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July 5, 2011
Plymouth, MA
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From Providence, we headed east for Plymouth, Massachusetts. We had a scheduled tour at the Pilgrim Nuclear Station for a behind the scenes tour on how Nuclear power is used to produce energy. This tour isn't a typical vacation spot as it is a "real" nuclear power plant, but because Mark's dad is on the board of Entergy, he was able to arrange the tour. The security there was amazing. They checked and double checked our passports and credentials before allowing us to even enter the gate leading to the plant. Our tour guide as Steve, and he did a great job! First, we learned about how nuclear power works. None of us had a clue. Then we toured the actual plant including the control room. It was fascinating. The training that the operators in the control room undergo is unbelievable. For every 5 weeks they are working in the control room, they spend one week in the simulator up the road learning/practicing what to do in all kinds of situations. Steve was able to explain to use better than what we understood from the news media, what had happened in Japan and other nuclear issues that have occurred. He also shared with us all the precautions in place to ensure safety. The amount of safety there was totally reassuring. Of course, for security reasons, we don't have any pictures from the tour. This was unfortunate as I am sure we all looked fabulous in our goggles and hard hats!
After the tour, we headed into downtown Plymouth for a little bit. We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Sam Diegos. From there, we went to look at the infamous Plymouth Rock. Everyone mocks the rock because it is not huge, but there is a nice pavilion around it and it is symbolic of the pilgrims arriving in the "new world". There was a park director there giving a 15 minute short talk about the history of the rock. We walked up to see the replica of the Mayflower, but decided not to actually tour the boat. It was so beautiful outside, we relaxed and enjoyed the amazing weather before heading north 45 minutes to Boston.
We arrived in Boston and checked into our hotel in Cambridge. In the early evening, we headed over to check out the Harvard and MIT areas, Bunker Hill, and then took a field trip about 20 minutes away to Needham, MA where mark spent his 4th grade year while his dad studied for a year in a business program at MIT. We checked out his old house and elementary school and then grabbed some dinner at a little pizza place on the cute square of Needham.
July 6, 2011
Boston, MA
We started today by grabbing tickets for Grayson and Mark to tour Fenway Park before tonight's game. They got the last tour time which includes a stadium tour and watching the team warm up in batting practice. They already have good tickets for tonight's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Since Darby's ankle is still hurting, walking the Freedom Trail was out of the question today :( but to make lemonade from lemons, we decided to embark on the "Boston Duck Tour". These types of tours typically run counter to the "normal" Blount Adventure, but today we had to do it if we wanted the kids to really see the city. We signed up for the 1:30 pm tour and had a few hours to kill beforehand so we risked life and limb by headed by car across Boston to the Old North Church and Paul Revere's House. We were able to find parking which was a miracle; thankfully Mark knows how to parallel-park really well! We had the opportunity to explore both the church and Paul Revere's House before heading back to the Prudential Center for the duck tour. The tour turned out to be really informative and fun and we were glad we did it! By the time it ended, it was time to drop Grayson and Mark back at Fenway for the tour and game and Darby and Jonna headed to the mall for a little retail therapy and dinner! Mark and Grayson had a magical experience at Fenway Park. They took a pre-game walking tour of the park, including a walk on the field and a seat atop The Green Monster while the Red Sox took batting practice. After the tour ended, they grabbed a quick plate of nachos at a restaurant just outside Fenway, then came back in to watch pre-game festivities and warm-ups. Their seats were fantastic about 20 rows up from 3rd base. A brief rain shower came in during the 7th inning with the Red Sox up 6-2 on the Toronto Blue Jays, thus clearing out a lot of the fans. This allowed Mark & Grayson to "relocate" their seats to the top of The Green Monster for the final 2 innings, once play resumed about 30 minutes later. This was a milestone as it was something that both of them had on their bucket list to do one day! The Sox eventually won 6-3 and the boys were back via taxi at our Cambridge hotel just after 11:00pm, ending a busy and fun-filled day for everyone.
July 7, 2011
Boston, MA
This morning we set out for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and arrived there about 9:15 am. The kids weren't too excited about this destination, but it turned out to be fantastic and we were proud of them for not rushing through the exhibits. It began with a film about JFK's early life right up to his Democratic nomination for President for the 1960 election. 21 exhibits followed the film detailing his accomplishments during his short tenure as 35th President. We didn't know as much about Kennedy as we thought, Jonna wasn't even born during his presidency and Mark was just a toddler when he was assassinated. We learned a lot about him and were glad to learn more about that time period in US history. We ended up spending about 3.5 hours at the Library and it was a morning well spent.
From the library, we headed north about 1 hour to Salem, MA. We arrived around 2 pm and grabbed lunch at Red's Sandwich Shop. We asked the waitress what the best things to do in a short visit to Salem and she asked us if we were interested in doing "readings" or "tarot cards". I guess those types of establishments are prolific in Salem since it is a "witches" town. When we told her we weren't really interested in that, she said, "OK, so you are normal." Glad we found that out! She directed us to the Salem Witch Trials Memorial. It was an interesting memorial -- just a tree lined green space with benches jutting out of the rock. Each bench had a name of a person that had been executed as well as their method of death during that dark time in history. We had assumed all the victims were women and we were surprised to see there were men also convicted of "witchcraft". One was crushed and all of the others were hanged. We weren't interested in the ghost tours or wax museum, but we did go to the Salem Visitors Center and enjoyed a 30 minute film about the history of the county of Essex from the arrival of the Puritans to present time. After a few hours in Salem, we headed north again towards Wells, Maine.
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