(Thank you to Jonathan for writing this post. You’re the handsomest ❤️❤️)
Today, we went to the Plimoth Patuxet museum and the Mayflower II … and also Red Robin.
We started off by driving south down towards the base of Cape Cod. Incidentally, it’s still strange to say place names like “Cape Cod” — we always do a mental double-take and think “whoa! We’re going where today?”
The Plimoth Patuxet museum is a living museum that seeks to recreate what life might have been like in the 1600’s. It was formerly named the “Plimoth Plantation” but was changed in 2020 to “Plimoth Patuxet,” adding the Wampanoag name for the area in an attempt to acknowledge the larger history of the place.
The museum itself consists of a 17th century village, a Wampanoag homesite, the Mayflower II, and a grist mill near the waterfront. We decided to go check out the main museum with the village and homesite first.
We arrived at around 10:15 and decided to buy tickets for both the museum and the Mayflower II. In the end, we didn’t make it over to the grist mill, so it was good we bought the tickets we did!
We saw that there was supposed to be a militia demonstration at 10:30 at the 17th century village, so we hustled from the entrance all the way over to the village in time to see a bunch of tourists getting whipped into fighting shape by actors.
The first thing we noticed was that all the folks in period dress had strong English accents and speech patterns. As Jonathan was pushing the stroller, two of the women said “OH, but you’ve got b-yoo-tiful behbies! So snooggled oop in their little jackets there!” (I’m not going to try to write anything else phonetically. Think slightly northern and slightly western English accents and you won’t be far off.)
After the militia marched off, we chatted with some of the actors (who all stayed in impeccable character) and wandered through their houses and gardens. The actors did a good job of teaching about some of the aspects of colonial life by using words that could only be understood in context at times (e.g. “Dowter-in-love”) but it was fun to chat with them.
The kids got to try out the beds and they indicated that the rope beds were the most comfortable.
It’s always striking how small these houses and beds and kitchens were. As we’re contemplating what kind of house to buy someday, it’s a real eye-opener to look at these old houses and realize that we have SO MUCH.
One of the women indicated that there were twin baby goats that had been born recently. The kids heard baby goats and we were off. We eventually found them, and they were indeed very cute.
There was also a small kids area where we tried on some clothes, played a couple of games and learned a little bit about how kids lived in the village.
We then headed back up the hill to the recreated fort. We wandered around for a while, but by that time, the clamoring for snacks had become quite loud.
Jonathan headed off to the car to grab the cooler, while Jill and the children bought fudge and found a spot in the covered area by the museum store.
It was a lovely day and the kids were happy to get some food (and fudge) in their systems.
We then headed down to the Wampanoag homesite. The site itself is what a single family might have lived on before the PIlgrims arrived in 1620 and included an extensive garden plot, a summer Wetu (house made of cedar saplings and treebark strips) and a small outdoor kitchen area. There was also a winter Wetu that would normally have been built further inland, but was built here to give visitors an idea of what it was like.
We wandered into the winter Wetu and struck up a conversation with the docent. It was fascinating. Reenactment is fun, but it’s also fun to just have a person telling you neat stuff about what’s going on.
We learned about how during the summer, families would spread out to their summer farming locations, but in the winter, extended families would get together in larger groups, all under the same roof. The Winter Wetus could be over 100 yards long depending on the size of the family that was staying there.
There were also some neat furs, tools, crafts and things like that. It was really neat to sit in the shade next to a fire and listen. Our clothes smelled like smoke afterwards and it made us want to go camping 🙁
The kids sat down on the platform covered in furs while we listened and we had to practically drag them away when we were done.
We learned some more over at the kitchen area about food preparation and things. The docents had prepared a turkey stew and the ingredients for a sort of grits dish next to their fire and the kids had a great time pounding corn in the wooden mortar and pestle.
All in all, it was a really neat museum! It certainly has its flaws and “interpretive” museums can tend towards stereotypes and exaggeration at times. In general, though, it was a cool experience.
We then headed over to the Mayflower II in downtown Plymouth. We found great parking and on our way over to the ship itself, we ran into Plymouth rock! Whoa!
As many online reviewers have mentioned, it’s a bit underwhelming, to be honest. But it does feel like something you should do as a tourist, you know?
We then walked over to the Mayflower II, which was built in 1956 as an exact replica of the original Mayflower from the 1600’s. It was built as an expression of thanks from England for the United State’s involvement in World War II in cooperation with American designers and English shipwrights.
The most striking thing about the ship itself is just how small the thing is. It was incredible to picture 102 pilgrims (plus 30 crew) crammed into the space in-between decks for a trans-atlantic voyage of 9 weeks.
The kids again found (and tried out) all the beds they could find and we agreed that we like our modern beds MUCH better.
We left the ship right as it was closing and we suddenly realized that it was 5:00 PM. Where had the day gone?! After much deliberation, we decided to go to a Red Robin nearby in Plymouth for dinner and miss the traffic our maps were showing us on the way to Boston.
After dinner, we drove home and all collapsed into bed. Another long and awesome day!
