Day Four

Continuing on our theme of the Pilgrims, the fourth day of the Heroes, History, & Hope Tour took us to Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower II Maritime Exhibit.  Unfortunately, the Mayflower II was undergoing some significant repairs in a distant dry-dock, so we were unable to actually visit the reconstructed model of the ship which carried the Pilgrims all the way across the Atlantic. 

Here are some of the pictures from that I took from that exciting day.

The Houghton family

Our first stop of the day

Our tour guide at the Maritime Exhibit

The Kaiser young men and Pastor Serven

A native Indian canoe

Worcestershire - Edward Winslow's home

A captivating painting of the Mayflower

Our second tour guide

Another excellent painting portraying 

Andrew Serven testing out the pulley system

The walkway that normally would lead to the Mayflower II

Some armor, rope, and navigational instruments of the period

 The tour guide explained that, despite the rudimentary look of the navigational instruments, they were surprising accurate.  In fact, the instruments were still able to be used today and could get you to your destination within a 30 mile radius of error. 

Taking a look around

 After completing our time at the Mayflower II, we headed over to Plimoth Plantation.  For the whole week, I had been hearing the reports of what an incredible place this Plantation was.  I was most looking forward to visiting the Pilgrim colony and getting to interact with the Pilgrim reenactors.

Entering the gates!

So much to see!

Our first stop

The Indian village

The Indian cornfield

The doorway was rather low to the ground

An Indian home

Fellow tourists

An Indian elder

Indian quail stew

Creating an Indian canoe by burning out the inside

One big woodpile

On to the Pilgrims!

Re-roofing a house

Pilgrim fare

Richard Warren, a fascinating Pilgrim gentleman who came on the Mayflower

Friends and siblings

Pilgrim living quarters

A view from the bottom of the main street in Plimoth

Authentic fashion and clothing of the period

Hard at work in the garden

Some livestock

 The Pilgrims actually did bring some small livestock with them on the Mayflower.  Edward Winslow would be the first to bring cattle several years after the Mayflower landed.

Edward Winslow

 I was terribly disappointed that I didn't get a chance to speak with Edward Winslow very much.  Since I have been studying him in preparation for the tour, I had several questions and stories that I was hoping the actor would tell.  But at least I got to see him :)

A brand new home

Governor Bradford

The pulpit in the meetinghouse

Gathering to hear a discourse on religion from Gov. Bradford

The Geneva Bible - The Bible of the Pilgrims

Gov. Bradford explaining how a Pilgrim worship service would be conducted

The Word of God

Ruthie Barton and Lilya Fournier

The Genevan Psalter

Looking towards the Bay

Spying on friends from above :)

Psalm singing!

 One of my favorite parts of being with the Pilgrims was the opportunity we had to sing the Psalms with them.  I think we really made the reenactor's day and we most certainly enjoyed ourselves.  It was especially meaningful to look around you, to envision the colony several hundred years ago, and to think of the Pilgrim men and women singing the Old One Hundreth.  We also were taught a new Psalm which had only two lines but could be sung in a round of five parts!  That was a lot of fun!  What a blessing it is to enjoy the gift of music and of the Psalms at the same time.

Plimoth

Captain Andrew Serven

A woodworker, using the same tools that the Pilgrims would have used to make beautiful creations

A potter, demonstrating the ancient art of making vessels from clay

 Watching the potter ply his trade brought the words of Romans 9 vividly to mind.
"On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, 'Why did you make me like this,' will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles."

A treasure I found at the Plantation

As the day was about to finish up, I headed in to take a look around the Plimoth Plantation gift shop.  One of the first things that caught my eye was this banner.  The more I looked at it, the more I couldn't take my eyes off it :)  After some brief moments of deliberation, I decided to buy it for my future home someday!  My hope is that it will remind all in the house that man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism says.

Hopefully, I'll be publishing the final day of the Heroes, History, & Hope Tour soon!  Stay posted!