History

Dunkin' Donuts was founded in Quincy Massachusetts in 1950.  Almost every town in the New England states has a Dunkin' in it.  Fast Food restaurants were sometimes hard to find in the quaint towns of the Northeast, but there was always a Dunkin' nearby!  Even McDonald's were rare outside of the large cities, which we seem to have everywhere around here.

The first part of our trip was mostly history.  Our first stop was in Plymouth where the Mayflower brought the Pilgrims.  The replica Mayflower was not in the port while we were there, but we visited the local museum and saw the rock.

From Plymouth we headed North to the South side of Boston and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.  It was a very nice and interesting museum, but much smaller than many of the Presidential museums we have been to.  Then I realized that he was only President for two and a half  years!  Everyone my age and older remembers exactly where they were when they heard that President Kennedy was shot.  One of the exhibits that I particularly enjoyed was the multimedia presentation about the Cuban Missile Crisis.  That must have been a very tense time that I missed out on at the time being too young to understand or follow what was going on.

J.F.K.'s sailboat, the Victura, which he sailed as often as he could in the Cape Cod waters.

We spent a whole day in the downtown Boston historical districts.  We drove in and parked downtown and drove back out again and were never sure where we were going and how we got back out.  We were using a Garmin and Google maps app and still we were confused most of the time.  The streets are narrow, winding, and poorly marked.  The good thing was that the drivers were very courteous and patient, unlike most big cities.  After we parked we hopped on a trolley for a tour of all the historical highlights.  We later walked the Freedom Trail through the city and toured several of the old buildings.  The Freedom Trail starts at Boston Common and passes old cemeteries where patriots and founding fathers are buried, many historical buildings used during the revolutionary war, Paul Revere's home, the Old North Church (one if by land, two if by sea), Bunker Hill, and the wharf where "Old Ironsides" is docked.

Statue of Paul Revere with the Old North Church in the background.

Paul Revere's house.

Very interesting and unusual to stroll through cemeteries with graves dating back to the 16 and 1700's.

The USS Constitution.

 The Bunker Hill Monument with a statue of Col. William Prescott ("don't shoot 'til you see the whites of their eyes") in front of it.

View of Boston harbor from the top of the Bunker Hill monument (after climbing all 294 steps!).

From Boston we drove up to Salem and visited Nathaniel Hawthorne's birthplace and the House of Seven Gables which inspired the famous novel that he wrote.  Hawthorne was born in the red house in 1750, and often visited his relatives, the Ingersolls, who owned the house with seven gables when he was growing up.

From Salem, we headed to the Lexington/Concord area where the Minute Man National Historic Park is located.  This is the area where Paul Revere rode on his midnight ride.  The British first fired on the colonists at the Lexington Green, but the colonists first fired on the British at Concord's North Bridge, and then chased the British back to Boston on the "Battle Road Trail".

Next we stopped at Wayside house.  This house witnessed the American Revolution as it sits on the road from Lexington to Concord, but also at times was the home of three famous authors' families; the Hawthornes, the Alcotts, and the Lothrops.

Orchard House, Louisa May Alcott's house.

Our last stop on this part of our trip was to Walden Pond.  I hiked around the pond to the site of Henry David Thoreau's cabin made famous in his book, Walden.  I took a picture of him in front of his cabin checking his text messages!

This part of our trip was a good refresher course on the early history of our nation and many of the events and people that shaped the freedoms and blessings we enjoy today.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2