We took a day trip up to Lexington and Concord, the location of "the shot heard 'round the world" and often cited as the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  Near the several historic sites there stood Louisa May Alcott's family home.  By this time, we were all getting a bit overfull with American history.  So we skipped the revolutionary stuff entirely, and just went for a tour of the Alcott home.

The laides in my family were intimately familiar with some of Ms. Alcott's work, most notably "Little Women", a very autobiographical novel recounting Ms. Alcott's growing up in this home with her several sisters.  The home is almost entirely original, including some fanciful pencil drawings of fairies and unicorns done by Louisa's sister that decorate her window and door trim.

Below is a shot of Louisa's fathers school, where classes and discussions took place weekly, often featuring the ideas and/or personages of Emerson and Thoreau, who were friends and neighbors of the Alcott family.  Walden Pond still sits just a few miles from the Alcott home, in Concord.

Of course, no interior pictures were allowed, so you'll have to be content with this shot of the outside.  It does not look like much, but it really was quite a wonderful home, full of the unusual ideas and energy of this creative family.  It is interesting to note that Louisa was still fairly young and living at home when "Little Women" was published.  It was an immediate bestseller, and earned Ms. Alcott quite a lot of money and fame.  She became the principle bread winner of the family, and channeled much of her earnings into home improvement projects.  She never did marry, preferring the freedom that being a wealthy single woman allowed.

After our sojourn in Concord, we drove Southeast in to Boston.  We were somewhat dreading this trip because we had heard that "The Big Dig" had turned already crowded Boston into a nightmare driving experience.  The Big Dig is a now 10 year old road and subway improvement project that has spiraled way out of control.  It is years late, and billions over budget.  Current estimates are that it will end up costing over 14 billion dollars to finish.  To put this into some perspective, normal freeways in California cost about $2 million per mile; so the Bostonians should be getting the equivalent of 7,000 miles of freeway, right?  The project spans just a dozen or so miles, but does involve lots of digging.  And of course, during the construction, traffic is rerouted through convenient detours like Martha's Vineyard and Chicago.  At any rate, it is a mess, and everyone agrees it is.  We certainly did, but managed to arrive and get parked anyway.  Here, Jordan reenacts a song from one of the many musical plays with which she is familiar as we stroll along Boston's famous "North End".   The North End is the Italian section of Boston, and we love all things Italian.  In fact, this was the only part of Boston we were planning on visiting, having 'done' Boston on a previous trip out East 8 years or so ago.

As full as we were with Revolutionary history, we did walk much of  the "Freedom Trail" -- a walking tour through Boston stopping by at many of the historic sites.  We even went to Fanneuil Hall just in time to catch a 6-minute talk encapsulating the importance and history of that building.  Owned by the city of Boston and established as a meeting hall, it is still in use for that purpose.  The shot below is a detail of the clock and eagle over the doors.

 
 As we continued our stroll, I spied the signpost at left and thought it interesting enough to snap a picture.  As I was doing so, I heard someone yelling to me from the vicinity of the bottom of the sign, saying "Hey, buddy!  Over here!  Hey!".  When I looked down, he pointed to himself and his daughter, and they mugged for a picture.  So I obliged them, and below is the shot.  Sorry, but I don't know their names or anything else about them; it was just a "Boston moment".

Our only real agenda this day was to find the pizza and deli shop we had eaten at 8 years before, and relish his pizza topped with pasta one more time.  This was hands down the most amazing pizza we had ever had.  We even sent the owner back a postcard when we got back home.

We did find Trio's, but it was closed, this being Sunday.  We were very disappointed, but we were able to rally and continue on.  We did get this shot of the sign to remind us.

As we walked back in the general direction of our car, we came upon this  lively old Italian accordion player, and were captivated by his energy and music.  We paused and listened for a few minutes, shot this picture and put $2 in his accordion case.

We considered finding an alternate Italian food source -- the North End has some of the best Italian food to be had anywhere -- but decided instead to make our own Italian meal back at camp, which is what we did.

July 30 - Lowell