Mass. destination makes 2025 list of top 40 family-friendly vacations
One of the world's top family-friendly vacations is in Massachusetts, according to a new report from TODAY.
The top 40 list includes beaches, museums, amusement parks and outdoors meccas — and one of the entries is close to home for Bay Staters.
Under its 'Historical outings' heading, TODAY lists Plimoth Patuxet Museums, also known under its former name of Plimoth Plantations Museums.
'As a Massachusetts native, Plimoth Plantation was a hot field trip destination during my school years, and for good reason,' wrote TODAY senior social media editor Kate McCarthy. 'The outdoor recreation of a 17th-century village makes kids (and adults) feel like they're stepping back into time.'
The article highlights the costumed actors, Native American cooking, crafts and culture, taking home corn ground at the Plimoth Grist Mill, and of course a view of Plymouth Rock. 'You won't believe how tiny it is,' the article reads.
TODAY recommends the vacation particularly with children ages 8 to 12.
'The best part is that there are actors who fully stay in character like it's the year 1627, so while there are plenty of moments to learn about what life was like then, kids will also get a kick out of asking them questions about modern life and seeing the confusion on the actor's faces,' McCarthy wrote.
The museum announced its name change in 2020, saying they would be changing the name to Plimoth Patuxet in honor of the Wampanoag name for the region.
More information about Plimoth Patuxet Museums can be found at plimoth.org.
Other destinations on the TODAY list include:
Aspen Snowmass, Colorado
Cedar Point Amusement Park, Ohio
Cooperstown, New York
Denver, Colorado
Disney World
Florida's Space Coast
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Miami Beach, Florida
Niagara Falls, New York
The San Diego Zoo
Sesame Place, Pennsylvania
Strong National Museum of Play, New York
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Florida
Waikiki Beach, Hawaii
Snack, sip and sing at Boston's new underground piano bar
Boston's make-your-own charcuterie board shop pops up at Cambridge hotel
Here are some of the best restaurants for Mother's Day brunch in Mass.
Mass. Hidden Gems: A world-class distillery in a historic mill building at GlenPharmer
From Guinness to giveaways, this Irish pub in Boston is turning 25 in style
Read the original article on MassLive.
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6 hours ago
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Hate crime or neighborhood feud? Everything we know so far about Jonathan Joss's killing
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I would never light my dogs on fire.'" - YouTube Just two days before his death, Joss interrupted a King of the Hill reunion panel by claiming the fire that destroyed his house was a deliberate act of arson against him because of his sexual orientation. Joss was not invited to the panel, which was meant to be a small gathering of he main cast, but attended in the audience. When one of the actors said of Joss, "We love our guy, Johnny, and so sad he's not here," he revealed himself in the crowd and took a microphone meant for fan questions. 'You were talking about Johnny, and I want to say something about him,' the panel moderator from Variety recalled him saying. 'Our house burnt down three months ago. Because I'm gay." Joss explained the moment on Bwaaa!, saying that he did not initially intend to interrupt the panel but spoke up in the heat of the moment. "The worst thing about not existing in the world is someone ignoring you when they have taken from your culture," he said. 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Murrow helmed 'See It Now,' a program that pioneered the new medium of television by telling in-depth stories, incorporating film clips and interviewing newsmakers at a time when other shows simply relayed the headlines. In the early '50s, Murrow and producing partner Fred Friendly were alarmed by what Friendly called in his 1967 memoir the 'problem of blacklisting and guilt by association.' At the time, the country was gripped by Cold War paranoia, some of it stoked by Senator Joseph McCarthy's trumped-up claims about communist infiltration of the government, Hollywood and other sectors. In a later era, McCarthy would have been accused of spreading misinformation and attacking free speech. Murrow and Friendly thought about devoting an episode to the senator and his investigations, but they wanted a dramatic way to illustrate the subject. They found it with Milo Radulovich, an Air Force reserve officer who was fired over his relatives' alleged communist views. Radulovich was a compelling, sympathetic speaker on camera, and Murrow's report on him not only stunned viewers across the country, but it also led the Air Force to reverse course. 'The Radulovich program was television's first attempt to do something about the contagion of fear that had come to be known as McCarthyism,' Friendly recalled. That's where 'Good Night, and Good Luck' begins — with a journalistic triumph that foreshadowed fierce reports about McCarthy's witch hunts and attempted retaliation by the senator and his allies. Clooney first made the project into a movie in 2005. It was adapted for the stage last year and opened on Broadway in March, this time with Clooney playing Murrow instead of Friendly. Both versions recreate Murrow's actual televised monologues and feature McCarthy's real filmed diatribes. 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He warned that staying silent, ducking from the fight, only empowers demagogues. Murrow did not duck. Other journalists had excoriated McCarthy earlier, in print and on the radio, but Murrow met the medium and the moment in 1954, demonstrating the senator's smear tactics and stirring a severe public backlash. Afterward, McCarthy targeted not just Murrow, but also the CBS network and Alcoa, the single corporate sponsor of 'See It Now.' McCarthy threatened to investigate the aluminum maker. 'We're in for a helluva fight,' CBS president William Paley told Murrow. The two men were friends and allies, but only to a point. Paley had to juggle the sponsors, CBS-affiliated stations across the country, and government officials who controlled station licenses. In a Paley biography, 'In All His Glory,' Sally Bedell Smith observed that two key commissioners at the FCC, the federal agency in charge of licensing, were 'friends of McCarthy.' The relationship between Paley and Murrow was ultimately fractured for reasons that are portrayed in the play. Looking back at the Murrow years, historian Theodore White wrote that CBS was 'a huge corporation more vulnerable than most to government pressure and Washington reprisal.' Those exact same words could be written today, as CBS parent Paramount waits for the Trump-era FCC to approve its pending merger with Skydance Media. Billions of dollars are on the line. The merger review process has been made much more complicated by Trump's lawsuit against CBS, in which he baselessly accuses '60 Minutes' of trying to tip the scales of the 2024 election against him. While legal experts have said CBS is well-positioned to defeat the suit, Paramount has sought to strike a settlement deal with Trump instead. Inside '60 Minutes,' 'everyone thinks this lawsuit is an act of extortion, everyone,' a network correspondent told CNN. In a crossover of sorts between the '50s and today, Clooney appeared on '60 Minutes' in March to promote the new play. He invoked the parallels between McCarthyism and the present political climate. 'ABC has just settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration,' Clooney said. 'And CBS News is in the process…' There, Jon Wertheim's narration took over, as the correspondent explained Trump's lawsuit. 'We're seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations to make journalists smaller,' Clooney said. He called it a fight 'for the ages.' Trump watched the segment, and he belittled Clooney as a 'second-rate movie 'star'.' On stage, Clooney as Murrow challenges theatergoers to consider the roles and responsibilities of both journalists and corporate bosses. Ann M. Sperber, author of a best-selling biography, 'Murrow: His Life and Times,' found that Murrow was asking himself those very questions at the dawn of the TV age. Murrow, she wrote, sketched out an essay for The Atlantic in early 1949 but never completed it. He wrote notes to himself about 'editorial control' over news, about 'Who decides,' and whether the television business will 'regard news as anything more than a saleable commodity?' Murrow wrote to himself that we 'need to argue this out before patterns become set and we all begin to see pictures of our country and the world that just aren't true.' Seventy-six years later, the arguments are as relevant and necessary today.
