Monday, July 19- Concord

That’s Concord, Mass., not Concord, N.H.

More than 8 years ago we came to Massachusetts with baby Anna. Of course, we tried to hit all of the highlights of the sightseeing in the area, and we went to the Revolutionary War sites at Lexington and Concord. Julie fell in love with the town of Concord then, and wished that we had time to explore it more. We scheduled that time to explore this year.

After breakfast, we drove past Lexington Green where the first shots of the Revolution were fired, and continued on to the Concord Museum. For what is essentially a local historical society, they have an amazing collection of artifacts and a great museum. Scott complimented one of the staff on the impressive collection, and they explained that the society was founded in 1850, when few people were interested in collecting Americana outside of P.T. Barnum. As a result they were there to gather the pieces of the town’s impressive residents. Naturally they have artifacts from the Revolution, including powder horns that were supposed to have been used that April morning in 1775 when the fighting began and a lamp that is purported to be the very one that hung in the Old North Church to signal to Paul Revere the night before. The town’s literary and philosophical residents are represented here. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s own library was recreated using his own books and furnishings and placed according to a photograph from the time. Items owned by Henry David Thoreau were on display was well as artifacts kept to remember him by others. They had the humble furnishings that he was supposed to have had at his cabin by Walden Pond, pieces of wood from the cabin itself, and the lock from the door of the Concord jail where he wrote his essay, “Civil Disobedience.” Other town residents were represented too. The girls had fun following a scavenger hunt through the museum. A sheet of paper had pictures of objects that they were supposed to look for in the exhibits. They could fold down the tabs of each when they located them. It made them go rather quickly through some of the museum, but they were eager to find them all.

We stopped at the visitor’s center to orient us to the rest of town. There is a small shopping area nearby, and we went through there. We spent some time in a store called “The Toy Shop of Concord.” Emma said it was “A toy Wonderland!” It did have an interesting assortment to see, and the girl both bought magic tricks with some of the last of their money. We went to lunch at the Colonial Inn, which dates from 1716. Scott actually ordered the lobster roll. He had seen lobster mentioned so much since Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, that he figured he had to try it sometime on this trip, and this was probably going to be his last chance. He had a big bite of it. That’s it. Julie and Anna tried some too. None of us were very impressed with it. Perhaps it was because it was prepared in a salad-like way, like tuna fish is. We tried it any way. All except Emma. She said there was no way that she was eating lobster. Anna also tried the clam chowder that came with it, but none of the rest of us were up to that.

We then went to Orchard House. It’s kind of funny that we went to Green Gables last week, where Anne of Green Gables is set. Orchard House is the home where Louisa May Alcott lived, and so it is the setting of Little Women, another of Julie’s favorites. The four sisters in the book, Jo, Meg, Anna and May, were based on the real life Alcott sisters. Louisa, the author, is Jo. The settings described and many of the events are things that happened in this very home. What’s more is that nearly all of the furnishings and artifacts in the home are the actual items owned by the Alcott family. There was only a period of about 20 years between the time that the family sold the home and the time that it became a museum, so many of the family items were able to be brought back. Amy Alcott (who is May in the book) was an artist who left many pencil sketches and paintings on the actual walls themselves. Julie bought a gift set of a book and DVD of Little Women, of course, and we got an easier-to-read edition for the girls. The building where Alcott’s father ran the Concord School of Philosophy stands outback.

Mr. Alcott used to have his daughters keep journals about good or bad things that happened to them each day, and then they had to share what they wrote at dinner. We told Anna it was like "Highs and Lows."

Julie wanted to tour the homes where Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived too, but they were closed today. That happened when we were here years before too, but at least we got to see the Alcott home. That’s the one Julie was most interested in. We went to the Old North Bridge where the battle took place, but after taking a few pictures there, we decided to return to the hotel. We told Anna and Emma we were going to the “House of the 15 Dead People” in order to tease them, but they were happy to see they were going to be able to swim in the pool instead. We ordered Dominoes for dinner. Not lobster.

We’re all really tired, and probably ready to wind this trip up. The girls miss Schnitzel terribly. We’ve got about an eight hour drive facing us tomorrow, if we drive straight through.