The First Thanksgiving

What a perfect weekend to go to the Plimoth Plantation located in Plymouth, Massachusetts--the home of the first Thanksgiving.  It is a living museum of the 17th century ways of cooking, gardening, building, speaking, thinking and believing.  (Yes, I copied this off of the brochure they gave us!)  Once you leave the entrance of the plantation you can go over to the Wampanoag Homesite.  There are only 5,000 registered Wampanoag Indians now but at one time it was a large tribe in the area.  Their dwellings were made using tree branches and bark and they used deer hides to cover the windows and doors.  From the Indian Village we were able to go to the fort/meetinghouse and then through the 17th century English Village.  Their dwellings were made with logs and thatch roofs.  Everyone was dressed in period costumes and the Wampanoag Indians looked pretty comfy in their deer skin clothes and moccasins.  We had planned to go down to the ocean to see the replica of the Mayflower but the community was having a big festival and getting close to it required more time than we had so we will save that for another day.  The last area we visited was the craft building where they had artisans making candles, weaving, and woodworking.  There was a special area for children to work on crafts as well.

It is really nice to be so close to so much history of our country.  Along with having wonderful missionary experiences in our record preservation we have the added pleasure of seeing this land that was ordained to be the home of the restoration of the gospel.  So blessed!