Concord, Mass.

Sunday afternoon, we decided to join the other trespassers (thanks to the government shutdown!) and head to Minute Man Park in Concord, Massachusetts. Elijah's favorite pre-trip materials were our Revolutionary War books plus the Liberty Kids tv episodes; he was excited to actually get to go to Concord! We walked part of the trail that takes you to different points in the Battle of Concord.

Elijah and his guns

We, sadly, didn't have time to explore Concord's famous literary heritage (Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Alcott, and others, all lived here in the mid-1800s, trading houses and ideas--an amazing wealth of literary greats in a small town). We drove past the homes, but it was too late in the day to tour any.

The Alcott family home, where Louisa May Alcott wrote and set "Little Women"

Then we found the Old North Bridge (in the fading light with little signage, Dustin and I thought we were looking for a covered bridge--thankfully we had our resident Battle of Lexington and Concord expert to inform us that it was not a covered bridge and to provide lots of other information about the significance of the bridge).

Old North Bridge

In front of the Minute Man statue

Dinner was at a little restaurant in Concord with delicious homemade ice cream, and then it was onto Plymouth to spend the night.

New Hampshire, Take 2

Leaving Maine, we went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

We visited the USS Albacore submarine, which was used as a design test submarine during the 50s; that research was then incorporated into future military submarines. For example, they went through four different phases for the engines and propellers, testing different combinations. The submarine was one of the highlights of the trip for the boys.

It's amazing how many people they can fit onto one submarine

Anything on the submarine that was not closed off was available for touching; this area has all the controls for diving

It was a quiet day, so the boys were allowed to play with the controls as long as they wanted

Imaginary play doesn't get any more exciting than this---getting to use a real submarine!

In the sonar room

Then we headed to the lighthouse!

Whaleback Lighthouse partway across the harbor in Kittery, Maine

The lighthouse is only open on Sunday afternoons for touring and is guided by very enthusiastic, thorough volunteers. Josiah was too little to go to the top, so Dustin and I were going to trade off, but we ran out of time for me to go up since each of the three segments of the tour had 10+ minutes of information to deliver (no quick options available!) and we needed to get on the road to Concord.

Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse

Fort Constitution is right next to the Lighthouse

 So we said good-bye to New Hampshire and headed onto Massachusetts.

One Morning in Maine

With the granite Kindles redistributed for entertainment, we started Sunday with a drive through the southernmost part of Maine, stopping at a beautiful coastal nature preserve there.

They played with their "Kindles" for at least 30 minutes

Their Kindles had a whole bunch more shooting games than mine does

There were also some arguments about which games were and were not allowed on their "Kindles"

The fall foliage continued to be spectacular! We spent some time walking the nature trails of Well's Reserve.

New Hampshire, Take 1

In the fading daylight, we stopped to do a short nature walk at Beaver Trail (the original plan had more time for walks through New Hampshire, but we were running behind schedule).

Evidence of beavers! We didn't see any, but we did see a dam or two

Ship by Elijah, drawn on my real Kindle; note: the holes are holes for cannons

Vermont

We spent our second night in Vermont and began our day with a farm harvest festival--games for the kids, demonstrations such a corn husking bee and making butter, Jersey dairy cows to visit, an old farmhouse to tour.

The fall foliage did not disappoint! 

And then we toured a granite quarry in Barre, Vermont. The granite from that quarry is used in lots of monuments because it is so consistent throughout. Fascinating to visit!

Playing on the granite bowling alley, a concept that didn't take off because granite does not have enough friction

As technology advances, only twelve men actually work now in the quarry

With granite "Kindles" in hand, we started our drive through New Hampshire.

Connecticut!

Leaving Rhode Island (to the sound of Elijah's "When is room time?" and Josiah's helpful response, "No room time. Connecticut!"), we spent our afternoon along the Mystic River at Mystic Seaport, a living history museum depicting coastal life in 19th century New England.

Mystic River

A view of one of the streets

There were lots of ships to look at and climb board and lots of little buildings to explore; way more to see than we possibly could see in half a day.

In the bottom of the Charles W. Morgan, an 1841 whaling ship being restored at their shipyard

Lobster traps! 

In front of Joseph Conrad, a training ship, built in 1882

So many hands-on, real life things for the boys to enjoy

The children's play room was full of many hand-carved toys and puzzles

Ship building materials

Beautiful playground

The boys loved it! Mystic Seaport did a really good job at being educational and engaging for all ages.

And then my camera battery died, so no pictures of the delicious sea food from the tiny family-owned seaside restaurant, boasting of the best lobster rolls in New England (it was delicious!). The boys were fascinated by Dustin's whole lobster, but very content to eat their mac and cheese and apples.

Now onto Vermont!