Providence and Plymouth

Well, we are back from our trip now and we had a really fantastic time. I'll spend the next couple of posts continuing to update you on what we did and saw.

On our way out of Newport, we stopped at the Norman Bird Sanctuary. There we followed one of their nature trails which led us through forest, over ponds, through a maze of trees and finally climbing up over rocks to reach a spectacular view of the coast. There were many birds calling and flying overhead and we did manage to spot a downy woodpecker, which added to the list of exciting animals the girls have been spotting on the trip.

Part of the Hanging Rock Walking Trail at Norman Bird Sanctuary

Our next stop was Providence, where we visited Brown University (you may notice as this trip progresses that there is a fair bit of visiting American Ivy League Universities!)It is a beautiful campus and some of the buildings were used to house troops during the civil war. The next morning we visited the State Capitol building - Providence is the capital of the state of Rhode Island. Its claim to fame is its huge self supporting marble dome- one of only four in the world - the largest being St. Peter's in Rome.

The State Capitol of Rhode Island

We were then headed to Boston, but stopped off at Plymouth along the way. Plymouth is known as 'America's hometown', the place where the English pilgrims first set foot on American soil. This is commemorated by the Plymouth Rock, which is said to mark the place where the pilgrims came ashore in 1620.

Plymouth Rock

We then stepped aboard the Mayflower II, which is an exact replica of the boat on which the pilgrims sailed.

The Mayflower II

Our last stop was the Plimoth Plantation. This open-air museum recreates several aspects of American history. First, there are the home sites of the native American Wampanoag tribes. We saw Wampanoag descendants making canoes, caring for their children in the winter home, making clothes from animal skins and they are able to be questioned about their life at that time and how they felt about the arrival of the English.

A member of the Wampanoag tribe burning a log to make a canoe

Pia and Ella look at animal furs and children's toys inside the 'winter home'

The next recreated village is the 1627 Pilgrim village. Here actors play the part of the pilgrims and talk to you in the English language of the day. None of them, of course, had ever heard of the country Australia! We saw their homes, vegetable gardens, barns and church.


Finally we saw a very interesting exhibition that was held in the Visitor's Centre at Plimoth Plantation. It dealt with the changing interpretation of Thanksgiving over time and its contested memory. We were struck by the similarities with Australia, especially with the way in which Native Americans view Thanksgiving as a day of mourning, seeing it as the day that marks the invasion of their country. This view was reinforced by some of the Wampanoag people we spoke to in the recreated village. So all in all, a very insightful and thought-provoking visit.

Next stop...Boston. I will save that for my next post.