I'm back in the saddle! This most recent vacation did me a world of good - I came home eager to turn my attention to Pennsylvania history once more. Of course, almost as soon as I came home things started happening full tilt again, but I feel better about tackling them.
As you are reading this post, I'm in the midst of recording two more podcast episodes with America250PA. Sydney, the lovely host of Start Here, America Did, invited me back to talk about the stories behind some of the markers, and so that's what I'm doing on Wednesday morning when I would normally be blogging. (Look at me, preparing ahead of time. Don't get used to it.) If you didn't catch my first guest stint on the podcast, you can listen to it for free by clicking here and scrolling down to episode 71. I'll be sure to let you all know when these new episodes drop!
Meanwhile, I've been longing to share some of the wonderful things Kevin and I learned while we were sailing on the Independence of the Seas. The trip was a gift from my parents, a combination celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary back in March and my 50th birthday earlier this month. Yes, we have been married for literally half my life. No, I'm not sure where the time went. But I do know where we went, and in lieu of a regular quest, let me tell you about it. Hello to everyone who's visiting the blog as a result of having met me during the nine days of adventure!
We got a massive surprise on our first full day at sea. In the afternoon we went exploring on the ship, and while on the top deck, I saw something I wasn't expecting. The Independence had sailed up alongside a pod of whales, and they were spouting! I had never seen whales in my entire life and it was absolutely magical. We even got to see one breach. I unfortunately couldn't get that on camera, but I did manage to film some of the whale activity, and I've uploaded it to YouTube with the express intention of sharing it with all of you. So please enjoy the footage, and ignore the silly woman making excited noises in the background. (Yes, it's me.)
We then went to the Old North Church, where the whole 'one if by land and two if by sea' thing took place. Longfellow's epic poem The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere played a bit loose with the actual history of the event, but there really were two lanterns hanging in the church window that night. We didn't get to go inside the church, as our tour was quite early and they hadn't opened for the day yet, but it was exciting just to be there. I joked that when we got back, I was inspired to steal the Declaration of Independence. (If you know, you know.) We also saw a statue of Samuel Adams, where many protests and demonstrations have been held and probably a fair amount of beer has been consumed, and the Copp's Hill Burying Ground, where many revolutionary figures such as Cotton Mather are interred. Near the burying ground is the permanent docking place of the USS Constitution, Old Ironsides herself, the only surviving warship from the Revolution.
From there we also went to spend a little time on the campus of Harvard University, where I had a Boston creme doughnut, since we were in Boston and I'm pretty sure it's the law. We also met turkeys in the street - yes, really. Apparently some wild turkeys moved into the city about twenty years ago and the flock just never left. They're insanely tame and wander around the street near the university, and the tourists are completely bewildered and the locals are entirely unfazed. I think they may have been holding a protest against Thanksgiving, but it's hard to say.
We did not have enough time in Boston for my liking, but as they say, always leave 'em wanting more. Our next leg of the journey took us to Portland, Maine, where a lovely older gentleman named Cliff showed us around the historic Old Port district. Cliff explained that Portland, Oregon, is actually named after Portland, Maine. It seems that a gentleman from Portland and a gentleman from Boston went out west to settle this new community, and they flipped a coin to see which of their hometowns would be the one for whom it would be named. The western Portland still has that original coin in its history museum. We saw the city hall building (where some newlyweds were posing for wedding photos on the steps), the Portland art museum, Monument Square with its towering statue of the Roman war goddess Minerva, and the childhood home of the celebrated poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After our tour was concluded and we followed Cliff's recommendation of ice cream at Beal's, Kevin and I decided to go back to the Longfellow house and have a look around. It's part of the complex of the Maine Historical Society, and our tickets included both the house itself and a walk through their own museum gallery. (They were so very kind as to welcome me as a historian, once I explained what I do on this blog.)
The Longfellow house still looks much the same as it did during the poet's lifetime. Almost all of the furnishings are original to the family (except for one bed, they told us), and the things which are not original are very carefully made reproductions. Many of those originals, like wallpaper and bed curtains, are just too delicate to be displayed, but are preserved in the society's archives. The third floor, where Longfellow's bedroom was and where he had a clear view all the way to the harbor, is not open to visitors due to a lack of fire escapes, but everything else is open to explore. This includes the garden which was originally planted by Longfellow's mother. The house is also bar none the most dryly hilarious museum I've ever seen, with comical signs warning people not to touch or sit on the furniture. "Everyone who has ever sat in this chair is dead," says the one sign. "Better not risk it."
After we concluded that tour, we checked out the historical society's gallery, which is currently focused on the events of 250 years ago and the war for independence. They have a variety of interesting items on display, including original letters from the famous names of the day and relics from ships which fought in some of the naval battles. But by far the most fascinating piece of the collection has to be a locket containing a lock of George Washington's real hair - not the powdered wig, his actual hair. It was given to Longfellow's grandfather, who had been Washington's good friend, by Martha Washington after her husband's death. The lighting in the museum makes it hard to tell, but according to the tour guide, it's roughly the same color as Kevin's hair.
We headed back to the ship and had a very lazy day at sea while we journeyed to Nova Scotia. Our excursion there, led by tour guide "Christmas Carol," brought us to Peggy's Cove. It's such a beautiful little seaside community that it doesn't look entirely real. It seems more like something that was made for a movie, which is actually pretty funny since it does appear in several movies (including the Hallmark Christmas movie Christmas Island, which my best friend Andrea says her mom loves). But it really is a functioning village, if a small one, with adorable houses and artisanal crafts and breathtaking views. We got our passports stamped in their post office; it's not really an official passport stamp, more of a souvenir than anything, but it's unique. Then we had one more historical adventure - we went to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, where more than a hundred victims of the Titanic disaster are interred. They're not all there, of course; some were claimed by family members and taken home, while others were simply never found, and still others are in different cemeteries elsewhere in Halifax. Those who are there, though, were mostly given headstones by the White Star Line, unless they had relatives who paid for grander stones with more information. Some remain unidentified; others, whose names are on the front of the stones rather than on top, were identified later. It's a sobering experience.
Our final adventure was in St. John in New Brunswick, the oldest incorporated community in Canada, where roughly 10,000 Loyalists relocated after the United States got all independent and united and stuff. It's situated on the Bay of Fundy, home of the highest tides in the world. Regrettably, our time there was cut short by the nor'easter which crawled up the east coast, and the captain judged it wiser to return to New Jersey a day early rather than risk being caught in the storm. Considering what I've seen of the damage it did, he probably made the right call. Still, we brought home loads of new knowledge and happy memories, and I'm glad for the chance to share some of it with all of you.
Next week takes us into October, and a proper blog post once more!
Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.
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