there. When I returned the line had shrunk dramatically but we still gained a small advantage as we were able to go in ahead of those queuing by taking the pre paid line.
We were photographed against a blue screen in order that we could select the backdrop of our choice on our return through. It seems strange that one of nature’s wonders is right there but they fake the photographs using computer effects, I cannot understand why they don’t make me taller and thinner and put me in front of the Grand Canyon!
After the photograph we were given yellow rain capes to protect us from the spray.
To quote the brochure:
Visitors to Niagara Falls can enjoy the thunder of the waters from a completely different perspective by visiting The Journey Behind The Falls attraction. The observation platform at the base of the falls is easily reached by elevators and a network of tunnels. Two other tunnels provide a close-up view of the Falls from behind. The tunnels extend only 46 metres behind the waterfall, so there is not a lot of walking and you can explore it all at your leisure: the excursion is completely self-guided.
The view of the falls through the openings at the end of the tunnels is merely of a solid sheet of water but the awe comes from the noise and vibration caused by the volume of water rushing down. After being behind the falls we emerged onto an observation platform and photographed and videoed the horse shoe shaped falls. While we were there the Maid of the Mist arrived at the foot of the falls, it pushed its engines hard to get deep into the spray where it held its position for several minutes before retreating. I’m sure the force of the water pushes the boat down river without much help from the engine. The demand for the boat trip is such that at any given moment there are three Maids of the Mist in action.
As we left the BTF area we took in the “Niagara’s Fury – The Creation of the Falls” the least impressive of our four attractions. Once again we were issued with rain capes and we stood and watched a folksy film about a beaver on school detention having to write an essay on the geology that created the Falls – I thought Julia might be spellbound by this but no it was a bit too Alvin and the Chipmunks even for her! Following the film we were ushered into a circular area, suspiciously with a metal grid for a floor, and told to hang onto the supports which rose from the floor. Now we experienced the Fury!!!
To quote;
The temperature will drop. Water will bubble and spray while snow falls all around. Standing on a massive platform you will feel the wrath of Mother Nature as the floor tilts and trembles beneath you. This is Niagara's Fury! Niagara Parks has recreated the amazing sights and sounds of the Creation of Niagara Falls. Incredible images developed with technology used previously only in satellites and medicine will immerse you in a 4D Universal Studios-style attraction.
If you are me you’ll struggle to be impressed.
We handed in our rain capes and moved on towards the Maid of the Mist.
We passed in our voucher, got issued with blue rain capes and boarded the next boat, within minutes we set off past the American Falls noting as we went the smaller falls alongside, called the Bridesmaid. The American Falls is higher than the Canadian and more dangerous because of there being more rocks at its base so nobody has ever attempted to go over them in a barrel.
Before we reached the Canadian Falls we had the spot pointed out where a young boy was picked up alive having been swept over the Falls in a small canoe wearing only a life jacket – his father was with him but didn’t survive. The boy was picked up by one of the MOTM’s which was carrying tourists at the time.
As we neared the base of the falls we were drenched by the spray, deafened by the noise and struggling against the water pressure – we were so impressed!
We have some great pictures and video - despite my worrying both cameras survived – I was really fearful for their survival when every surface was wet to the touch.
Next we caught the free people mover along the shoreline to the final of our booked attractions, the White Water Walk. Here we again took an elevator down to the river side and walked along a boardwalk slightly above the river close enough to fully appreciate the power of the rapids and the speed of the river. At the start of the walk there was a display of the feats of daring attempted in the area. Look up Daredevils of Niagara Falls on Google or your favourite search engine it has to be read to be believed. Here are some examples:
Going over the falls in a barrel:
July 11th 1920 - Englishman Charles G. Stephens equipped his wooden barrel with an anvil for ballast. Charles tied himself to the anvil for security. After the plunge, Chuck’s right arm was the only item left in the barrel.
July 5th 1930 - A Greek waiter named George L. Statakis suffocated to death after his barrel was trapped behind the falls for more than 14 hours.
