Massachusetts and The Cape

We started out bright and early from Augusta.  We had an agenda today.  We were going graveyard tromping!

Oh the one thing my parents found so fascinating were the homes in Maine that the barn was attached to the main house.  Some were large, some were small, but they were so interesting to my parents. 

We drove south, and entered New Hampshire, and then Massachusetts.  Our destination was Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain which is a neighborhood in Boston.  Now I have driven through Boston before and I knew how aggressively I would have to drive.  I actually had to growl at my mom, she is one of those "Oh" "Careful", constantly startling people. 

I  told her, "Mom I have a CDL, I have a chauffeur's license....I am a professional driver.  Please stop, you are going to cause me to have an accident, because when you do that I think you see something I have missed and my first instinct is accident avoidance."  After that little chat she was much better.

We finally arrived at Forest Hills.  Um just an FYI when you are using your GPS and it is set for a cemetery it is a wee bit disconcerting when it says "You have arrived at your final destination." 

I love the front gates and entrances.

The office. 

Forest Hills is a 275 acre and is one of the finest examples of a garden cemetery.  There are beautiful statues and pieces of art throughout the grounds.  Forest Hills even has their own green houses to maintain all the beautiful flowers and plants throughout the area.

The family member we were looking for, but opened up a whole new line of inquiry because right next to it was this stone.

As I was walking away there was a large monolith headstone.  It had family members buried at all 4 sides.

The name of the family was LeFevre which is an alternative spelling to my last name.

I had read that there were some famous people buried in Forest Hills and that it was ok to visit the grave sites.

As we were wandering we were stopped and asked what we were searching for.  I told the gentleman and I was taken on a personal tour of some of his favorite sites within the cemetery.

I thought this stone was interesting because ti was shaped like a tree trunk with flowers and leaves twining around it.

Hard to see but the grave of e.e. cummings.  The groundskeeper told me that he has to constantly go and pick up before they mow.  There are mementos, poems, letter, pens and many other things left on his stone. 

Mt. Warren is where the memorial and graves of General Joseph Warren and his family are located.

 Joseph Warren was a physician, who played a large role in Patriot organizations in Boston during the early days of the American Revolution.  He dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn that the British garrison was getting ready to leave Boston and travel to Concord to capture rebel leaders.  General Joseph Warren was killed at the battle of Breeds Hill (Bunker Hill). 

 He and his family were moved to Forest Hills from another location.

It is said that if he had not been killed during the Battle of Bunker Hill is it highly likely he would have been the first President of the United States instead of George Washington.  To read more about Joseph Warren click here.

The gentleman was more than happy to show me the sites, but unfortunately the day was getting long and we had a drive to The Cape for the night.  He sent me on my way and encouraged me to go down White Oak.  When I jokingly told him he should get back to work or his boss would be looking for him, he smiled and said he was the boss.  This sweet man was the head groundskeeper. 

Among the rocks and trees are miniature buildings which are replicas of homes or businesses of people buried within the cemetery. 

Atlas Obscura has a nice write up about Forest Hills and the village.

We left Forest Hills and headed toward The Cape.  We had reservations to stay in Yarmouth.  My parents were astounded at the row houses as we wound our way toward the interstate.

Living on the west coast sometimes scale is hard to understand until especially reading history.  We too in so many geographic names and to actually see the was exciting.  Hyannis, Yarmouth, Falmouth, Mashpee, Plymouth.  We got to our hotel for the night and tucked in after an interesting day.

The next morning we headed out to The Cape. 

 It was neat to see the sailboats

 Light houses

 The visitors center.

This gigantic Lobster Claw which was about the size of a man's hand X2. 

We stopped and had lunch at the Sesuit Harbor Cafe.  Last lobster roll of the trip.  I made a slight detour up to Plymouth for my mom and dad to see Plymouth Rock and the bay then we were on our way.  We had miles to go before we slept.

Waved at Jacky and Dawn as we went past Taunton, and headed toward Rhode Island all 43 miles.  I was going to go toward Waterbury but my mom wanted to go toward Danbury.  I waved at Julierose as  I went past Old Lyme heading toward Norwalk.  Then we turned to go toward Danbury and promptly lost the road.  Experienced a pretty nasty thunderstorm with torrential rain.  But saw some pretty awesome country, beautiful homes and eventually made it to Kingston.