Historic Homes

Today was our last day with a rental car before spending the next three days exploring Boston by foot, so I had planned for us to visit 3 NPS units located just outside of the city. We started out with Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site, a reconstruction of the first successful iron works in the New World. It produced wrought and cast iron during the mid-1600's. Today one can see working water wheels and forges (though not during the time we were at the site).

But we did arrive in time for a tour of an historic 17th century home on the grounds. It was restored by Wallace Nutting, a noted early 20th century preservationist.

Unfortunately, the ranger giving the tour was a little dry in his delivery, so the boys lost interest early on. At least it was short, so we explored the iron works when it was over.

From here, we continued on into Boston, driving past Fenway Park (pre-game, so traffic hadn't gotten too bad yet) into Brookline to see Frederick Law Olmsted NHS. He was considered to be the founder of American landscape architecture and was the designer of many urban parks, including Central Park in New York City. This site was only opened to the public a few years ago, so it is a work in progress. We missed the ranger-led tour of the house, but that's probably a good thing as far as the boys were concerned. We did walk around the grounds for a bit. Very serene.

Just a couple of miles away is John Fitzgerald Kennedy NHS, the birthplace of our 35th president. We arrived in between ranger-led tours, but were able to take the self-guided audio tour, narrated by Rose Kennedy.

The room where he was born

JFK slept here

We finished these three sites much earlier than I had anticipated, so we decided to cross the Charles River into Cambridge and squeeze in Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters NHS.

BIG MISTAKE!!! 

Note to self: Three units in a single day is pushing it, especially if there are no guns on display. Four historic homes in a row leads to mutiny.

There was a special event going on at the site, so street parking was scarce. And it was uber-hot! When we finally found a spot to park and walked over, the boys balked at taking another tour or even attempting the junior ranger book. So we didn't get the chance to look inside the house that General Washington used as headquarters during the Siege of Boston in 1775-76 and that poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow also called home. Fail.

We needed to find food fast, so we walked towards Harvard Square. Crowds were there protesting Morsi's rule in Eqypt, but having been in a media vacuum while on vacation, at the time we weren't sure what was going on. We quickly steered the kids down a different street and ended up at a greasy spoon, Leo's Place Diner, for lunch.

Headbanger's Delight (burger with feta and tomato)
and Dr. Eric's Reggae Reuben (turkey reuben)

Because of all of the commotion at Harvard Square, we avoided the area and didn't have the opportunity to see much of the campus. Three years ago when I was in Cambridge for a business trip, I was able to check out some commencement activities -- but I would have liked to show the boys Harvard Yard.

After a Starbucks run for M & J's beverage of choice (vanilla bean frappuccino), we were back in the car and on our way to the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Fortunately our room was ready early, so we checked in and dumped our bags off before returning the car to a nearby Hertz. Nice hotel in a great location! Thankfully I was able to get a decent price for our stay -- after the Boston Marathon bombing in April, the rates kept falling so I kept re-booking at the lower rate -- but what I don't understand is why these already expensive high-end hotels gouge you for everything ($37 self-parking / $13 internet access per day) that other budget-conscious hotels provide for free?!

Rant over. More on the rest of our evening's activities in the next post.