The one I remember from the display was a woman who went over the falls in a barrel accompanied by her pet dog, she suffocated in the barrel before she was rescued because her dog blocked the only air hole by putting its nose through it thus cutting off any air into the barrel but surviving itself – Man’s best friend?
Tightrope walking over the Falls:
On June 30, 1859, the “Great Blondin” walked along a tightrope suspended above the rapids of Niagara Falls, becoming the first man to walk across the Falls. His first tightrope walk across Niagara Falls earned him international fame, and he repeated the walk in many different fashions. According to the Niagara Parks Commission, by his career’s end, Blondin had crossed Niagara Falls on tightrope while carrying a wheelbarrow, cooking an omelet, carrying his manager on his back, and doing a somersault on stilts. The number of times Blondin crossed Niagara varies by account from eight to 21.
It was a restful finish to the attractions and we were able to catch the free bus back to the hotel. After a brew in our room, once again Julia had a swim or bath while I took some great photos of the Canadian falls with a rainbow caused by the sun shining through the mist. I was also charged with finding the evening’s restaurant and I chose “My Cousin Vinney’s” party due to my affection for the film of the same name and partly because I thought it was unconnected to any hotel.
Sadly I was wrong on the second count and the place charged like a wounded bull, we passed the $70 mark for the first and only time and the meal was no better than average.
However Julia refused to be downhearted as we went to bed with one of the great sights of the world.
New England – Fall 2010 – Day 9: Watertown to Niagara Falls
We were hoping to enjoy some time in Sackets Harbor before travelling along the coast roads towards Niagara; this meant that we rose relatively early in order to get on the road.
Breakfast was included in our deal and it was one of the best on our travels. The real treat was the egg and omelettes chef who was also a baseball nut and a Red Sox fan. He tipped the Yankees to lose in the first round of the American League playoffs against the Minnesota Twins; he was entirely convincing as to how they completely failed to match up and were, anyway, in a slump limping into the playoffs. The fact that he was a Red Sox fan may have coloured his opinion because the Yankees progressed 3-0 to meet the Texas Rangers.
Once again there was a sizable contingent of soldiers and their families eating breakfast but also we had another set of bikers sporting their leathers and Harley Davison clothing.
We left Watertown without regrets but unfortunately when we got to Sackets Harbor we found that the museums were closed, but we were able to walk round the battle ground walk. We followed the numbered signs and explanations and formed some impressions of the battle. It appears, from memory rather than research, that the final result was a score draw. The British forces landed at Sackets Harbor with the objective of capturing the town and the ship-building facilities, with a secondary purpose of capturing or destroying the American supplies stored there. They failed to do both this but when it looked like the Americans were going to be overwhelmed someone panicked and destroyed the supplies to avoid losing them to the British. The British were finally repelled but by default they had achieved part of their plan.
We watched a pair of eagles patrolling the airspace over the battle ground walk and at times they stooped to earth quite near to us but never quite in camera shot.
Very much at the end of our tour the rain returned and we decided to make our way as straight as possible to Niagara.
We were aware that we were booked into the Canadian side of the falls so we couldn’t use the SatNav which only had the USA loaded. I got round this problem by setting it for Buffalo NY and assuming anything as large as a country would be signed from there. I then used Google to look up a route from the Canadian border to the hotel using street names.
The plan worked and we found ourselves approaching the USA Canada border. The immigration booths were very much like the toll booths we had become accustomed to on our travels, thus Julia was following the car in front oblivious to notices. The fourteen year old Canadian official yelled through his speaker system, “Get back to the stop sign!”
We retreated and advanced again only when signaled forward, but by now the young man was, as my mother would say, “drunk with power”. He greeted us with, “Did you see the sign that time?”
There was no easing of the attitude as we admitted that we were indeed foreign to his shores and we had to give a fairly detailed account of most of our lives leading up to this meeting, and a less detailed description of our future plans.
We were eventually allowed to enter his country where it was to emerge that plans were already in place to fleece us of as much currency as possible.
After some small navigational problems we located the hotel. Not Best Western this time but the Oakes Hotel Overlooking The Falls, we had specified a higher tariff hotel to guarantee a memorable experience, and in fairness it was memorable.
