Fall Fun: A Mystical, Magical Weekend, Part 2

Our evening at Mystic Seaport began in the parking lot across from the main entrance at 5:45 as we gathered together 13 girls, 2 brothers, 4 moms (Mama and I included), and 2 dads for an overnight program on a 19th-century sailing ship, the Joseph Conrad.

We walked into the Seaport, carrying all of our gear, which we stow on the ship.  You'll notice that the photos are all cloudy and dark--it was a very overcast fall day, but not windy and not too chilly.  The bunks were stacked three high, with a few smaller cabins available for adults only.  I nabbed the cabin because it was the best bed for my back.  More on the night later.  We practiced our fire drill first and then began our adventure:  the girls were going to play detective for a uniquely nautical mystery.

  

My cabin!

 



Divided into two groups (Mama and Bud were in the other group), the girls were presented with the conundrum of the Morgan's captain's daughter's lost tooth.  They were given a list of suspects who had access to the captain's quarters and began their search . . . . They went to the scene of the crime first--where the daughter slept in the captain's quarters.  Then . . . .

to the quarters of the cabin boy . . . 

to the cooper's workshop. . . . 

They also went to the chandler's, where they learned more about whaling voyages (3-5 years!) and the crew (who was paid what) and supplies ("baggy wrinkle" protects sails from rope burns.)  They received a message recorded in Morse Code, which they raced to translate, working in groups.  They also compared handwriting samples of the various people involved.  And then they examined a fingerprint of the person whodunit!  I won't spoil that part, but I will answer one question:  why would someone take the girl's tooth?

Because it wasn't her tooth, but a whale tooth with scrimshaw!!!

As a bonus, the program leader let the girls try their hand at scrimshaw, albeit on plastic tokens, not real bone.  The girls loved sketching and then carving their own scrimshaw; we all realized how hard it was to see where you'd worked the token.  I can't imagine doing it on a rocking ship!

A few examples.  Bud's is the lighthouse (#2) and mine is the compass rose (#3.)

It was around 9:15 p.m. when we returned to the ship, supposedly to go to bed.  Eventually.  First, we all explored the deck and downstairs.  One of the educators gave us a lot of great information about life aboard a ship--who became a sailor (2nd- and 3rd-born sons and those without trade or prospect, plus anyone press-ganged), how they traded for supplies on their long voyages (with beads and things), the different parts of the ship (bow, stern, forecastle, bowsprit) etc.  We couldn't do any star-gazing because of the clouds and no one was ready to sing any sea chanteys on deck.  The kids were more interested in running around, squealing, and climbing on things (not riggings, thankfully.)   They also enjoyed peeping over the deck rail to watch the various groups of visitors on the scary Nautical Nightmare tour--the scary ghost lady was not to far from us and would frighten the visitors.  The girls enjoyed scaring themselves and imagining things (later the next day, the educator told Mama there are rumored to be 23 ghosts on the ship; glad he didn't tell the girls that!)  I won't dwell on how long it took for the kids to get ready and then settle down for bed, except to say it was after 1 a.m. (and after many adult interventions--they were particularly keyed up and not listening to instructions by this point.)

I slept separately in the cabin, where it was colder than I expected, and more comfortable, too.  The boat is sunk into the mud of the shallow port and so doesn't move at all, except with the shaking of running kids!  Still, once I fell sound asleep (after 3 a.m.--just unused to the bed, the sounds, etc.), I had crazy dreams of ships, Titanic, danger, rescuing kids and Mama, blah.  I woke up a couple of hours later at 5 a.m. and decided that sleeping was too much work!  I went and sat on deck in the pre-dawn hours, thinking about the age of masted ships, the uniqueness of sleeping onboard an old wooden vessel, waxing historical and philosophical  . . . . and listening to Mama snore gently, before she woke up, too.  Yep, Mama slept on the deck of a 19th-century masted ship!  It was the main reason she and Bud came on the overnight, to have this rare experience.  And she made the most of it by sleeping up top.  The high sides protected her from most of the wind and she had a mattress to cushion the hardness of the wooden deck.  She loved it.  We sat chatting as the sun rose, watching the sky change from black to blue to overcast gray.  It was supposed to rain.

Because of the threat of rain, our program leaders let us do our rigging climb first.  This is what most of the kids had been looking forward to.  They donned pelvic harnesses and then, one at a time, in a "code of silence," they scampered up the riggings to the first platform.  There were three gold bars strung across there, which were good luck if you touched them.  Both Sis and Bud made it up to the lucky bars.  And so did Mama!  I watched from below (and even that was hard.)

Bud

Sis

  

Mama even took a picture of the view on her way up!

After breakfast, the program was essentially done.  Most of the girls headed off with their parents, but some stayed around, like us, and wandered then now-open seaport.  We saw the exhibition on longitude, complete with replicas of Harrison's four machines.  We also saw the planetarium show on the night's sky.  We saw the baking demonstration in the Buckingham house.  And we showed the kids some of the pictures of them as babies and toddlers exploring the place.  We've been going to Mystic for years, even before they were born.

After lunch at the Galley restaurant and a quick detour to the shop, we headed home exhausted, exhilarated, and with lots of new stories to tell.

Spectacular, Exquisite, Humongus Weekend*

The weekend cured one of us of last week's virus and sent another of us back to muscle relaxers--it must have been good!

Saturday we stayed at home, not quite wanting to risk taking Sis out and about, even to a friend's birthday party that afternoon. She was still tired and prone to crashing at odd times; a worst, I worried about her catching something else. So we made the most of it by playing in the yard. Mama went to work on a big grilled lunch, taking advantage of the nice weather. There were vegetables, chicken, roasted garlic for bread, pizza, baked beans, shrimp, cabbage (hey, don't laugh, it was sweet and tasty), even peaches. She really enjoys the creativity of cooking outside, I think.

