Chinese in Providence, Lobstah in Portland

Today, we did laundry and saw the Mayflower II and Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts, ate lunch in Providence, Rhode Island, went back to Massachusetts to visit the home of the mill girls in Lowell, and passed through the corner of New Hampshire to get to Portland, Maine, for a lobster dinner--four states in less than 10 hours. The Northeast is amazingly compact!

We got up this morning and took a quick laundry break. When you pack for summer in the northeast, you never know what you're going to need. The only thing we've needed has been shorts, t-shirts, and a fleece a couple of times, hence, laundry is necessary. It's funny, across from the laundromat, is a historic landmark, an original Pilgrim house...across from the laundromat...it's just funny to me. Anyway, since we had our laundry in, we walked across the street and visited the Howland House--pretty cool to walk through one of the first houses built in the Plymouth settlement. After laundry, we went down to the waterfront in Plymouth, where the Mayflower II, a replica of the Mayflower is docked. The ship from the outside looks much bigger than I thought, but when you go on board and know that around 100 people were on this ship for approximately 60 days, it's downright claustrophobic. I can't imagine the courage it took to board that ship, not really knowing what you were getting into. Just a short walk away, was Plymouth Rock. Lots of background there--the rock had been moved several times and was split at one point before it was put back on the shore of Massachusetts Bay--but again, cool.

We left Plymouth and made the quick drive to Providence to take a ride through town and have some lunch. We were in the mood for Chinese, (I don't know why, we just were.) and low and behold, one of the places in Frommer's was a Chinese restaurant on Federal Hill in Providence, RI. I don't know if we were just really in the mood for Chinese or what, but it was really good. Tim got General Tso's chicken, and I got beef and broccoli--nothing fancy, but the sauces were great. The vegetable fried rice was chocked full of veggies, too.

Next stop--Lowell, MA--Tim teaches about the Industrial Revolution and the textile mills, and one of my teachers did a read aloud of Counting on Grace, a fictional account of the mill girls. One of the mills in Lowell has been turned into a museum, complete with a boarding house and a loom room. It was good for me to see just how fast these women had to work--and the hours--12 at a time on their feet--whew--and I thought I had it bad. It was a good stop for both of us. We left Lowell with the goal of spending the evening somewhere in Maine--success!

We did not even stop in New Hampshire (will do so on the way back), but went straight up I-95 to Maine. We took a short detour through Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, what a neat little area. The houses are unbelievable--mostly big and colonial or Cape Cod style. There were folks strolling the main streets at a leisurely pace--very New England.

From there we made our way up to Portland, Maine, the largest city in Maine, and yet still "small town." When we got settled at the hotel, we headed downtown to the harbor for our first lobster dinner. After a burger last night, and Chinese for dinner, we were ready to eat seafood again. The lobstah was delicious as was the corn on the cob! When we finished, we walked around downtown Portland--several little streets packed with restaurants, bars, and cute little shops. We will probably go back downtown tomorrow when some of the shops are open, then on to Acadia National Park!