Aug 22-31, Danville, CA

We've left the boat in Boston on a mooring at the Waterboat Marina and have flown to Danville, California to take care of some business with Kim and see four of our grandchildren.
The weather is usually beautiful in the Eastbay region of Northern California in the summer and this year was no exception. The air was mostly clear and so the beautiful hills all around were very visible and Mt Diablo was as majestic and pretty as ever. Traffic was noticably heavy as the growth contunues. Real estate prices are high and mostly stable although homes take longer to sell. Blackhawk looks good. Daytime temperatures ranged from highs of 70 degrees to highs of 105 degrees. All the nights were cool and pleasant sweater weather.

Michael is 15 years old and at 6'2'' is much taller than Linda

Michael is on the San Ramon HS JV football team and plays middle linebacker

Linda, Andrew and Matthew clowning around

Matthew lost both his front teeth at the same time. Classic!

We visited with Kristen, Michael, Andrew and Matthew while we were there with dinner at a Japaneese steakhouse a highlight for the whole group. Michael has changed the most since we saw him last. He's now 6 feet 2 inches tall and a JV football player at San Ramon High. Kristen is now a senior in High school and thinking about college.
We spent a lot of time with Kim this trip and really enjoyed her company. Kim has moved back to Danville from Brentwood and seems glad to be back.

Aug 19-21, Boston, MA

We leave Scituate harbor about 9am. Nice day to travel. Flat seas and clear. We move 20 miles north and enter the Boston Harbor, going through the cross roads of the harbor known as "President Roads". Must be a story there that we do not know. We pass several lighthouses and two large stone forts this morning and enter the harbor active with recreational boat and ferry traffic.

KOKOMO II crew as we leave Scituate

Flat calm

Lighthouse at Scituate

We leave the Scituate mooring field

Kristen takes at turn at the wheel. She is a natural pilot and good at spotting and avoiding lobster pots.

As we approach downtown Boston we have the large Logan Airport on our starboard and highrise downtown Boston straight ahead and on our port. Love coming into large cities as there is so much to see.

Homes on the hills to the south of Boston as we approach

Old Fort

Heavy local boat traffic in the harbor

Downtown Boston

Our marina is right downtown Boston. The first afternoon we go exploring to Fanuall Hall, see some street entertainers and visit the John F. Kenndy Presidential Library.

Our Marina sign and some lobster floats

Street performer. His specialty was the YO-YO

JFK Presidential Library

Dinner tonight is at Durgan Park where Owen and Linda had dinner 40 years ago. Their specialty is 32 oz prime rib and so we have one and all share. Kristen is on a quest for the best clam chowder in Massachusetts and she decides that this is #1 so far.



The second day we take the trolly tour and stop to see the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) Museum and the origional ship built in 1797, now restored, and the now oldest US Warship and built while Thomas Jefferson was President.

Kristen poses as crew for the Constitution

Kim and Kristen as seamen working the sails aboard the training display

Kristen and the origional USS Constitution (restored) in the background

We also visit a modern distroyer

Day three Kristen and Linda go shopping and sightseeing. Kim and Owen take a lay day and attend to the boat and business.

Linda and Kristen at the Boston Commons with the famous Swan Boats in the background

Kristen visits "CHEERS"

We enjoy a free "concert on the green" near our marina featuring the Boston Pops and the Boston Ballet Company

Downtown is beautiful with all the big buildings. In the foreground is Boston's "BIG DIG" which is almost ten years late in finishing and billions over budget. Now almost completed.

Kristen's last night and we have a lobster dinner. Delicious!

Aug 17-18, Scituate, MA

We moved about 20 miles up the Masssachusetts coast to the town of Scituate which has a harbor full of boats on moorings. The weather was foggy and the seas were flat. We saw few boats and no more whales although we looked. Lots of lobster pots to dodge so maybe we were not deep enough. We arrived about noon and took a mooring again this time at the Scituate Yacht Club which has a pool, tennis courts and clubhouse and the town is a 15 minute walk away.

Scituate Yacht Club

Lots of boats in the harbor

Kristen makes some new friends

Scituate Yacht Club launch is operated by college boys who are going back to school very soon.

Aug 14-16, Plymouth, MA

We left Provincetown after lunch and headed west across Cape Cod Bay. Seas were 1-2 feet but it was a very clear and beautiful day. We have been looking for whales and finally spotted one (Humpback we think) and while we only saw him surface three times, it was a thrill.

Lighthouse

Double Paddle Wheel tour boat

MAYFLOWER II, replica of the ship that brought the Pilgrims. Replica is now 50 years old

Beautiful garden surrounds the source of fresh water that caused the Pilgrims to settle in Plymouth in December 1620 after they origionally settled in Provincetown in November 1620. Provincetown is at the end of Cape Cod and has no fresh water.

Tide here is 12 feet. Shown is low tide

We are on another mooring in the Plymouth, Massachusetts harbor along with 150 to 200 ther boats. It is a well protected harbor and the weather is still cool. Water temperature is 68, the coolest we have had on our trip so far.

We saw some folk dancers (old English Morris style) on the waterfront after dinner and stopped to watch.

Sunset over our mooring field

Owen and Kim pick up Kristen Alexander in Boston and bring her back to KOKOMO II where Linda has prepared a steak dinner. Delicious! After dinner we take the launch into Plymouth where there is a free concert on the green. Lots pf people in town. It is a beautiful evening, a nice concert and a great setting. We are so glad to have Kristen here.

This is the river of freshwater that was important to the Pilgrims

Thursday is warmer and we take a walking tour of downtown Plymouth in the morning, then take a trolly tour in the afternoon. This is a classic New England town with white clappboard home dating from the 16 and 1700's. Plymouth is being billed as "America's hometown" because this was the first continuous settlement by the English in the US. We were told that 104 Pilgrims landed here in December 1620 and by April there were only 52 survivors. We all tour one of the older homes and Kim and Kristen visit the MAYFLOWER II. Dinner tonight is cheeseburgers at the Plymouth Yacht Club.

The famous "Plymouth Rock" is housed in this pavillion

Historic home open for a visit

MAYFLOWER II, a replica ship sailed from England to Plymouth in 1957.