I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In...

Okay, I'm going to be honest from the start here. I didn't exactly see three ships, it was only two and they weren't exactly sailing, because they were anchored, but they could have been. It isn't exactly the perfect title to this post, but it will have to do!

Last weekend we had a Rowe family outing. It was kind of a rarity to have all of us home at the same time and I like to capitalize on those days. We loaded up the car and headed to Hudson, Wisconsin where replicas of Christopher Columbus' famous ships, The Nina and the Pinta were docked for tours. I thought it would give the kids a hands on history lesson that would stick with them longer than reading a paragraph out of a book.

The ships weren't exactly to scale (one was slightly larger, one slightly smaller), but it did give you the idea of how hard the journeys must have been sailing the Atlantic back in the 15th century. The replicas were created in Brazil using exactly the same method that created the original ships. If any of you have seen the movie "1492" (which I haven't), the replicas we saw of the Nina and the Pinta were used in the filming of that show. The ships are like traveling museums and go all over to allow people to learn more about Columbus and his journeys. You can check out the website http://www.thenina.com/ to find out more information of if the ships will be visiting your town. They are also looking for crew members. Harry was ready to sign up until we had to break it to him that he had to be 18 to make the voyage. You might see his unhappy face in the picture. Now you know why he is upset.

Right next to where the boats were anchored, there was a brunch river cruise boat that looked more sea worthy than the Nina and the Pinta. As a sidenote, there was a coffin on board each of the ships in case someone was not able to complete the journey. I have a feeling they got used quite a bit!

In addition to our visit to the ships, spending the day in Hudson was very enjoyable! I had never been there and the town was oozing with charm. It appeared that there were a lot of buildings that had their original structures. The only negative part of the day was the super high humidity and high temps.