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).

To the Farthest Ports of the Rich East

Salem was our next stop, but we weren't here for the touristy hocus-pocus witch stuff (and believe me, there is definitely a lot of *that* to be found all over town!) No, we came here to see the Salem Maritime National Historic Site, which interprets the maritime history of New England, and the merchant ships that carried cargo between America and "the farthest ports of the rich East".

The Shot Heard Round the World

First thing this morning we headed to Minute Man National Historic Park. Even though the British troops marched from Lexington to Concord on April 19, 1775, we traveled the Battle Road in reverse, beginning at the North Bridge in Concord.

North Bridge over the Concord River

Hoop Dreams

After last summer's trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH, the boys put the Basketball Hall of Fame at the top of their list of places to see next. So when I started looking at what to do for our vacation this summer and found a really good airfare to Boston, our plans were set! Twenty years ago when I was in Connecticut for grad school, R came out to visit me, and we drove up to see the Hall of Fame. I remember thinking then that it was underwhelming - outdated exhibits and unfinished displays. So we were hopeful that with all of the interactive things that museums do now to engage visitors, our experience would be much better today!

The Tri-State Area

Since it was still overcast this morning, my hopes of getting a morning pic from one of the national seashore beaches were dashed. But after checking out of the hotel, we went out to see the Nauset Light...

Presidents and Pilgrims

Welcome to the latest update of the Saiki-delic road trip blog – which, in this case, started with a flight to Boston early yesterday morning. Of the flights we’ve taken, this will be among the horror stories we tell. Although it wasn’t as bad as the time I flew to my cousin’s wedding and had to test the capacity of the airsick bag, this flight had…

1. Me sitting next to a large man (who oozed over/under the armrest into my space!) and his wife with their screaming toddler
2. Turbulence
3. No in-flight entertainment (Our last flight had DirectTV, so J had been looking forward to watching on board this time – bummer!)
4. R suddenly feeling ill, so the flight attendants called for a medical professional to check him over. Fortunately, there were two on board, and whatever was wrong went away by itself after a bit. (He called his doctor today – it might have something to do with his medication in combination with the altitude, so hopefully we won’t have a repeat episode on the way home!)