Pennsylvania and Boston

We left for Pennsylvania and first went to the Flight 93 National Memorial. This was the week-end before the new area was to open. There was an excellent display set up of the events that took place here on September 11. The actual spot where the plane hit is covered over and will be left that way as a memorial since most of the bodies were not recovered.




We then continued on to Bob’s brother’s (Barry & Karen) in Downingtown, Pennsylvania. We spent a couple of nights with them and had a great visit. We also got to see Sara and Maggie.



We then went back west a little to Hershey for 3 nights and planned to go to Hershey World but the flood happened. It rained so much and so hard that everything was shut down. We were able to meet for lunch with friends we met in Thailand, Duane and Lonna Zimmerman, but it was raining then also. Until that evening we didn’t realize how bad it was. It was the second worst recorded in history. So we spent the time at the resort and played games, read books and worked on cross-stitch. Then we had to drive over 40 miles south, west, north and then east to get to the interstate to drive to Boston because so many of the roads were flooded. What a time.

We spent 8 nights at the Marriott Custom House in Boston.

Sunrise out our window.


We stayed here before and did most of the downtown Boston things. This time we branched out a bit and worked on quite a few National Parks. We first took a boat trip to the Boston Light which is on Little Brewster Island.




It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed watching the boats and the airplanes landing at Logan.



We climbed the 76 steps to the top of the light.

Actually there were 76 steps and then 2 ladders


but at the top we were right next to the lens.







Wow what an experience. We also saw Graves Lighthouse which was further out in the harbor


and then Long Island Head Lighthouse.


We drove to Salem, Massachusetts and went to Salem Maritime NHS at Derby Wharf.


There is a reconstructed India Sailing Clipper called Friendship that we got to board.




There was a lighthouse at the end of the wharf (the Derby Wharf Lighthouse).


We spent the day walking around Salem. We viewed the Witch Trials Memorial and Cemetery. There were 19 people hanged and one crushed. We walked to the House of Seven Gables but did not tour it. We ate lunch at the Lobster Shanty and had clam chowder and a lobster roll. Delicious!!!!


Then we stopped at the Saugus Iron Works NHS in Saugus. It was totally reconstructed in the 1950’s to look like it was in the 1600’s.




We had a historic tour of the Custom House that is leased by Marriott from the City of Boston and opened in 1997 as timeshare units. It took one year to renovate and $30 million dollars. It was completed 6 months ahead of schedule. The clock at the top is one inch bigger than Big Ben in London. We could see 2 of the numbers on the east face, the 6 and 7.



Three nights we went to entertainment in the counting room. One was a pianist and jazz singer, another was the son of Noah Webster and the 3rd was two string players in colonial costumes.

We took the subway to Adams NHP in Quincy and toured the birthplaces of both John Adams and John Quincy Adams



and the house which was owned and used by the Adam’s family for over 160 years.


We went to New Bedford, MA to the New Bedford Whaling NHP. It is one of the busiest and richest ports for whaling. We walked to the church which Melville used in Moby Dick.




We drove a bit through Bedford so we could see 3 lighthouses but we could only get pictures of two of them. In Fort Tabor Park is Clark’s Point Lighthouse



and in the water is Butler Flats.


We saw Palmer Island Lighthouse but couldn’t get a picture because of all the buildings along the water. Then we went to Newport, Rhode Island and had crab cakes for lunch at Buskers Irish Pub. We walked to the Touro Synagogue NHS, the oldest in the United States.


We then stopped in Providence at the Roger Williams NHS. It is just a very small park but the film was very informative. Rhode Island was the first State to separate religion and government.


We walked to the First Baptist Church in America.



We took the T out to Frederick Law Olmstead NP and toured his house. They were in the process of refurbishing. He was a “park planner’ for green space.


Then we went to Cambridge and toured the Longfellow home. It had much of the original items and had even been used by George Washington at the beginning of the Revolution.


We walked through the Harvard campus.


Another day found us taking the T to Brookline and we visited John F. Kennedy’s birthplace. Rose Kennedy bought the house in the 70’s and refurbished it to the best of her recollection of their time there and then turned it over to the National Park Service.


We headed back into downtown Boston, ate lunch at a pub and then walked uphill to Beacon Street area and saw the Black Meeting House, part of the Afro-American Heritage Trail dating way back. We took a picture of the sculpture of the Massachusetts 54th Regiment by St. Gaudens which is on the edge of the Boston Commons. His place is a national park in New Hampshire.