Massachusetts

Did not expect lobster at McDonalds! Must be the most expensive thing on the menu. (That should be $8.99 but even at that, at McDonalds???)

We saw these signs in Maine at most McDonalds.

There must be something special about liquor and lottery tickets in NH.

I think we were only in NH for about 10 miles before we got to MA. It was a toll road but was so short it was only $5 for the coach and jeep. But now we can count NH in the states we've been in.

We left Portland area for Boston area on Sunday and decided to try to get a spot at Hanscom AFB Fam-camp. Being as close as it is to Boston, we thought it might fill up this time of year and they don't take reservations.

Our spot is in the trees.

We also figured that weekend visitors would be leaving on Sunday and it would be our best chance to find an empty site. We were right...the rv park was almost full but we found a site that someone had just vacated on Sunday in the trees with full hookups. A lot of the sites are out in the sun with no trees or shade of any kind so we felt pretty fortunate.

Hanscom is a very small base and no flying mission. There is a runway nearby but it is used mostly by small executive jets and small private planes. Once in a while a National Guard plane will come by but that's only on the weekends. The famcamp is tucked away through a neighborhood off the base but right next to the runway. For the most part it's pretty quiet. The couple who take care of the park live in an RV here until it closes in November then they head for Florida. They offered to walk our dogs while we took a trolley tour of Boston. Nice for the dogs, great for us.

Since the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is closed on Sunday and Monday we had a free day. We decided to find a dog park first.

Cat Rock Park is an off leash park of a different breed. I'm not sure it's fenced, but it is absolutely huge and dogs love it.

It's a forest with trails and a pond, and fields and the dogs who frequent it are so excited to get there it's crazy. Once they are off the leash they are gone. We didn't release our dogs right away but just followed the wide pathways into the woods to see what was there.  There were probably 50 dogs but we couldn't see them all. We could hear them barking, but not at each other, and as we walked they would run up to our dogs for a sniff and a wag and then be off again. Owners tried to keep up with the leashes and commands to wait up. It was crazy but we eventually let our dogs off the leash to see where they would go.

Altho they ran ahead they were good enough to stop and wait for us when we called them...thank God because if they ran into the woods we'd never find them! Fortunately for us, no squirrel or bird enticed Freddie away from the paths! There were lots of dogs swimming after sticks and balls in the pond but ours were just ready to be free. We let them lead, well Freddie was the leader this time. Roxie kind of hung back with us unsure of this new freedom. We thought we were lost for a while and just kept following pathways deeper into the woods and hoped we were turning back towards the parking lot. It took us a while, but we managed to find our way out. I think if we lived here, this would be our dogs' favorite place to go too. I worried about ticks while we were there...not for the dogs, they are protected, but for myself. I didn't use any bug spray as most parks are not forests. Ticks are a big problem , evidently, in this part of the country, and deer ticks especially. We stayed out of the high grasses and no one got any.

Once we got the dogs back into the car we headed for Plymouth Rock. Why not? The GPS said it was about an hour or so away. I have to say that I-95 looks the same here as in Maine and Virginia and North Carolina. You can't see a thing but trees lining the highway so you have no idea whether there is a town or gas station or anything coming up. If it weren't for the signage you'd have no idea how far you've come.

The Mayflower II

Mayflower Society House

Houses built in the 1600s

Oldest street in America

Looking down from the houses at the harbor. Plymouth Rock is under that portico.

Anyway, we wound our way around Boston to the south and got on Hwy 3 which runs all the way down to the end of Cape Cod. The weather was not too humid or hot and we enjoyed walking around and seeing the Mayflower II and the 'Rock'. We didn't spend any money going into any museums but I felt we saw what we wanted to. It's a pretty place but probably not too great in the winter.

Tuesday I had Bruce drive me to the New England Historic and Genealogical Society Library downtown. Again I found that most of what I wanted to find is available online, if you know where to look.

NEHGS bldg.

The person helping me told me that in Massachusetts you have to look at the city records as well as the state records when it comes to deaths. I had only seen state records for the death of John R. Heseltine so didn't realize that he was buried in Portland, which is what the city records revealed.  Wish I had known that before. But I was able to find his will online and it gave me some clues to his son's whereabouts during the years when he (the son) doesn't show up in census records. I'll keep that info for the family since it's not exactly great news and some would not like it to be made public.

I did a little more research online before deciding that I could do the same from home or the motor home so didn't need to stay any longer. I texted Bruce and we decided that I would get on the T and meet him at the last stop on the Red line and then we could drive back to the rv park. So I had to take the Green Line from where the library was into the central station and change trains to the Red Line. I figured it was going to be a piece of cake like in DC. They have something called a 'Charlie Ticket' which is an all day pass on any and all lines one way. Sounded good to me so I bought one ($2.25). The T must be ancient compared to DC metro or SF Bart. The squeal of wheels was incredible in the older cars that I was riding on to the Red Line. Once on the Red, the cars were more modern and quieter. Made the trip with no problem which prepared us for the next day's trolley tour.

Wednesday we did the tour. Incredible history lessons all along the way. We got the trolley tour as well as a harbor tour. We had the option to hop on and off the trolley anywhere they stopped so we could see whatever we wanted. The trolleys come by every 15 minutes so there's always one to hop back on. We started at the end of the route and took the harbor tour at stop #1 of the beginning. It worked out great.

Looking back at Boston.

Bunker Hill monument

These tour guides are so knowledgeable and made the trip so interesting. I know we learned a lot about the revolutionary war in school but these guys were a great refresher course! Even the trolley drivers had the spiel down to a T.

One stop was where the U.S.S. Constitution was in dry dock for repairs.

This is Samuel Adams grave in the Granary Burial Ground...one of Boston's oldest.

Of course, we had to go here! This is the original, not the one on TV.

Cheers!