Meanwhile, the kids and I occupied ourselves by building faerie houses under our pine tree. There were lots of small branches with leaves on the ground, casualties from a wind the night before, that made for perfect camouflage* to hide our little houses. We got fancy with miniature* furniture and gardens*, even food in little shell bowls. We hadn't built faerie houses in a long while and it was fun . . . the kids are much better at creating stable structures, have finer motor skills to add little details.

Then we decided to go float faerie boats down our stream, using sticks and big wax leaves to build the vessels. Sis and Bud climbed up and down the rocks, helping each other to navigate a path across the water. "I need teamwork!" Bud would shout if Sis got too far ahead and he wasn't sure how to follow. She would come back and help. "Twins always stick together," he said. And they did, holding hands, encouraging one another, pointing out wobbly footholds. They concentrated* on the best place to launch their boats for maximum potential, just pleased if the boats didn't sink. Though having fun, they worked up enough of an appetite not to complain when lunch was ready.

After lunch, we played indoors. Mama had designed "Word on the Street" notebooks for the kids, with a page for each Sesame Street vocabulary--they drew pictures and cut out magazines for all the words we've seen on tv (marked here with an asterisk!). The kids also played with the new puppet theater I found at a tag sale for just $5, complete with chalkboard signage and red and white-striped curtains. Sis performed her "Barn Show" in three parts, first with a visit to the CSA garden, second with a meal in the kitchen with all the vegetables, third a family trip to the ice cream parlor, all using her birthday Playmobil sets. Bud used his knights and dragons to put on a war; later he showed his "Green-Headed Schwaubble Worm" Drag picking flowers for his grandmother, Tango the penguin (not a Schwaubble!). And they were in bed by 7 pm!!

The next day, Sunday, we figured Sis was well and truly better, that we could do something bigger, take advantage of the nice weather and one of our last unscheduled weekends before school. So we went to Mystic Seaport. We realized we hadn't been in two years, since the Morgan was put in dry dock for restoration. But Sis remembered it all: the wooden boat toy structures, the children's museum, even that the whaling ship was the Morgan. The girl has a memory like a steel trap.

And it was as much fun as we all remembered, perhaps even more because they've added a few things. The kids loved the new wooden tugboat to climb on and the new Map Spot children's exploration area. There, Bud became obsessed with grids and coordinates, while Sis drew her own maps. They both liked building bridges and canals and using the cranes and driving the simulated car. Then we made wooden boats, painted scenes of the seaport on canvas, and rode in the horse-drawn carriage. I enjoyed looking at the kitchen and parlor gardens of one of the old houses, getting some new ideas for trellises for next year's beans. Mama also created a piece of scrimshaw (on polymer, of course, not actual whalebone) with a knot design; I think she's found a hobby that combines her love of drawing with her love of woodworking. If she can find the right polymer . . .

On the way home, after almost 8 hours walking around the seaport (which is probably why my back is bothering me this week, my PT says), we stopped for pizza at the restaurant with the trains. Mama and I really liked the mushroom pesto pizza and Bud continued his preference for lasagna. Sis preferred the Kentucky Derby Pie, which is like a big, warm chocolate-chip cookie. They napped on the way home, the icing on the cake of a good weekend.

*This weekend was brought to you by Sesame Street's "Word on the Street!"

Fish Gotta Swim

We spent Saturday at "Myskit" Seaport's annual Sea Music Festival, enjoying the nice weather and the lively singing. Sis especially liked riding the horse, or specifically, the carriage the horse pulls. She gets so serious, though, and doesn't seem to be having fun, until she gets off and practically dances around the sidewalk. We had all been watching a chantey performer and she got bored during an instrumental. They left but then she came back--for money. For the horse ride. So, for the very first time, but not the last, I forked over cash to my daughter. You should have seen her look of pride--and the knowing smirks of those around me--as she walked that $20 bill back to Mama (no, it didn't cost that much; it was all I had).

Buddy and I stayed to listen to the music, including his now favorite song "Strike the Bell." He's been asking for Mystic Seaport music--we bought two CDs--ever since. He loved seeing all the instruments--the accordion, harmonica, guitar, flute, fife, concertina, and the one he likes but never remembers by name, the hurdy-gurdy (the love child of the bagpipe and the accordion). He even insisted we follow the spoons and "bones" player (who had vegetarian bones, among others!) to his next performance. I'd better lock up the silverware.

We also played in the children's museum, on the wooden boat playsets, made wooden boats for arts and crafts, and ate. And here, in the museum that records American history and the sea, where whaling lore takes precedence, most spectacularly in the existing whaler the Charles W. Morgan, I didn't even eat fish. I'd been thinking about the fish. I like fish and chips, but really could do without almost all other seafood. Just don't like it, it being mussels, clams, scallops, lobster, crab, anything "fishy"-er than cod, even seaweed. So, I've been okay not eating fish. Especially because, as I see it, if I'm an animal-rights vegetarian, it makes no difference which animal has to die. If I only refuse to eat the "cute" animals (i.e. lamb, deer, cows, rabbit), but will eat ugly ones (fish are funny looking, so are chicken), I'm embracing a kind of looks-ism I can't abide when applied to people, especially women. It offends the feminist in me.

(I know, I know, plants have feelings too. Even relatives, as described in a recent NYTimes article. But a girl has to eat.)

I'm sure the 19th-century sailors would not have understood me at all, nor would they have rejected meat for meals. Though, if my understanding of the life they led is accurate--and after many trips to Mystic Seaport, I think it is--they could have probably used some more fruits and vegetables themselves!