Boston Area 2015 - Day 3

May 24, 2015 Adams NHP, Boston Harbor Island NRA, Plymouth

Adams National Historical Park - Old House at Peace Field

We arrived at Adams National Historical Park just as they were opening up, which worked out well, since we were able to get on the first tour of the day. There is a parking garage behind the building, in which you can get the parking validated at the Visitor Center.  There is a trolley that takes you to the different sites available to visit – good thing, since the roads are very curvy and the sites were on the opposite sides of town, at least it seemed that way! There is a video (27 minutes) available for viewing at the visitor center, entitled Enduring Legacy, which was very good.  The tour has a $5/person cost, or you can use the annual National Park Pass and go for free (kids under 16 also free). The first stop on the tour is the Adams (John Adams and John Quincy Adams) birthplaces, the second stop is the Old House at Peace Field. Tours have a tendency to sell out, thus one of the reasons we wanted to arrive early. As expected the visit lasted about 3 hours.

Georges Island - Inside Fort Warren

Heading to the east, we headed to Hingham to hop on the 1 o’clock ferry to Georges Island. Georges Island is a part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area.  There really is not a lot to do on Georges Island other than visit the historic Fort Warren, but with the time we had it seemed like a good fit – an hour and a half was ample time to check out the island. Georges Island provided a great strategic location for defending Boston’s seaport. The fort was constructed in 1833. The fort was used as a training camp and a Civil War prison before becoming a park. The ferry ride was $17/person round trip. There is a lot of parking available across from the dock, apparently it is free during the summer months, with a ticket from the kiosk, but it is was not yet open for the season. Regardless, parking was like $4 for the day. We grabbed lunch at the Panera Break before setting sail. I would have liked to have lunch at Walburgers (as in the TV show), but we did not have time before the departure time and when we returned we were not ready for more food.

Plymouth Rock

Seeing as I had not planned anything for the remainder of the day and we were going to be going to Cape Cod anyways we decided to check out Plymouth Rock. Really, the rock itself is quite laughable. I seriously have seen field rocks bigger than Plymouth Rock. History explained that the residents of Plymouth intended to preserve the rock in 1774, but the rock split into two, at which point one half of the rock got placed on display in the Town Square.  Visitors also desired to take a souvenir of the rock also. In 1834, the rock was moved to safety inside an iron fence at the Pilgrim Hall Museum. On the way to the museum, the rock fell and cracked. The remaining half of the rock was acquired by the Pilgrim Society in 1859. In 1867, a canopy structure was completed to house the rock at the waterfront. Yet again the rock was made smaller, since it would not fit under the canopy. In 1880, the rock halves were reunited and 1620 was inscribed on the top of the rock, 1620 being the year the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth. Plymouth Rock was moved to its’ currently location in 1921, at which time the rock yet again broke apart!

There was some free parking near the rock, but it was quite busy so we parked in a nearby lot which was not too pricy.  Near the rock is the Mayflower 2, a replica of the original. There is a fee to board the ship, but the ship is easily viewed from the harbor.

We walked around a bit had some ice cream at Ziggy’s Ice Cream. There are 50 flavors of hard scoop flavors! Talk about a tough decision on picked a flavor! Luckily, we were able to pick two flavors for a small. The cones were reasonably priced but, the sundae prices seemed really high – they must have been huge (we did not see anyone eating one). The small cone was pretty large. Mike really liked the waffle cone – definitely made fresh in the store.

We stayed at the Quality Inn in Hyannis for the night. It was okay. The hotel is under renovation, it previously was a Comfort Inn (according to reviews that I had found online).

The British Beer Company, in Hyannis, was our dinner choice. The food was good and the food was very reasonably priced.