America's Hometown

As I snagged this stellar shot, Tim grumbled his annoyances. But come on friends! There's a husband and the ocean... it must be documented! Just like a husband and the laundromat, and a husband and the refrigerator, and a husband and the grocery store... You can see why he loves being married to me, yes?

Alright ladies and gents, here's for your history lesson. What happened in 1620? Why is the date on a rock? And where is it?

Ba-da-da-dum (trumpets): It was the pilgrims, with the rock, in a fenced in area! (???)

But really, we went down to Plymouth (again!) to see the Thanksgiving Parade where it originated. NYC has nothing on America's Hometown. We saw the rock (again... disappointing) and this time we also got to see the Mayflower II.

My better half mocked me for the previous picture so I took this as retribution. Side note: my closest and oldest friend (who got engaged this weekend!) used to have a shirt that said "Careful, or you'll end up in my novel"... classic sophomores in high school... and I feel like I've changed this motto (more of a chorus at this point) to "Careful, or you'll end up in my blog." I use it as a threat on Tim about once a day, threatening something like that if he doesn't take out the garbage I'll blog it. We haven't been married all that long so help me out: this is healthy marital communication, right?

Steve was figuring out how he was going to talk us into free admission to the Mayflower II and I made Tim snag this picture. As with all things blog-y, Steve eyed his disapproval at the amount of pictures and the location... but come on, this one near the gate and WARNING DO NOT ENTER sign just screamed SCENIC.

Our fearless leader, again with the disapproval. And fair enough because one of the pictures I put up of him before on the blog has been meme'd and is currently trolling an email chain. And still, I cannot be stopped. We learned about the boat from a very enthusiastic employee, marveled at how tiny it the living quarters were, and how lucky we are that they made it to America.

We left the ship in our gratitude to the Plimouth Pilgrims full of festive Thanksgiving patriotism and ready for America's Parade.

It was lovely. Complete with singing and dancing and bands and animals and bizarre floats and everything you've come to expect. Though I must say, surprising number of Militia reenactors. And despite Tim's best efforts to warn me, I was always caught off guard when they would fire a musket salute in front of the Grand Stand.

We were so lucky to have been invited down by Steve's family. On top of the parade, they also invited us back to their house for lunch which was so wonderful. Tim and I didn't go home for Thanksgiving so we felt as though we got a little bit of the big family chaos and great food and great company experience, America's Hometown with America's kindest family. For my mothers sake I should note, of course, that it was not the same and it could never come close to the chaos the Magee's can bring but it was comforting to has some small semblance.

And then move on and plot the arrival of our Christmas festivities!