Boats and Witches....

WE woke up this morning in Lexington Mass. Checked out of what has so far been the worst hotel. It kind of smelled outside and was very noisy.



We drove to Salem which was only about 30 minutes away. We found the National Park Visitor Center and got the Junior Ranger books. We stop by Salem Common to work on the books for a while. Then we walk down to the ship "Friendship" to finish up the book. This program focused on the boating/fishing history of Salem. The boat was very cool and there were a couple awesome Park Rangers that really seemed to enjoy their job and enjoyed how interested the boys were. After they were finished with the books one of the Rangers had found all the patches and badges they had to give to the boys!! They ended up with 3 of them.



We also saw a bell made by Revere and Sons. It was made after the civil war. Tied in nicely with what we saw yesterday at Minute Man.



We went to the Salem Witch Museum which was okay but not worth what we paid to see it.



We checked into the Salem Inn and rested for a while because it was very hot. The weather channel said 93 with high humidity. The locals were even complaining. The girls at the desk of the Inn suggested a pizza place down the street called "The Upper Crust" It was a very nice little place with pizza pans hanging from the ceiling. The pizza was REALLY good. Possibly the best I have ever had. The Bewitched statue was right out in front of the resturant. After dinnere we took a walk down a little street that David and I enjoyed the last time we were here over 15 years ago. It has a cobblestone road and little shops and small museums. Most things were closed already but it was still fun. Had to tell Anthony who Lizzy Borden was.



I really love all the old houses here...really beautiful with character.

Working hard on Junior Ranger books. Its a working vacation :)

This is the Ranger who really enjoyed the boys.

The replica of the "Friendship" The orginal was captured by the British during the

war of 1812

Bicycle pizza delivery!!!!!

Bewitched statue. I use to love that show!

The cool street we walked down after dinner. I should have looked for the name!!!

The bell made my Revere and Sons. Paul Revere had another son after the war who went into the silver smithing business with him.

Minute Men and midnight rides.....

We got up this morning and drove down to Sleepy Hollow just so we could say we saw it. We drove by the Old Dutch Church and I saw an interesting metal artform of the headless horseman. I didn't get my camera on fast enough to get a picture though.

We drove on to Rhode Island to go to lunch at a little diner we saw on Food TV but it was closed!!! So we kept driving and we soon out of RI without really seeing anything. We drove on to the Minute Man National Park in Massachusetts. We stopped by the visitor center and saw a very cool park video interpretation of the first battle of the Revolution. It had two screens in a room that looked like a tavern. It was very well presented!! The boys got junior ranger badges here and we drove on down to see the place were Paul Revere was captured by the Redcoats on the midnight ride. Then we drove on down and saw the North Bridge in Concord. There was a really awesome garden area there and Michael and Jacob enjoyed being minute men spies and saving me from the Redcoats (David and Anthony) All this was done without my knowledge....didn't know I was in trouble until the whole thing was over and I was saved :) This is something they have started doing when we are out and about...playing spies. And the area that you could walk inside of with all the cool trees to climb made a perfect place to spy from. We are sleeping tonight in Lexington Mass and are getting up in the morning and going on to Salem. Should be another great day!!!

Statue of Liberty.....

Working hard on Junior Ranger badges.

The boys thought this looked like a pirate boat.

Ellis Island with Jersey City behind it.

Jacob making his video.

The view looking straight up from the top of the pedestal....it made me dizzy!!

On the ferry.

The old torch.

Resting on the cornerstone of the Pedestal. France gave us the statue but we had to pay for the pedestal. They had to do some creative thinking to get the money. They sold bonds and school kids had money drives.

Taking in the view of New York City.

Italian Ice...so good after such a hot day!


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We got up this morning and drove to Jersey City to take a ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island. We got off at Ellis Island first. We got the Junior Ranger books and got to work. This book was one of the hardest we have done so far. But it really taught us a lot! We got back on the ferry and went to Liberty Island. When we got close to the statue people started hooting and clapping. It was beautiful!!!! We got the Junior Ranger books for here too but the badge was the same so we decided to just bring those books home to do later. I had already bought our tickets a couple of months ago...even then they didn't have any crown tickets left. They only let 300 people a day go up to the crown. But we did get tickets to go inside the pedestal, and we got to walk up over 200 stairs. It was so worth it though, at the top we could see up inside the statue. we weren't too disappointed about the crown because there was a heat advisory for inside the statue. It was so hot today!!! We all took lots of pictures and Jacob made a couple of videos. Then we got back on the ferry to go back to our car. On the walk back we found a street vendor selling Italian lemon ices.....we had to get some!!! We drove to Tarrytown New York to spend the night. This was the home of Washington Irving and were he got his inspiration for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." We got in kind of late so we didn't get to drive down to Sleepy Hollow or see Irving's house. We were so tired we didn't even get out the computer so I didn't blog. The Statue of Liberty was yesterday :)

Four score and 7 years ago.....

Pennsylvania memorial at Gettysburg. This monument has all the names of all the men who fought at this battle from Pennsylvania.

Cool rock formation at Little Big Top.

View from Little Big Top.

The monument for the baby birds.

We got up this morning and drove to Gettysburg. We bought a CD driving tour with a book and got the Junior Ranger Booklet. This place was huge and the town was charming. We only drove through the town but it was very pretty. The boys enjoyed all the cannons and David gave them several lessons about the difference between the ones that the union had compared to the ones the Confederacy used. The Union had new rifled barrels and the south had older ones called Napoleonic cannons.

We all enjoyed the story about the young private who risked his life to put back a nest of baby birds after the tree they were in was hit by artillery.

The Junior Ranger book was quite hard this time. But between all three boys they got it done.

We left Gettysburg around 4pm and headed towards New Jersey. We stopped for dinner at a little place called Lukas' Last American Diner. I got some really good Mac and Cheese. David got a gyro and Anthony got a cheeseburger. He had one for dinner yesterday and one for lunch and dinner again today. He says he done with cheeseburgers for at least 24 hours :)

Finding the hotel was fun in the dark!! But we are here in New Jersey and will head for Liberty State Park and the Statue of Liberty tomorrow.