City of Champions Part III

PART III: HISTORY

We also did some history-themed activities. We went to the Lexington green, the site of the first Revolutionary War skirmish with actual battle lines and shots fired. There were only 77 colonists and 700 red coats so a few colonists died and the rest just kind of ran away after the shooting began. We had an excellent tour guide dressed in 18th century garb.

Here we are with the memorial erected in 1793 for the men who died in that first battle. There were some incredibly passionate things written. We knew they were passionate because almost every sentence had multiple exclamation points.

We then went to the Concord museum and learned more details about those first few days of the war. We watched a "multimedia" presentation, which I guess was characterized as such because there was a movie screen, use of different lighting for time of day, and voices coming from speakers in the ceiling. We drove a few blocks to the Old North Bridge, an integral part of the second battle of the Revolutionary war. It is a gorgeous spot. We realized we should have taken our engagement pictures there. Oh well, next time. Here are some pictures.
Somebody had paid this guy to be their guide, but we heard him tell those people some errant facts. I guess if you dress up in clothes of a different era you are believable. Daniel told me to make a funny face. I bet you laughed when you saw it. It may not be one of those "silly" funny faces, but it is funny.
I am really not sure what happened here. I just know it is awesome.
We also managed to make it over to Walden Pond. Yes, THE Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden. I bet you recognized the name, right? Didn't everyone have a whole unit in high school English on him?
This is the spot where Thoreau lived. Daniel's feet are where the hearth would have been. The spirit of Thoreau really touched us and we had to stop and think. The truth of it is, Thoreau was actually about a mile outside of town and people say he went home to his momma's on the weekends. Poser.

My mom and I also went out to visit Westford, the town that my Fletcher ancestors hail from. Meredith and my mom have already found 2 houses still standing that our relatives lived in during the 18th century. The line of Fletchers I come from left when they got baptized and moved to Utah about 1850. There are actually still some distant Fletcher relatives living there.
Here is the church that most of the Fletcher ancestors were christened and married in. It is still in operation as a church and we went inside and looked around.