Road Trip continued

First of all, I just wanted to show you what my husband got me for my birthday... isn't it beautiful? This lady in Bristol had this shop just full of awesome jewelry, all Jessie A. specific, that I LOVED. I could have bought all of it but this here stuck out at me. Its all handcrafted from the petals to the middle. I love it. I think it's a very fitting present for my first birthday as a married lady because the first piece of jewelry Max ever bought me was a rose ring. Very fitting.

We left Kaela's with no particular destination in mind. We were thinking of going to... well, I can't remember right now. Oh, Boston... but for some reason we just ended up driving through it and after a bit of looking around on the map, decided to go to Plymouth. When would we ever go to Plymouth and it might be fun to go see Plymouth rock, the supposed first landing site of the Pilgrims in 1620. Not that we knew that exact date at the time but now of course, we do. We spent the night in the town at the first hotel we paid for (it had continental breakfast ;) oh yeah). Woke up, got ready, pigged out and headed out. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny, hot, slightly humid and perfect for walking around, at least for me. You know how Max does with heat.

We walked right past the rock at first not even knowing that this little pavilion was where it was held. We just thought it was a decorative look out. Haha, we are smart ones.


Headed over to where we saw a big boat. It was a recreation of the Mayflower. I wanted to go on the boat and look around. I thought it would be pretty cool to try and imagine being stuck on a boat like this with a bunch of other people for 3 months while traveling across the Atlantic. Tight Wad didn't want to spend the 10 bucks to pay for the tour. Jerk. So I had to look at the boat from far away and then next to it on the dock while other people who aren't married to tight wads got to explore.

Ok, then we figured out this is where the rock is. Now, I don't know about you guys but in my head, I was imagining this big ass rock, enormous enough for a boat to stop by it and people to get off. Gigantic enough to actually make people drop it in half (it was cracked in half when being transported to this building... remember your history?). Basically something that would really inspire in your mind, the possibilities of this country being populated by a bunch of white people who crossed over the big blue into this unknown country, all starting at this rock.

Now, I'm not disrespecting history of course, but this rock was not quite what I expected.

Yep, that's what I thought too... this is it? Wow, no wonder they dropped it. There was probably only a couple of guys trying to move it! Still, I looked at it and tried to imagine the history surrounding this rock. Can you see where they patched up the crack? On the left side of the "1620".

Onward to exploring the other things in this area. We were still pretty cramped up in the legs from so much driving so walking around felt amazing. There were just tributes everywhere. This one caught my eye as there were so many names... so so many. These are all people that died in the first year that came over on the Mayflower. Now, after reading this, a couple things really bothered me. First, did you realize that they moved the bones of these people from their graves into this monument. I'm sorry but that kind of grosses me out. All these peoples bones mixed up with their neighbors bones. Yikes. Second of all, I know how in history, women didn't really matter too much but come one. They spell out every guy on there but every woman is described as "John T. Doe and his wife. Thomas A. Jones and his wife." I'm pretty sure she had a name too.

Obviously some of the buildings in this area were quite old. This one particular house was very old and in really awesome shape. Max wanted to go tour around it. (We can tour an old house but not a big sailboat... hmmm) Fine, whatever. It ended up being pretty cool! We didn't have time to go on a full out tour but the old ladies sitting out front on the rocking chairs said they would be happy to give us a quicky tour... "oh put that money away, we don't want your money" they tell us. Awww, old ladies are so cute.

This house was build by one of the people that came over on the Mayflower, or one of the sons... I can't quite remember but somewhere along the line, it became the Mayflower society house and you can only be a member of this society if you can trace you lineage to the Mayflower.

They had all the old furniture in this place, all the original tiles, the original woodwork, everything. It was incredible. I can't even imagine living in a place like that. Wow.

Ok, we needed to head out. Philadelphia was next. We underestimated the distance a bit (whoops... I thought everything was by everything over there. Not so much) so we drove until we got about an hour outside Philly and stayed at a KOA there. Max and I are super fond of KOA's on roadtrips. They are everywhere, cheap and if you really don't feel like pitching a tent, they have cute little cabins like this that you can stay in for a bit more money. The mattress in there was extremely flat and creeped me out a bit so we blew up our giant air mattress to help out a bit.

This was before we started getting super annoyed with each other... haha. Just kidding, kind of.

We played Spades and Max just had to take a picture of this hand.

"It is so amazing Jessie, you are about to get OUTPLAYED"

For those of you who don't hang around Max and Justyn very much, this word is one of their favorites. Right up there with: the wheel, Bob/Robert, and wow.
He did beat me pretty good with this one. I obviously had no spades since he had them all.

Mmmmm, morning time. Got up, got ready and headed out to Philly. Philly had some serious traffic but not as bad, we found out, as DC. We got parked and of course, we had to make some lunch before heading out. Forever the tightwads. Max was pretty much the official food maker, just like at home. I helped out though sometimes, just like at home.

But then again, how was I going to make lunch when I had to slather my whole body in sunscreen. Like I could do both?? Max is also obsessively careful about my pale, Scandinavian skin. God forbid I go outside for 5 minutes without it. For those of you who don't know this about me... I HATE LOTION. Any kind. I don't care if my skin is bleeding because my hands are so dry, I'm not putting that crap on. I don't care if I fry like a lobster, I'm not putting that stuff on. I guess it's good I married Max because this man is a nagger and it's easier to put on the sunscreen then listen to him bug me about it.

The Liberty Bell.

The frustrating thing about the Liberty Bell and most other things on this history trip we were on, is that no one really cared what they were looking at. They weren't trying to really imagine the times and the history surrounding this thing. They just wanted to wrestle to the front and get a picture then get the hells bells out of there. Not very patriotic if you ask me. It might sound corny but I was really sad about it... I even said something to Max about these unappreciative people. Jerks.

See them all... tsk tsk.

We got a side shot because I sure as hell wasn't about to fight for a spot up front.

Independence Hall. We didn't tour around this either... Why not? Who knows. I think actually, that since it was a Monday that we were here, that there were school buses everywhere with kids in summer school so the lines. were. LONG.

The buildings around here were amazing... so detailed!

We then moved on to Christ Church Burial Ground. Why go to a cemetery you say? Why, Ben Franklin is buried there of course! With 3 other signers of the Constitution. Did you know that?? Some of these I took purely for my mother, who, likes to find the oldest gravestone in the cemetery. Remember those walks we always used to take mom to the cemetery in Baldwin? These are ooooold.

A lot of the gravestones had been replaced by people in the society clubs. There were many that you couldn't read or that had cracked and fallen over or that sunk into the ground. It's crazy to think that these peoples bones have been laying here for 200+ years. No thanks, I'm getting cremated. Scatter me off in the wind please. That's a little off subject, sorry.

That kind of concludes this portion of the road trip... next stop, Atlantic City!!!!!!