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First a correction, the North Bridge is at Concord, not Lexington. But you guys all knew that, right?
Today was a gorgeous day.
We started out by going back towards Boston to the USS Constitution to see the museum and the ship.
Because they are still celebrating the Navy's birthday, and because there was a special group of people headed by an army brigadier general, we got a very good tour guide aboard the ship.
The reason the ship is referred to as old ironsides is because cannon balls would bounce off the southern live oak (that is too dense to float) which was sandwiched in-between two layers white oak. While the cannon ball bounced off the side of the ship, it would splinter the wood inside the ship and kill you that way, however.
From there we went to Saugus where the first American iron works was. It was only operational 20 years and never was profitable. It went out business because the investors and management litigated it to death. Does this sound familiar?
Lowell was our next stop where the textile and more importantly, the industrial "revelation" as the story was told, took off in this country. It went from success to failure for all the reasons you still see today in business.
We then went back to Concord to see"The Manse" or authors' house where Emerson and Hawthorne once lived.
Because Colleen and I can't quite remember the details, we'll just say that several other famous people had been in the house.
The Concord skirmish at the Old North Bridge was also witnessed from the upstairs window.
We also visited the Sleepy Hollow cemetery where all the authors are buried. We were told they weren't that close socially, but you might want to question that with the proximity of their graves.
October 11, 2003
We were on the road by 8:00AM and managed to figure out which train to get on (there were two tracks/trains, but they both went to the same place so we really couldn't screw it up).
We wound up near the Boston Common and boarded our "trolley" for the grand tour.
The tour was OK to mediocre but it sure beat walking.
We wound up at the water front for our harbor tour which turned out to be the highlight of the day.
It turns out today is the Navy's birthday. You'd think that Colleen and I would know this. We still don't know how old the Navy is.
Anyway, the USS Constitution, "old ironsides", was out in the harbor celebrating the occasion complete with a fireboat and a small flotilla of security boats.
During the day we heard of a free tour of Harvard which sounded interesting.
Colleen and I got back on the train and went to the Harvard station. This tour turned out to be very disappointing, with little history. But we did get to see Haavad Yaad.
10/12 - As for today, the rain developed as predicted. We're taking it easy in our nice room, doing laundry and getting a little exercise.
10/12 (later) We had a change of heart (the rain let up a little) and decided to go to the North Bridge at Lexington late in the afternoon. For future reference, the Lexington visitors center was a better presentation.
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