Part II: C-c-cold C-c-cape C-c-cod

We wanted to drive up to Provincetown where the Pilgrims had signed the Mayflower Compact. There is a huge Pilgrim Monument It was a beautiful drive along historic 6A.
We stopped to see the Nauset Lighthouse and to look out at a very different beach than we see in South Florida. It was so bitterly cold by the water that I could feel it right down to my broken pinkie finger. (I'm not kidding.) It made me understand better how hard it would have been for the pilgrims that first winter. I had started out the trip a hale and hearty soul, ready for adventure, bragging to Daddy about how I was of stout New England stock and would have certainly been a pilgrim had I lived back then. He was not buying it from the start. He was right. By this point in the trip, I was doing some whimpering. Just a little. To myself. Guess I'm not as tough as I think I am and need to be reminded of it every so often. (Don't tell him, though.)
When we got to Provincetown, I was amazed at how narrow the streets were. We drove around briefly, then parked and tried to go look at a carved monument depicting the signing of the Mayflower Compact. We started down a hill toward it -- then looked at each other, realized we would have to go back up this hill, against the biting wind, and quickly turned around and went back to the car. Hale and hearty, ha! Florida has made us soft, I fear. But I really was thankful that Daddy didn't have the Iwo Jima Memorial mindset that day. (Although that is one of my favorite memories ever!)
We jumped back in the car and went to the Inn. We were so bitterly cold that we went in the outdoor jacuzzi. Now you might think that this is really crazy, but the water was so very hot that it warmed us to the core even though we were outside. We didn't want to get out, ever. But when we did get out, we were still warm. Well, for a very short while. But long enough to get inside and get another fire going. The second night was much colder. We sat on the floor, nearly in the fireplace for most of that evening. The wind was just whistling outside. It was like nothing we experience in South Florida, and you would have loved it. I thought of that picture that John Piper paints of how our salvation makes us view God with great hope and fear. He says it's like being inside of a safe warm cave while witnessing a vicious storm outside. There is a reverent fear because of the power of the storm, just you have reverent fear of God's holiness and wrath. ("He hurls down His crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?" Psalm 147:17) But you are also filled with great hope, because you are safe from that storm of wrath and find favor with the Judge as you cling to Jesus. ("The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in His steadfast love." Psalm 147:11)
The next morning, we drove into Boston but stopped in Plymouth on the way. This was one of the highlights of the history sites for me. We saw Plymouth Rock but what struck me the most was The First Burying Ground Monument, which actually contained the remains of the pilgrims who died that first winter. On the side of it was a marvelous tribute:
HERE UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS THE FAST DWINDLING COMPANY
LAID THEIR DEAD LEVELING THE EARTH ABOVE THEM LEST THE
INDIANS SHOULD LEARN HOW MANY WERE THE GRAVES
READER HISTORY RECORDS NO NOBLER VENTURE FOR FAITH AND
FREEDOM THAN THAT OF THIS PILGRIM BAND. IN WEARINESS
AND PAINFULNESS IN WATCHINGS OFTEN IN HUNGER AND COLD
THEY LAID THE FOUNDATIONS OF A STATE WHEREIN EVERY MAN
THROUGH COUNTLESS AGES SHOULD HAVE LIBERTY TO WORSHIP
GOD IN HIS OWN WAY. MAY THEIR EXAMPLE INSPIRE THEE TO DO
THY PART IN PERPETUATING AND SPREADING THE LOFTY IDEALS
OF OUR REPUBLIC THROUGHOUT THE WORLD!