It wasn't until somewhere on the MA toll highway that we actually decided to stay in Concord. We had been hoping to stay in a hotel in Cambridge but their rates were not good enough so we called our plan B hotel, the Colonial Inn in Concord. What a serendipitous turn of events. The inn was quaint, historical and turned out to be a great headquarters for three nights of our trip. (I highly recommend you stay there if visiting the area). That first evening we strolled through the nearby Sleepy Hollow cemetery. (I'm not sure why it's named that, as Sleepy Hollow the village is in New York and Washington Irving has no connection to Concord.) Sleepy Hollow houses the remains of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.
On Wednesday morning, we boarded the commuter train to Boston. Once there we trekked the Freedom Trail and took in historic sites like the Old North Church, Paul Revere's house, King's Chapel burying ground (final resting place of John Winthrop and the woman who served as a model for Hester Pryne), Granary burying ground (final resting place of Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere), and the U.S.S. Constitution. We also ate at the Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in the country. At first I thought our waitress had a speech impediment but then it dawned on me that she had the Boston accent my mother had been waiting to hear (we didn't hear it much in Concord, which is only twenty miles away). The service was not the best, and I wouldn't go back, but it's nice to say I've been there, I suppose.
I'm a big fan of Peter Kreeft, a Christian writer/theologian who is a professor of philosophy at Boston College. I first read his The Best Things in Life when I was in late middle school/early high school and named it my favorite book until I read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova in 2005. The Best Things in Life is a series of dialogues between a resurrected Socrates and modern day college students about philosophical matters. Remembering that Mr. Kreeft works at Boston College I researched his class schedule online and emailed him to ask if I could sit in on a class. He agreed, so Thursday morning I drove to BC campus and attended his Philosophy of World Religions class. It was the beginning of the year, only the second class, I believe. He talked about primitive religions and the primitive mind. Primitive in the true sense of the word, not in a degrading way. Simply that primitive people were pre-scientific in their thinking. They asked who and why, not how. He's a great speaker, very laid back and conversational, and he exudes an air of humility. I took along my copy of his Christianity for Modern Pagans, a commentary on Pascal's Pensees. At the end of class, I thanked him and asked him to sign it. I don't know if the students at BC know how lucky they are to enroll in his classes.
After my morning at Boston College, I returned to Concord where my parents joined me for more local explorations. We went to the Concord Museum to see Emerson's study. We walked to the site of the battle at Concord where "the shot heard 'round the world' was fired. Then we went to Walden Pond. It was bigger than I thought it would be since Thoreau wrote about it being frozen over. It does freeze over in winter, the natives say, and you can walk out to the middle of it and go ice fishing. I waded in it, appreciating what Thoreau saw in the area. We ended the day visiting the Wayside, where Hawthorne lived.
On Friday, we headed north to Salem. As someone who taught The Crucible, it was fun to see some of the witch museums and hear a bit more about the witch trials. I picked up a copy of the transcripts from the trial of John Proctor to use in the future if I go back to teaching. The town does take the witch thing to an extreme with lots of kitschy stuff and "psychics" in every other store. Salem is also home to the House of Seven Gables which inspired Hawthorne's book of the same title. It was a well done tour that touched not just on Hawthorne, but also architecture and the town's shipping history.
We continued our trip south to Plymouth Friday night so I could awake bright eyed and bushy tailed for my race. I'd only been training for six weeks (and not totally following the plan) leading up to the race. My goal was to finish. My second goal was to finish under three hours (not an impressive time). I felt really good. Until about mile 9. Then I said to myself, 'what did you get yourself into?' This is a question I frequently ask myself because of my views on pushing myself outside my comfort zone. But I gritted my teeth (figuratively, too tired to do the literal) and finished. Thirty-five minutes faster than I'd hoped. (Still not an impressive time). I was in a place of physical discomfort, but now I can say I've run a half-marathon. Probably when I return from Turkmenistan, I'll train for a full one.
My parents were waiting at the finish line with birthday flowers and balloon. And the car very nearby to chauffer me to the hotel for an ice bath. After a chance to regain some sort of mobility, we explored Plymouth, visiting the museum that houses William Bradford's (more English teacher/history stuff) Bible and other things brought over on the Mayflower. Of course we saw Plymouth rock (my race ended there) and the cemetery where Bradford is buried. (Noticing a trend?) Let me take a moment now to assure you that I'm not morbid, I just really like cemeteries.
Thus ended my 31st birthday, but not the trip. After worshipping at an Episcopal church Sunday, mom and I drove out to Cape Cod where we strolled along the beach at Barnstable and discovered quite by accident the town of Sandwich. We intend to go back tomorrow to see the Thornton Burgess Museum and church designed by Christopher Wren.