I Can Sleep When I Die

Saturday I was up by 8am, crazy tired but when traveling I seem to have a constant mantra in my head of "this will probably be my only time here, I don't have time to waste, I can sleep when I get home." It just seems to run through my head when I start feeling tired, I just can't stop, I have to do it all. One of my coworkers, Matt, always tells me, "you can sleep when you die." I think its a valid point, I can rest when I die, but with all the traveling this year and with getting a bit older, it is more and more difficult for me to literally keep going without sleep. This trip though, I just kept going despite the more than a few VERY late nights. I can sleep when I die!

So this motel provided a great breakfast, not just donuts and coffee, it had EVERYTHING. So I ate a HUGE breakfast and took an apple for the road, not knowing when I would eat next. If you have seen 2 Fast 2 Furious, remember Tyrese's character and how he ate a TON because he never knew when he'd get his next meal.

He's looking pretty hungry here :) My point, well that is ABSOLUTELY how I felt on this trip - I truly never knew when my next meal would be. Eating was kind of like sleep, if it fit in ok, but if it didn't, it didn't.
Well enough with the commentary. So after breakfast, I got on the road to Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut. Whats there you ask? A pottery place.  Of course it was way back in the woods and I lost my gps signal and when I finally got a signal to call, I found out they weren't making pottery that day and just the store was opened. I didn't feel like driving another half an hour just for a store so I headed south to Hartford, CT.
The drive though was BEAUTIFUL! The trees, hills, running streams and a little waterfall. I'm completely under-selling this drive, it was seriously breathtaking. And no, I did not get pictures because it was mostly a two-lane, windy road without a shoulder so I didn't feel comfortable stopping suddenly. Just trust me, it would make an incredible Sunday drive.
Next stop, Hartford, the capitol of Connecticut and also the home to Samuel Clemens and family for several years. If you're unsure of who Samuel Clemens is, think Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, yep the author known as Mark Twain! So as I was getting close to Hartford I saw signs for Harriet Beecher Stowe's home also! Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain were neighbors, so it was nice to be able to park and walk between two historical sites and not have to drive as much.
This is the back of the house, the view from the parking lot.

 This is the other side of the house, you can see where the carriages would pull up. It was an INCREDIBLE house. The entryway alone had all this etching right into the wood that took more than two years to do. Of course no photos were allowed inside. I also learned Samuel had trouble focusing on his writing. His first office on the second floor had a big window bench with cushions that he kept napping on. Then he moved up to the third floor billiards room but he kept playing pool. So finally he put a little desk in the corner of that room so he faced the wall and that was much more successful for him.

In the museum down the hill from the house was this lego statue of Twain, I thought it was awesome!

 Here is Harriet's house. It was where she lived for the longest amount of her life. It was one of the first manufactured homes in Hartford. Much smaller than Twain's home but still a good size. She loved plants and even made her own little indoor greenhouse.

 The capitol, very regal looking building.

Also as I was heading to the freeway to leave Hartford, I saw Occupy Hartford. On this trip I happened to see Occupy X in almost every city. What idiots.

On to New Haven, CT - home of Yale University. It was a very pretty campus and when I got there the Harvard Yale football game had just ended so the streets were swarmed with people and cars.

All the old brick buildings were charming. Random fact: Yale was started by Cotton Mather because Harvard would not take him as president of their school. This was due to Cotton's involvement in the Salem Witch Trials and his weird research of the supernatural (he dug up bodies of some of those killed in the witch trials.)

Yes, they too had Occupy New Haven in a park right on the edge of campus but there were some cops there kicking people out. So I continued to drive. On to Narragansett, RI to see a lighthouse. But by the time I got there it was too dark and the lighthouse park was closed so I couldn't see it. I drove into Providence to see the capitol and get some seafood. The Capitol was gorgeous, especially at night.

So I used the the yelp app on my phone to find a good seafood place in Providence. It gave me Horton's as one of the oldest and most liked places.

 I had clam cakes (dark brown, back center), fried shrimp, fried scallops and a baked potato. The shrimp was great, I didn't love the fried scallops or clam cakes. But it was fun to try it all.

After my very fatty dinner, I headed to the motel in Massachusetts. I was in my room by 9:30pm, SHOCKER! But I had to plan out my next day and I wasn't asleep until after midnight, just to get up at 7am to get on the road again. Sleep deprived and with a wet head, I still think I looked okay.

I drove into Cambridge and went to sacrament at the Harvard singles ward. It was the tiniest single's ward and chapel I have ever seen! And the first speaker was totally weird and didn't even have a testimony, she stated so multiple times. The second speaker was much better. The building was very quaint though.

