Plymouth, MA

(Massachusetts Military Reservation, Cape Cod, MA) Hi 73 Lo 57 – The day couldn’t have been more perfect, with bright blue skies and no humidity. Late this morning we headed to Plymouth, the oldest continuously occupied English town in the U.S. We found a parking space on the waterfront and walked a short ways to Wood's Seafood Restaurant for lunch. (Click on photos to enlarge them.)


Jim at the head of the line at the ordering window. I was holding a table.


I was going to wait until we got to Maine to have lobster, but when I saw the daily market price for their lobster dinner was only $15, I couldn't resist. Jim had fried oysters. Here's both meals.


I always get a lobster dinner at Red Lobster on my birthday, and most of the time they do a good job cooking it. But sometimes it can be a little under or over done. But not here... my lobster was cooked perfectly, and it tasted so wonderfully fresh. Jim said his oysters were excellent also.

We walked off our big lunch around the harbor area. We spotted this boat that just came in with a load of lobsters, LOTS of lobsters!


This guy was filling box after box with squirming lobsters.


There was another guy hoisting the boxes onto the back of a truck. It was fun watching them.


We walked along the waterfront a few blocks. Here are some different views of the harbor.










A few blocks south along the harbor is Plymouth Rock, which marks the traditional landing site of the Mayflower in 1620. It was inside a very pretty memorial for protection.


The bright sun was positioned so that the rock was half in sunlight and half in shadow, making it almost impossible to get a good photo. This photo is courtesy of our friend Nick Russell. He posted it on his blog last year when he visited Plymouth.


On the land side of the street we saw this attractive fountain.


We continued our walk, visiting a few of the gift shops, and then returned to our car for the trip home. But before leaving Plymouth, we stopped to see the National Monument to our Forefathers. It's really big, and really beautiful!


On the way home the traffic was a little heavy, but not nearly as bad as when we arrived on Saturday. They have large traffic circles here they call rotaries. Two lanes feed into them, and it's sometimes hectic as cars in the left lane dart to the outside to exit the circle. We both almost had a heart attack a couple of times. The drivers in this area overall are very aggressive. There's a lot of lane changing, with drivers diving right in front of you without signaling. You certainly have to be alert around here.

We didn't have time to see the Plimoth Plantation today, so we'll be going back before we leave the area. Tomorrow we'll find something to do closer to home.