September, 2024 – and there is so much more of the U.S. to see!
We jumped back into traveling and sightseeing in a big way: Boston. We learned the subway system there and it was an easy way to get around, although the historic part of Boston is actually quite walkable.
The State House was the first place we visited. and we found it to be quite a lovely building, both the outside and on the inside.
Day Two in Boston, we took the Hop On/Hop Off Bus for some sightseeing around town. It was interesting to see the smaller, historic buildings surrounded by modern high rises.
One of the ‘hop-offs’ was to visit the USS Constitution, ‘Old Ironsides’, and its accompanying museum. The Constitution was launched in 1797 as one of the U.S. Navy’s original six frigates and is the world’s oldest commissioned warship still afloat.
Day Three found us at the President John F Kennedy Museum.
(Coconut shell message which led to the rescue of the PT109 crew.)
Day Four we were busy finding lots of historical sites.
Bunker Hill – where we learned that the battle actually took place mostly on Breed’s Hill, which sat below Bunker Hill. 
Old North Church
We found this very interesting building: 
Paul Revere’s house 
Revere employed silversmiths in a workshop in the house, and these pieces came from that shop.
The actual site of the Boston Massacre has been built over, but a marker has been placed close to the site. 
Day Five – we took tours of the Old State House and the Old Meeting House, with a very knowledgeable docent who led us in some interesting discussions about slavery and religion of the time.
Day Six we spent visiting a few spots that were left on our to-see list. We walked around Boston Common, where a reggae festival was getting set up and then across the street to the lovely public Gardens.
We walked by Cheers, which serves food and drinks, but the line to get in was 2 blocks long at 11:00 in the morning. We kept walking. 
The most photographed street in Boston is Acorn Street, located on Beacon Hill.
This narrow 1800’s cobblestone street, perfectly preserved, was once home to the working class of Boston, but I suspect the price of these homes now is way beyond what a working-class person earns.
That wrapped up our time in Boston and another very interesting city was next: Salem
Our Salem time began with a Trolley tour around the town, which was informative, and helped us decide how to spend our time there,
and then we walked around on our own. Salem was already getting ready for Halloween (in mid-September) and from the sounds of it, Halloween is quite the time to be in Salem.
Charter Street Cemetery is where the 20 people accused of witchcraft, and then killed, are buried. 
The Salem Witch Museum is a telling of the witch trials with dioramas; more theatre than museum, but it was interesting.
Salem was interesting for one day, but it is quite touristy and one day was enough for us.
Lexington and Concord and walking on the very grounds where revolution first began, was next. At Lexington we joined a very interesting walking-lecture, where we learned all about the build-up to the ‘shot heard round the world’. It is such a different experience to be standing in the actual spot where a historical event occurred than to read about it in a book!
Buckman Tavern is where many of the militia gathered to await the arrival of the British troops.
The Lexington-Concord trail winds between the two towns, and we drove from Lexington to Concord, where there is a great museum of wonderful artifacts. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s actual study has been reproduced in the museum. The room’s contents all belonged to Emerson and are arranged exactly as they were originally.
The North Bridge is a short distance away and it is where, for the first time, American troops were ordered to fire on the approaching British; the beginning of the American Revolution.
The British troops marched back to Boston at the end of the day, setting fire to any homes from which snipers shot at them.
Yarmouth has a sand sculpture trail, and we found quite a few of them around town, advertising the business that sponsored them. They were in remarkably good shape for being out in the weather all summer.
Provincetown is at the very end of the ‘toe’ of Massachusetts and is a vibrant tourist town with fun shops and restaurants.
It is also where the Mayflower first stopped when it arrived in North America, carrying some of Bruce’s ancestors. A park at the edge of the bay commemorates their landing spot.
In Plymouth, the Plymouth-Patuxet Museum is a live demonstration museum, with the main attraction being the replica Mayflower Village, featuring live actors playing the parts of the Mayflower passengers. Bruce was able to ‘talk’ to two of his ‘ancestors’, who stayed completely in character. Life was rough back then! But even then, people who had status in the community ended up with nicer homes than others who didn’t, which is kind of amazing.
A replica of the Mayflower floats in the harbor, and boy was that an eye-opener! That ship seemed way too small to house 140 people!
Plymouth Rock – Did the pilgrims really first set foot on land at that spot? Who knows, but it is fun to imagine it.
Pilgrim Hall Museum rounded out our Mayflower education; it houses artifacts that belonged to the Mayflower passengers or their descendants. Bruce found a couple of things from his ancestors.
Plymouth was decorated for the fall and we enjoyed walking around…and finding an original homesite that belonged to another ancestor:
It was now October, cranberry harvest time, which is a very colorful crop to harvest.
We seem to be drawn to live-demonstration museums and Old Sturbridge Village was next, a collection of 40 buildings all from around the 1830s. We visited on a lovely fall day and spent the entire day learning about this time period.
The Fall colors added to our traveling enjoyment as we headed east a bit.
Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory, in South Deerfield, MA, was, by far, the best butterfly display that we have seen, and we have seen quite a few. The butterly collection was large and active and also included Button Quail, a turtle, a parrot, displays of amphibians and insects, as well as flowers, bushes and a Koi pond. We had a great time. <mw 1 – 6>
A short drive away is the small town of Shelburne, home to Shelburne Falls, created as the result of a small dam release. The water tumbles over a field of glacial potholes created by glaciers melting on the rock base. 
New York was next, to Schagticoke (do not remember how to pronounce that!) We parked there to visit Ballston Spa, home to the National Bottle Museum, a wonderful collection of glassware from very early days to modern.
Saratoga National Historical Park is also near here, site of several battles of the Revolutionary War that eventually led to the surrender of the English Army, led by Burgoyne. A museum and a driving route with stops and information boards gave us lots of information about these battles.
Battlefields that we have visited tend to be in peaceful meadows, like this one, and it is hard to imagine the carnage that is left after the battle.
The next stop was far more enjoyable:
Nothing prepares you for standing beside Niagara River as it begins its descent over Niagara Falls – not photos, videos or TV shows- nothing can transmit the feeling that the overwhelming power of that water creates in your chest. 
There is a long path that meanders along the river for quite a bit, with benches to sit on and watch the water flow by. There are actually several falls to visit, besides the big spectacular one.
The Maid of the Mist boat ride is not like any other boat ride. The ride begins in the calm water downriver from the falls, and it is a peaceful and scenic chug upriver – until the boat turns the corner and the full force of the wind and mist created by the cascading water hits you like a blast out of a cannon.
There is a collective scream from everyone on the boat and then it is just hang on, laugh uproariously , and try to take some pictures.
Every part of you that is not covered by the raincoat is instantly soaked, and yet it is exhilarating. We would do it again in a minute!
The falls are actually best seen from the Canadian side, so we drove over the bridge and walked along the path on the other side.
We are getting close to the end of 2024, but there is a lot more to come!