Let me digress, I have a very variable amount of sympathy for victims of scams, at one end of the spectrum is the victim who receives an email from a bank, where they actually have an account, asking them to confirm their security details, when they comply the recipient of their information uses it to rob them. They may have been unsophisticated and trusting but they still get my sympathy.
At the other end of the spectrum, I regularly get emails which ask me permission to use my name and personal details to claim money left in a foreign bank after the account holder has met with a tragic accident. This is clearly an invitation for me to enter into a fraud and therefore I have no sympathy for anyone who provides their personal details and thus gets robbed.
Taking all of the above into account you can chose if you wish to extend your sympathy to us being “scammed” by the hotel, in all this hotel they must have about a dozen rooms which face away from the falls, we collected our room key and pulled our luggage to our assigned room on the second floor, it faced the car park not the falls. I returned to reception and explained our situation, and sure enough there were upgrades available at $20 per night.
Now having two agencies, DialAFlight and American Driving Vacations, dealing on our behalf did not help my case, as I couldn’t categorically state that we had asked for a falls view and our instruction had been passed on. The $40 was money well spent but I remain convinced that there would have been a regular parade of people arriving at a non-falls view and being charged to upgrade. Reading reviews of the hotel have since confirmed my theory.
When we transferred rooms it involved going up and down a small flight of stairs in the corridor, as I did the down leg dragging the smaller bag on wheels, there was a snapping sound and I had the handle in my hand and the bag three steps behind me on the floor.
Julia turned on hearing my expletive, saw the handle and said, “Where did you get that from?”
I collapsed in laughter and promised her maximum exposure for her remark.
We found our way to the replacement room on the eleventh floor and the view was mind-blowing, we were ideally placed to see the Canadian falls but also had a good view of the American falls in the middle distance. The power of the water is such that there is a permanent plume of water vapour rising from the rocks below the drop.
The room was also clearly better than the previous one but that only tended to confirm my suspicions. We unpacked and while Julia had a swim I took a wander to see what restaurants were available and to pick up milk and cookies to go with our afternoon tea. Although I got caught in the next shower I completed both parts of my mission and returned to the room to brew up.
We decided to eat early to have an early night in preparation for a long day enjoying the falls.
We ate at the attached Applebee’s restaurant and were shocked that it was much more expensive than we had expected, we put this down to the fact that it served the hotel trade and not the locals. Insult was added to injury when we were later in bed watching TV and an advert appeared for “One starter and two Mains for £20” and I thought that will be Chilis but no it was Applebee’s and had never been offered to us in any shape or form, both our entrees were over $20 each.
While I watched TV Julia insisted on having the curtains open so that she could see the falls as she lay in bed. At night they are illuminated by floodlights of changing colours and the mist reflects the colours to increase the magic. At midnight the lights are switched off and Julia drew the curtains.
Breakfast was included in our deal and it was one of the best on our travels. The real treat was the egg and omelettes chef who was also a baseball nut and a Red Sox fan. He tipped the Yankees to lose in the first round of the American League playoffs against the Minnesota Twins; he was entirely convincing as to how they completely failed to match up and were, anyway, in a slump limping into the playoffs. The fact that he was a Red Sox fan may have coloured his opinion because the Yankees progressed 3-0 to meet the Texas Rangers.
Once again there was a sizable contingent of soldiers and their families eating breakfast but also we had another set of bikers sporting their leathers and Harley Davison clothing.
We left Watertown without regrets but unfortunately when we got to Sackets Harbor we found that the museums were closed, but we were able to walk round the battle ground walk. We followed the numbered signs and explanations and formed some impressions of the battle. It appears, from memory rather than research, that the final result was a score draw. The British forces landed at Sackets Harbor with the objective of capturing the town and the ship-building facilities, with a secondary purpose of capturing or destroying the American supplies stored there. They failed to do both this but when it looked like the Americans were going to be overwhelmed someone panicked and destroyed the supplies to avoid losing them to the British. The British were finally repelled but by default they had achieved part of their plan.
We watched a pair of eagles patrolling the airspace over the battle ground walk and at times they stooped to earth quite near to us but never quite in camera shot.
