Plymouth: Where Kitsch Meets History

 I really love downtown Plymouth.  It's a pretty walk along the waterfront with lots and lots of shops, restaurants, ice cream and history in a short stretch of street.  

There are pirate tours you can take but I don't know if it's on this little boat or what.  This actually wasn't an area known for pirates that I know of.

What would a historic waterfront town be without tshirt and souvenir shops?  

John Alden was one of the original pilgrims.  I'm sure he'd be pleased to see a gift shop with his name on it.  ;-)

Looking up Cole's Hill.

Quick walk around Brewster Gardens.  Didn't have the time to walk up to the grist mill and back. The parking meters are back up and running for the season, and I only had enough change for an hour.

This reminds me so much of Victoria, BC.

Then a walk up to the top of the hill.

Plymouth Pebble  Rock is under that canopy.

Massasoit, who helped the early settlers.  Every Thanksgiving, members of the local Wampanoag tribes gather on Cole's Hill to observe a day of mourning, as the pilgrim's arrival and late fall feast was the beginning of the end for all of the tribes.

William Bradford.

And the obligatory picture of the world's most anticlimactic national monument:  Plymouth Rock.

Gnome Garden

When last we left my gnome garden, the basics had been assembled but really needed more stuff. I took a break from it so that I could have a proper look through of my supplies and think about what I wanted to do with this.

First I found 3 white bottle brush trees I had in my stash and dyed them dark green with alcohol ink.I glued those behind the rock wall (which I'd built stone by stone).  I also used a little basket into which I glued some fruit-shaped beads I found in my bead boxes.  That's a marble gazing ball, on top of a push pin.

A few years back one of my friends sent me some small clay pots.  I was able to easily carve out an opening in one of them to make a chiminea.  It's hard to see, but I also used a lamppost behind the cabin.  It doesn't light up though.  Just one from my stash.

Better shot of the fruit basket.

But it still wasn't done.  Just a few more final touches.

I added a pile of wood next to the pine cone tree, and I made wind chimes from bugle beads and put that in the back right corner.

I also found a little beagle that I'd gotten in a gumball machine so I added him too.

Then I hung white, green and purple grape beads from the ivy.

Now it's done.

Bigfoot Bundt Cake

I've been wanting to try a Bigfoot bundt cake ever since I got the cookie cutter.  I actually got the cutter just for this project.  HERE is a link to the recipe and instructions, although I didn't use their recipe.  I just skimmed the instructions, got the gist, and winged it.  

Mistake #1 was the size of the cutter. It was too tall for the bundt pan.  

Mistake #2 was that I didn't want to make chocolate cake.  I made brownies instead.  I was only able to get 6 Sasquatches from the pan.

Placing them in the pan was a bit of a pain, to keep them from tipping over as you added the cake batter.  I even put batter in the bottom and stuck their heads in and they still wanted to fall over. 

Sadly, all the legs melted and broke off within minutes of going in the oven.  That's probably why I should've used cake instead of brownies.

Well at least it flipped out easily.

The icing is just confectioners sugar mixed with milk and vanilla extract.

First slice, total failure.  Delicious, but a failure.

But then....TA DA!  I finally got a slice with the design, even if the legs were gone.

This is another one that I'm glad I tried, but won't be revisiting.  Bigfoot will be in cookie form from now on, and bundt cake will be bundt cake, and never the twain shall meet.

Hyannis Harbor

Since I won't be setting foot down here again till fall (if even then), I figured I might as well go take some pics at the waterfront since I was in the neighbourhood.

These are buoys.  They look like colourful cattails.

Baxter's Fish n Chips on the water.

Ferry coming in from Nantucket.

These are 'Artist Shanties'.  I have no idea what these are like when they are open as I've never seen them open.

Love the name!

Each shanty had the name of one of the villages in Barnstable.

The Hyannis Harbor area was not this nice the first time I lived here.  It was very run down.  They've done a nice job over the years.

I did!

And I hope you did too!