I think that Thanksgiving is my all-time favorite holiday! I don’t have to think at all because it’s the same every year. I know the menu and I know the guest list. I took a picture of this handsome guy last year in Georgetown Texas.
Any and all family or friends that want to come on over for a feast of Turkey with all the fixings and multiple pies are welcome. It doesn’t matter how many, just stop on by and thats how I like it!
There would be no Turkey Day or Thanksgiving without the Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth Massachusetts in 1620 to escape religious persecution in Plymouth England. They were mainly a group of English Puritans and they were looking for a fresh start in the New World when they landed in what is now Plymouth Massachusetts.
For me though, Plymouth holds some of my sweetest childhood memories…
When I was a little girl I would spend many summer days and nights in Plymouth Massachusetts visiting my grandparents’ (aka – Grammy and PopPop) place with my family. On any summer weekend there could be ten of us staying in this little house. It was situated on leased Indian land and they did have running water but the bathroom was an outhouse that smelled of lysol across the little dirt road behind the cabin.
I had the greatest adventures here. It’s where I learned how to swim and how to fish. I would diligently catch hellgrammites for my hook with my little plastic sand sifter at the edge of the lake. This is a picture of one of the little critters… I really don’t know what I was thinking. Yikes!
My grandfather and I would get up at 5am and off we went to pick blueberries, make some pancakes, fish a bit and take a little swim all before anyone else woke up. Its funny how experiences like these become our most cherished memories.
Their cabin was simple and sweet at the edge of a crystal clear sandy beach on a little kettle pond. Kettle ponds were created when glaciers retreated after the ice age and there are many in this region. Many of my most favorite memories reside with this little cabin on Curlew Pond.
The Mayflower II is a replica of the original and usually docked in Plymouth Harbor. (It is currently getting a bit of a face lift and will be back in the harbor sometime in 2018.) You can go aboard the ship and see it for yourself. There are actors onboard dressed as pilgrims who stay in character and describe what life was like for the English Puritans and their voyage to the New World.
It never ceases to amaze me that these 102 souls, men women and children, along with a crew of about 30 made this dangerous 66 day journey to settle with their families and make this land their new home. The boat itself does not seem big enough to accommodate these brave travelers for the harsh journey. They landed in December of 1620 and lost more than half of their number the first year.
The Plymouth Rock, or Great Rock, was used to mark the spot where the Mayflower had landed. It is only a part of the original and it sits under the granite columns of the Rock’s distinguished Canopy. Personally, I think it’s a little under whelming… lol.
Watching fireworks on the 4th of July as a child from the waterfront, overlooking the Mayflower and soft serve ice cream from Ziggy’s was the best! I was back again for a visit this past summer. Of course, we stopped for some ice cream. I am a purist, so I always order vanilla soft serve with jimmies (chocolate sprinkles to folks who are not from the east coast).
As you might imagine, I have a fondness for all things Pilgrim and find myself visiting this spot often. Plymouth is great fun and worth a visit.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and eat too much with people you love…
For more information about visiting Plymouth go to:
http://www.seeplymouth.com or http://www.plimoth.org
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