Day 17: A journey through 3 states and 300 years of history

Almost impossible to believe after the teaming rain of last night that today could dawn blue skied and beautiful. Checked out of the Marriott Springfield and hit the road to Sturbridge Village, but on the coach on the way, that much expected game of bingo. And so bingo began... and of course, being run by Mike, the rules changed all the time. Bingo was not won in 7 people calls and so the "trip to Hawaii" was not won. It took 25 name calls for someone to get bingo and Chris was one of those someones, along with Colleen and Vanessa. So having checked the bingo cards, Mike pulled out one to do the "walk of name" and Colleen was the lucky one. Her consolation prize for naming the people on her bingo... a stuffed moose, in Mike's words, "the closest thing to a moose you will see on this tour." There was much hilarity during the game and a lot of moose comments. Quite a bit of fun and before long we had arrived at Sturbridge Village.

Sturbridge Village is an outdoor museum which recreates life in New England from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It is made up of about 40 original buildings that are operational and that have been moved to the site from nearby areas. It is a huge property and on this sunny day we got to wander around and really enjoy the olden days in New England. We started off at the Village Green where we went through the Towne House, home of Salem Towne Jnr and his family, a wealthy family and which was the home of one of the wealthy locals and the house dates to 1790. We then wandered further up the property, visiting blacksmiths, coopers, the dairy and the saw mill which was operational. This mill would have cut hundreds of thousands of yards of timber, all powered by water , with two small wheels and gears operating in the stream under the mill. We saw carding and spinning and weaving taking place as well. There was a lovely covered bridge called the Dummerston Bridge as that was where it came from, and the lake that surrounded it held the reflection of surrounding trees. It was just so pretty. 

This weekend was apple weekend at Sturbridge and so there were extra displays: we saw how they cider the apples for apple cider and we participated in an apple tasting of heirloom apples dating back to the origins of the farm. Some of them were really lovely, some of them were a little tart. We also spent a good bit of time wandering the Village Green before it was time to go back to the bus. All agreed it had been a really interesting experience. 

Our next stop was another outdoor Museum called Mystic Seaport, otherwise known as the Museum of America and the Sea. This is another recreation of a real seaport from the 1700's and 1800's. The Mystic River has been a shipbuilding area since some time in the 1600's and , while metal replaced wood as the ship building material of choice and the thriving port area declined in the early 20th century, it is still a thriving community and the museum seeks to restore ships and to faithfully recreate life and sea going experiences of days gone by.

The thing we were struck by as we exited the information centre was just how incredibly beautiful the houses on the other side of the river are... people live on this gorgeous water way in very well to do looking homes.  We wandered through the ship building area; unfortunately not much was happening because it was Sunday, but we could see a vessel in dry dock that they are currently working to restore. Around the docks as we walked around were a range of ships: some old and restored, others newer and still sea worthy and obviously privately owned: they were very impressive.  We wandered through several of the buildings, from Chapels to the Baptist Church which was the original 1850's Greenmanville Baptist Church, and houses and other buildings. There was a very interesting display of carved figures from the front of sailing ships and another display of the history of whaling, as one of their prize restored centrepieces is the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship. It is a very impressive vessel that we got to board, although I could not imagine being on it for years at a time and stinking of whale blubber. Still it was very interesting and they have created a record of names of as many of the crew of the ship over a period of almost 100 years and they had a big reunion of descendants of the crews... We checked the register and there were no Aldertons or Cherrys present. The grounds of Mystic Seaport are really beautiful and it was an interesting insight into  the obsession with sailing that this part of the world has. A great experience.

Back on the bus again, and to our destination of Newport, Rhode Island. What a phenomenal place. We had a quick orientation cruise around on the bus this afternoon and saw the church where JFK married Jackie. The real estate is expensive... the real-estate on the water blows your mind. We are staying at the Newport Hotel Inn on Amercia's Cup Avenue... like wow! So, given that I love a sunset over water we went out in search of one this evening. We nearly got blown away in the process but the view out to the Atlantic is pretty impressive. Pics taken, it was off to Buskers Irish Pub for Fish and Chips for dinner... and a shared piece of Pumpkin Cheesecake for dessert. Yummm. The wind was blowing cold tonight and so back to the hotel to blog in the warmth. And so ends another fabulous day... we started the day in Massachusetts, travelled through Connecticut for a while and are now in Rhode Island which completes out collection of the six states of New England. Mission almost accomplished.