Then I walked around Harvard. It has some very pretty buildings and I felt smarter just being there.

I also took this very cute pic of myself.

Then I drove a little ways down the road and saw this...

 Beautiful!

 It is now one of my favorite temples and I LOVED how on the freeway it stands out, strong and majestic.

From this peaceful spot I drove a little further northwest to Lexington, the birthplace of American Liberty.
Below is the Battle Green where the first shots of the American Revolution took place.

The Old Belfry, where the alarm was sounded.

See this big, leaf covered hill and in the top center is the Belfry, well I just hiked up this trying not to slip and fall (with my no traction boots). It was quite difficult to get up to the Belfry.

Then once I got up to the Belfry and started walking around I see this, yep, I'm an idiot. I walked right passed these stone steps and didn't see them. Thankfully the way down was much easier.

This is the Paul Revere capture site in the Minute Man National Park with a little wall representing the wall Prescott jumped to get away from the British patrol and went on to sound the alarm in Concord.

From here I headed a few miles west to Concord. A little town just as full of history. I saw the Wayside House, home to Nathaniel Hawthorne and the childhood home of Louisa May Alcott, also part of the Underground Railroad.

Just a few houses down was the later home of Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women). Interesting facts: She never married, had the same birthday as her dad, and died the day after her dad did. Definitely a daddy's girl :) She also taught herself to be ambidextrous because she would often write for 14 hours at a time.

In the picture above to the left of the Orchard House was this building. Louisa's dad ran a school in it. It reminded me of the house in that cartoon movie Up.

A quarter mile away was the home of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I just kept thinking what a time that would have been to live in Concord with all these great authors.

Because the Alcott house had a gas leak scare they postponed the tours, so I went into the Concord Museum  while waiting. Here is exactly how Ralph Waldo Emerson's study looked, it is mostly all his furniture and a few replicas.

 I love the wall of books. Someday I want a study with all four walls floor to ceiling books (think Professor Higgins' study in my Fair Lady.)

 Here is one of the lantern's hung in the Belfry on that fateful night.

 Also Henry Thoreau's green desk.

I then drove a couple miles to the North Bridge where the first battle of the Revolutionary War took place, April 19, 1775.

 After seeing the bridge, I then went back and took the tour at the Alcott house where I learned all those interesting facts. One more about Louisa's younger sister May, who like her character in Little Women Amy, was an artist and lived most of her life in Europe. May recognized the talent and supported the young artist Daniel Chester French. He sculpted the Minute Man Statue in Lexington and then went onto sculpt an even more famous monument in D.C. - The Lincoln Memorial! French along with Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, and their families are all buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

 I've said before how I like cemeteries, and it was awesome getting to visit this legendary cemetery. It was really cool to wander through. I didn't have much time though because I had to race to Boston.

In a brochure I had picked up, the last walking tour of Boston started at 5pm, so I sped to Boston and parked illegally and sprinted across the park to the visitor center. As I tried to catch my breathe, I managed to get something out about a walking tour. I was informed that was summer hours and the last tour had been at 3:30pm. I was pretty dang bummed. They did sell me a walking tour map and brochure so I could walk it myself. I went back to my rental to find a better parking spot, I ended up driving around the city for almost an hour and paying $15 for parking across the river. This building below was built right on the site of the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770.

 Here is the marker on the sidewalk right in front of the building.

The Massachusetts capital.

 Across the river is a VERY famous pastry shop for Bostonians.

 As you get about 10 blocks away in any direction you start seeing these boxes being carried by what seems like everyone.

 I wish I could have gotten a picture of the inside of the bakery, it was so pretty, straight out of my dreams. Any and every kind of pastry you could imagine. There was a TON of people though so I couldn't get a good shot. I got an eclair and of course a cannoli (on the right.) They are most known for their cannolis and they sell over a dozen types, I got the florentine cannoli. Both were delicious!

Paul Revere's home.

I loved seeing all the Christmas lights on this trip!

 I looked for a restaurant people had recommended but their was a long line and after the pastries I wasn't really hungry and was extremely tired from the long day, so I headed to my motel. As I pulled off the freeway and headed to the light I had to stop suddenly, a guy two cars up gets out in the middle of the street and walks to the car in front of me and yells at the women for awhile and then gets back in his car and drives off. It was crazy! I was a bit worried he was going to pull out a gun. I didn't see any damage to the vehicles, so I don't know what happened, some people are just ridiculous. But after the long day, I was just so happy to get to my room, shower and fall into bed. Next up Salem and witches...