It's A Haigood Life!: MASSACHUSETTS - Whale Watching, Plymouth Rock & Outdoor fun!

After we left CT, we traveled up north to Massachusetts for about a week. We enjoyed visiting the Six Flags up there, and we took a day trip into Plymouth to go whale watching. I was especially excited about this, because I remember going whale watching as a little girl. During that trip, one of the whales actually jumped out of the water and dove back in several times. It was absolutely amazing! I mentioned my childhood whale watching experience to one of the employees on the boat and she said that is very rare. In fact, it happens only about 10% of the time during their whale watching tours overall. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of at least a few whales that day, and although none of the whales jumped out of the water, we were thrilled to have several sightings!

Here we are...about to set sail into Cape Cod Bay...

The boys enjoyed watching the waves as our boat made the hour journey to see the whales...

There was lots to see as we voyaged out of Plymouth Harbor to the waters of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The lighthouse below is known as Gurnet Light or Plymouth Light, as it marks the entrance into Plymouth Bay. It was originally built in in 1768, and then after it burned down, it was rebuilt in 1801.

A little farther out we passed another historic lighthouse, Duxbury Pier Lighthouse, which was built in 1871, and is on the north side of the channel in Plymouth Harbor.

We also noticed this boat far out in the harbor and figured it must be a fishing boat with all of the birds surrounding it! They were hungry for an early lunch!

The view was breathtaking...

After an hour traveling on the boat, we had our first whale sighting!!! We spotted the spray of water first and then our boat got closer...

Joshua fell asleep right before this happened, so he missed the first few whale sightings. We did wake him up after a short nap so he could at least see a few whales:)

We spotted more whales and many times we got close up views! It turns out we saw three different finback whales (sometimes the same whale at a different location more than once during the tour).

During the last part of our tour, one of the whales got SUPER close to the boat, and actually swam under the bow! The boys were so excited to see it up close! We could see the blowhole very clearly when it came up. Very cool!!!

Alan captured a few good photos with his iPhone as well...

We had a GREAT time watching the amazing, beautiful whales that day!

After we arrived back to shore from our whale watching trip we had some refreshments, which included Cape Cod potato chips in honor of our location:) Delicious...

And yes...the boys got some ice cream! So- we marked Massachusetts off the list! (The boys picked one thing that they all wanted to do in every state...eat an ice cream cone!)

Next we headed over to see Plymouth Rock, the traditional site of the Mayflower Pilgrims who founded Plymouth Colony in 1620. An interesting fact that we learned is that the first written reference to the Pilgrims landing on a rock was found 121 years after they landed. In 1741, a 95-year old man named Thomas Faunce, identified the precise rock (boulder) where the Mayflower Pilgrims stepped on when disembarking from the Mayflower. When Faunce was a child, his father, (who arrived 2 years after the Mayflower), along with some of the Mayflower Pilgrims, identified the exact rock to him. More than thirty years later, the rock was broken into two parts, and the bottom part was left at its original location. The top part was relocated to the town's meeting house. For many years, the top portion of the rock traveled around to various locations in Plymouth. About two-thirds of it were broken up into numerous pieces that were bought and sold. By 1880, a canopy building had been built over the lower portion of the rock and what was left of the top portion was then rejoined to the lower part of the rock. The waterfront was rebuilt in 1920, with the rock now resting at sea level.

It is hard to see from the pictures, but the rock has the date "1620" inscribed on it...

We really enjoyed our stay in Massachusetts. We really liked the Thousand Trails RV park near Cape Cod. It is a beautiful area and a short drive to Plymouth or Cape Cod. Our campsite was right next to an open field, so we were able to play a few games of baseball with the boys. They also enjoyed riding their bicycles around the campground with Daddy.