We started out the morning at Walden Pond State Reservation. Walden Pond was the setting that inspired Henry David Thoreau’s novel “Walden”. Admittedly, I have never read this, but I can honestly say that I understand how this place could be inspirational and now having been there, might pick it up to read.
We hiked the trail around the pond, skirting off the trail a little ways to the see the location (and foundation) of the original cabin. The interesting thing about this location is that the exact location wasn’t even known until recently. A replica of the cabin was displayed elsewhere in the park.
Kudos to the group of swimmers that swam across the pond and back quicker than we hiked around it by land. If fact, in addition to the swimmers we saw fishermen, hikers and few other others all enjoying the park. This took me a little by surprise because I just assumed that for preservation reasons that the pond activities would be restricted. I think it’s pretty cool that people today can find new inspiration from such a historic place.
Next we drove into downtown Concord and walked around checking out historic houses and some of the shops in the area. If you decide to do this, I would strongly suggest that you stop into the visitor’s center and buy the $1 walking map. Although many of the houses have the names of their historic property owners posted on the outside, the map points out many other points of interests and attractions in the area. I took a few pictures of various houses we saw. The one below is the Emerson House: the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson from 1835 until his death in 1882.
Across the street from the Emerson House is the Concord Museum, our next stop. Usual museum rules applied — don’t touch anything and no pictures. It was larger than I thought it would be. The museum’s content was good though and worth the stop.
Around the corner from the Concord Museum is the Orchard House. This place’s claim to fame is that Louisa May Alcott wrote the novel “Little Women” here. To me, this was the surprise of the day.
You start off by sitting in May’s (Amy in the book) drawing room to watch a video about the Alcotts and specifically how the novel “Little Women” was influenced by the real life events of the Alcott family and how the popularity of the novel changed their lives. Then a curated tour brings you through the rest of the house. What really surprised me was that the rooms had actual furnishings from the time and nothing was under glass or corded off. Not that you could touch anything, but actually seeing the rooms as they were without glass boxes and ropes really added to the experience. In my opinion, a must see.
Our next stop was Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Author’s Ridge held the headstones for Emerson, Thoreau and the Alcotts. Earlier in the day we had visited Old Hill Burying Grounds. The gentleman at the visitor’s center had told us that back then, the dead were not transported across water, which is how it was determined where you would be buried.
Our final stop of the day was Minute Man National Historic Park. This is the location that the actual start of the Revolutionary War is attributed to (April 19, 1775).
Due to the time that we arrived and the fact that we were both starving, we didn’t walk the entire park trail. We did, however, see the Minute Man monument.
Another interesting fact was that the same artist that did the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C. was the same artist that created the Minute Man Monument (and a bust of Louisa May Alcott’s father that we saw in the Orchard House). He was a resident of Concord and an art student of May Alcott.
Shannon and I tried to avoid any type of restaurant chains on the trip, but Concord was really limited in this area. So, we decided to go to Papa Razzi, a restaurant next to our hotel. This was, by far, the best meal we had on the trip. If you like Italian food and there is a Papa Razzi location in your area, I would highly recommend going. Everything tasted great, the service was excellent and they even treated us to a complimentary appetizer because it was our first visit. This meal may be one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life …. no exaggeration.
The next morning, we took the top off of the Jeep and headed home. Shannon continued to try to perfect her ability to take pictures of us without the camera’s viewer ….
It’s always nice coming home. We pulled into the driveway late yesterday afternoon. We checked in with Rod and Chinook to see what had happened in the neighborhood this week and then we headed out to unpack the Jeep. As soon as I opened the door, our dog jumped in the back door. She was determined that she wasn’t going to be left behind again and wanted to prove to us that there was plenty of room for her, even in the Jeep.
We had a great relaxing week. I’m now hoping that I won’t have to show up for jury duty on my birthday as I’d like to get out do some fishing on my last day off before getting back to work!
Tags: Historical
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