No one called him that night and the next morning was the event. We drove there anyway. Jerry spoke with the distant cousin that was in charge of the wood dispersal. Like all good wood-turners they spent a lot of time yukking it up and eventually Jerry not only got several chunks of the tree, but also some other special wood. A letter of authenticity will be sent so Jerry has a real treasure. Needless to say he was floating on clouds for days. Seems that the tree holds significance as it was probably the one that inspired Robert Frost to write the poem "The tree from my window". Correct the name of the poem as I have never read it. I like another poem he wrote about the road less traveled. Seems to be the theme of our "big field trip", it has made all the difference. (Picture of Jerry on the stump of THE tree.)
While in Massachusetts we visited both Boston and Salem. We went to Boston to get a sense about the start of the Revolutionary War. The tour through the North End was easy since they have a red stripe that you walk along. It saves all of us from reading a map and getting lost anyway. The walk includes the home of Paul Revere and the Old North Church. It also took us over the river to the USS Constitution and up to Bunker Hill...which isn't really Bunker Hill--it is just called that because that is where the battle was suppose to be. It seems that the order was given to fight the British on Bunker Hill, but was disobeyed and fought on a smaller hill with a better view. To cover the foul-up, they called it Bunker Hill. There is a tower built there as a memorial of the battle. Rose and Chris felt like they needed to climb to the top. Jerry felt like he should rest. So--it is a total of just under 600 steps. There aren't any short cuts. The pain afterwards only last three days (unless you are in shape. Which I was not). There is a picture of Rose and Chris sitting on the top three steps where short people can go to look out the peep-hole.
Hearing about the witch trials in Salem and being so close, it seemed like a natural excursion. Besides that I found a pirate museum was located there as well. The pirate museum wasn't a museum. Think along the lines of a wax museum only with department store dummies dressed as pirates. There were some interesting stories told by a totally ungifted speaker. In other words, buy a book....or read about pirates on the Internet. It did have a lot of potential. Children under 12 will find it enjoyable. Parents will feel ripped-off as there is little value to any of it other than the knowledge that piracy still exists and they just got took.
In fact, Salem was a bust. Funny thing is that we enjoyed our day there more than Boston. The whole witch trials thing, didn't happen in Salem. They happened in the village next to what is now called Salem. That village at one time was called Salem Village. When the furor of the witch hunt and hangings subsided (probably 100 years later) and the good citizenry realized how far wrong they were, they became embarrassed. To keep the world from pointing a finger at them, they changed the name of their town. Then the attention shifted to Salem Harbor (present day Salem). These good folk realized they could cash in on the whole thing by making the world believe it happened there. That is just what they did, they dropped the Harbor part of their name and became Salem. Witchery is VERY much in vogue there. The whole month of October is a celebration. Think Mardi Gras in New Orleans. There is a lot of that sort of craziness there. We left before the evening really got started as it just isn't our thing. Strange people are there. Get the book instead--unless you really want to "get down and dirty".
We did go to the harbor and see the ship Friendship. Very picturesque. Also saw the home of Nathenial Hawthorne; House of Seven Gables fame. Saw that house as well. We didn't go through it...just a walking tour through the town. They did the same red-line trick to keep tourists from going astray. Very nice of them I'd say.
Our campground was close enough that we could visit other states besides Massachusetts. So while the weather was good we went to Rhode Island and found that it was over 80 degrees at the beach there. We spent part of our day and Rose accidentally learned how to body surf. She was all over it from then on. Chris even enjoyed the gentler surf and got wet clear up to his shorts. The day was a record breaker; 20 degrees above normal. Very nice.
The goal for our trip to Rhode Island was Providence for the WaterFire art show. A few years ago when the city center was dying, an artist decided to make a display using the canal that goes right through downtown. He started with a few urns which were piled with wood and fired them up at dark. Not sure just how often he did his art, but it has now grown to (I think) a thousand urns and he fires them every other Saturday from spring until sometime in October. Down town is now revitalized, the show is worth seeing. The lighting started at 6:30 and when we left an hour later they were still traveling the canal restocking the urns. The whole experience is wonderful as the wood is snapping dry and the flames make each of my pyromaniacs very pleased. Music is piped throughout the city during the evening from several stages. The urns stretched five or six city blocks long, maybe more. Very very good. To add to the ambience, the temperature was hovering around 78.
Just want you folks to know that we do miss you and it is sure nice to hear how things are going at home. We watch the weather just to see if we can see the west coast. Pretty thrilling when they mention anything about Oregon.
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