Harvard, Lexington, and Concord

Though our car’s odometer doesn’t reflect it, we covered a lot of ground today. Thinking back over it, it’s hard to believe we did so much. I’m going to break the record with seven photos in today’s post but there are still a number of good things I won’t note.

We spent the morning at Harvard University, visiting the Semitic Museum. I gave the kids a tour of the Israelite room before releasing them to greener pastures and proceeding to photograph other rooms. Naturally they got a full explanation of an Israelite four-room house.

I enjoyed teaching them about artifacts from Israel. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before. (Crazy, isn’t it?)

Not too far distant is Lexington, famous for its role in standing up to British soldiers on their way to Concord. We took a picture with the Minute Man statue.

Behind that statue is the Battle Green where the revolutionaries and Redcoats had their standoff. In the enactment below, the boys are the British and the girls are the Minute Men.

At the Hartwell Tavern, a lively ranger gave us an explanation of how the guns worked and then he (unintentionally) demonstrated how they didn’t always fire as intended. I don’t know this for sure, but my guess is that many of the rangers who do these talks at historical sites are school teachers off for the summer. It seems like an ideal way to indulge in one’s passion and (perhaps?) get paid for it. I wonder why we don’t see Jehu dressed up at Jezreel giving tourists a demonstration of chariot driving. Maybe I should get it going; my dissertation will of course make me the expert on it.

It was at North Bridge in Concord where Americans killed the first British soldiers (I think that’s right, but better not trust me to keep all of this history straight). We enjoyed another ranger talk here. The bridge that you see is actually a fifth reconstruction of the famous one.

We were too late to go inside, but we did see the area and exterior of the house which was the basis for Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women was written. Not far away was the Wayside, home to the Alcotts and Nathaniel Hawthorne. And near the North Bridge is the Old Manse, home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. There are lots of historic places in a very small area.

Our last stop was at Walden Pond, made famous by Henry David Thoreau. There were tons of people here; apparently it is a very popular recreation area today. Too bad we are all books and lessons and no fun and games!

We ‘re spending tonight and tomorrow with a former IBEX student and her family in New Hampshire. In fact, it was this blog that connected us and led to a very warm welcome. Tomorrow should be fun.