Very much at the end of our tour the rain returned and we decided to make our way as straight as possible to Niagara.
We were aware that we were booked into the Canadian side of the falls so we couldn’t use the SatNav which only had the USA loaded. I got round this problem by setting it for Buffalo NY and assuming anything as large as a country would be signed from there. I then used Google to look up a route from the Canadian border to the hotel using street names.
The plan worked and we found ourselves approaching the USA Canada border. The immigration booths were very much like the toll booths we had become accustomed to on our travels, thus Julia was following the car in front oblivious to notices. The fourteen year old Canadian official yelled through his speaker system, “Get back to the stop sign!”
We retreated and advanced again only when signaled forward, but by now the young man was, as my mother would say, “drunk with power”. He greeted us with, “Did you see the sign that time?”
There was no easing of the attitude as we admitted that we were indeed foreign to his shores and we had to give a fairly detailed account of most of our lives leading up to this meeting, and a less detailed description of our future plans.
We were eventually allowed to enter his country where it was to emerge that plans were already in place to fleece us of as much currency as possible.
After some small navigational problems we located the hotel. Not Best Western this time but the Oakes Hotel Overlooking The Falls, we had specified a higher tariff hotel to guarantee a memorable experience, and in fairness it was memorable.
Let me digress, I have a very variable amount of sympathy for victims of scams, at one end of the spectrum is the victim who receives an email from a bank, where they actually have an account, asking them to confirm their security details, when they comply the recipient of their information uses it to rob them. They may have been unsophisticated and trusting but they still get my sympathy.
At the other end of the spectrum, I regularly get emails which ask me permission to use my name and personal details to claim money left in a foreign bank after the account holder has met with a tragic accident. This is clearly an invitation for me to enter into a fraud and therefore I have no sympathy for anyone who provides their personal details and thus gets robbed.
Taking all of the above into account you can chose if you wish to extend your sympathy to us being “scammed” by the hotel, in all this hotel they must have about a dozen rooms which face away from the falls, we collected our room key and pulled our luggage to our assigned room on the second floor, it faced the car park not the falls. I returned to reception and explained our situation, and sure enough there were upgrades available at $20 per night.
Now having two agencies, DialAFlight and American Driving Vacations, dealing on our behalf did not help my case, as I couldn’t categorically state that we had asked for a falls view and our instruction had been passed on. The $40 was money well spent but I remain convinced that there would have been a regular parade of people arriving at a non-falls view and being charged to upgrade. Reading reviews of the hotel have since confirmed my theory.
When we transferred rooms it involved going up and down a small flight of stairs in the corridor, as I did the down leg dragging the smaller bag on wheels, there was a snapping sound and I had the handle in my hand and the bag three steps behind me on the floor.
Julia turned on hearing my expletive, saw the handle and said, “Where did you get that from?”
I collapsed in laughter and promised her maximum exposure for her remark.
We found our way to the replacement room on the eleventh floor and the view was mind-blowing, we were ideally placed to see the Canadian falls but also had a good view of the American falls in the middle distance. The power of the water is such that there is a permanent plume of water vapour rising from the rocks below the drop.
The room was also clearly better than the previous one but that only tended to confirm my suspicions. We unpacked and while Julia had a swim I took a wander to see what restaurants were available and to pick up milk and cookies to go with our afternoon tea. Although I got caught in the next shower I completed both parts of my mission and returned to the room to brew up.
We decided to eat early to have an early night in preparation for a long day enjoying the falls.
We ate at the attached Applebee’s restaurant and were shocked that it was much more expensive than we had expected, we put this down to the fact that it served the hotel trade and not the locals. Insult was added to injury when we were later in bed watching TV and an advert appeared for “One starter and two Mains for £20” and I thought that will be Chilis but no it was Applebee’s and had never been offered to us in any shape or form, both our entrees were over $20 each.
While I watched TV Julia insisted on having the curtains open so that she could see the falls as she lay in bed. At night they are illuminated by floodlights of changing colours and the mist reflects the colours to increase the magic. At midnight the lights are switched off and Julia drew the curtains.
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