Archie at the window, in a manner of speaking

Here we are looking out the window...Archie is on the left......looking out the window....... with the closed blind...it is not easy

Edward.M.Kennedy 1932-2009 Agatha and Archie and PL1+2's homage

PL1+2 paid homage last night to their Senator...and they went here..to the JFK Library..and they waited over three hours

They didn't mind.. it was the least they could do for the man who has given them so much....

And they have been very sad these past days...The passing of Senator Kennedy for us in Massachusetts is not only the loss of one of the greatest Senators but also like losing a family member.Being staunch supporters for a very very long time they knew that they had to pay homage to his body in repose..and they waited for 3 hours in a calm organized line of peoples of all colors ,religions ,places of origin, young and old,black and white, Americans and people from all over the world, all of whom felt the overwhelming need to come and pay their respect and to honor this great man.And thousands and thousands of people of people had stories...of how he had helped them ....like the father of a child with a brain tumor that needed to get to Maryland and the family had no idea how to do this. They went to the Senator and within 3 hours a helicopter was waiting..The family from the Congo who he arranged Visas for and then helped to acclimate in this city, the father of a sick child in PL1's NICU who did not have the right Visa papers and could not be with his wife and his grievously sick child...Teddy got him there in less than 9 hours.....There are thousands and thousands of stories like this that not a lot of people know. And while PL1 and 2 waited in line the Kennedy family ,his wife,his children,his nieces and nephews came out to shake the hands of people waiting, the people coming to respect their beloved Teddy...And when the Senator was about to leave the Cape for the last time how poignant it was to see Caroline touch the coffin, a gesture like the one she made on her fathers coffin .....As one Massachewittsian said it is not only losing the greatest Senator but it is as if we have lost a family member... And Splash and Sunny are now without their beloved PL to take them to the Senate and to play ball with and to go sailing with. Splash and Sunny told us they need our help because "the work goes on, the cause endures the hope still lives and the dream shall never die.."

A Sad Day in Massachewsitts

It is a very sad day in Massachewsitts as our beloved Senator Kennedy has died.
It is not only a great loss for us but for all Americans....

STEP UP STEP UP Part 2 Concord TOUR LEAVING NOW

Well to continue on our tour of Concord,Concord also had some

other pretty big happenings going here of the literary type.....Now this is PL1's area of expertise so we are going to use him to help give us some information that we and ahem PL2 might not be up on......

This is a very pretty and famous house.......

Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Bush House" which has NOTHING to do with either George! It seems people back then used to give their houses names, and I'm thinking how nice it would be to come home to "Agatha House"!!

This is the only house that Nathaniel Hawthorne ever owned. He named it "The Wayside" and the tower between the two chimnies was where he did his writing while standing up! I don't know where he kept his stuffies!

The Alcotts' "Orchard House," where Louisa Mae Alcott grew up. Inside, the drawings that she and her sisters did on their bedroom walls are still there! Archie wants to know if we can get some Magic Markers before we go home....

Then we went to Concerd's famous "Sleepy Hollow Cemetery," where Archie fainted, but that's not why it is famous! Many of the great American authors from the 19th century are buried on "Authors' Ridge."(Look at his face in this picture........)

Here is the grave of Henry David Thoreau, who wrote Walden, one of PL1's favorite books! People leave little remembrances at his grave including a flute, because Thoreau used to play a flute, and Archie thought he would give it a try!

Here is the grave of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter, which is one of PL1's favorite books! I was kind of sad to learn that Hawthorne's wife, Sophia, is buried in England, not here!

The big rock marks the grave of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote Nature, one of PL1's favorite books!

Louisa Mae Alcott wrote Little Women, one of PL2's favorite books!

I was afraid he was going to keep fainting so I thought I would try to keep him occupied.....I found this cool tree trunk....

"ARCHIE come and check this out..."

HA HA I kind of stuffed him in there alittle.....

And this is a MOVING(from the car) picture of the famous Walden Pond....Why is it moving you might ask..BECAUSE NO DOGS ALLOWED.....Hmmmph what would Thoreau say to that one I ask.......




So we stayed in the air conditioned car with PL2 while PL1 went to the Walden Pond Bookstore and the three of us played throw the blueberry in the air and try to catch it...We started out with rasberries but that got a little messy.....

I am a little tired from all the activities and I think I am going to curl up with Little Woman and Archie is going to try to read Little Men....if he can pull himself away from his latest cooking adventure...fried eggs on the sidewalk a la Arch....

Boston Tour is now leaving for Concord Part One

Concord Massachewitts...The start of our nation's

revolution...The shot heard round the world...Paul Revere.......It all happened here...right in our little state of Massachewsitts..PL1+2 and Archie and I decided to go to Concord.We love it there as it is a beautiful town,chock full of political and literary history which we all love( and they have great farm stands too.....) Now this will be in two parts..Part One the History Part two the literary...
Here is a map depicting where it all happened....

And here is the entrance to the North Bridge where the American Revolution started.......

If you can biggify this it will tell you about the bridge..

I was reading it but then thought I heard cannon fire so I had to duck under...

Here it is THE BRIDGE where on 19 April 1775 the American Minutemen tried to stop the British from finding their hidden ammunition ..... This is considered the beginning of the American Revolution (or the War of American Secession, as some of our British friends call it, right Eric?)

The statue of the Minuteman by Daniel Chester French

It has a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson: "By the rude bridge that arched the flood,/ Their flags to the April breeze unfurled,/ Here once the embattled farmers stood,/ And fired the shot heard round the world!'

Archie thought it must have been a very big gun to be heard around the world!

The Bridge still spans the beautiful Concord River....

but instead of Minutemen, there are artists.....



And canoe-ists......

This is the quiet heard round the world!

Archie said he was getting a little confused...

He said he didn't know which side he should be on as he is British by descent but he lives in America....He refused to read this sign..

And he paid his respects by the graves of the British soldiers who fell here....

Here we are on the other side of the Bridge..

So pretty and peaceful..except for my brother who kept yapping on and on...

He made me so crazy with all his bantering I threw myself down to roach but couldn't....Which side should we be on??? Pl1+2 said we didn't have to choose sides..It was history... and this was just teaching us about what happened....

Then he told me that he was SURE he heard canon fire........

Directly next door to the Bridge is a beautiful famous house.....

Two very famous people Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here, but not together.......



This is a garden that Henry David Thoreau made for Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, Sophia, as a wedding present, and no, Archie, it is not the original plants and no you cannot eat them!

Can you see the double-decker bird house??

Then we went down the road into the main area of Concord.This hotel The Colonial Inn says that it has two haunted rooms and people LOVE to stay in these rooms and some have seen the ghosts!!(Archie said he is pretty sure that there would be no way, no how he would stay there. In fact we had to walk on the other side of the road..)

While we were walking we decided that we were hungry and Arch found this place..(actually all he really saw was the ICE CREAM)

So we went down this little alley..

And we waited with PL2 while PL1 went to get us PIZZA.....

I told Arch not to get so excited and sit patiently like I was...

Then I told him to sit under the table and act as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening....

Only I was too excited thinking about the pizza to do that...



SO we all had our pizzas(some of us did not have quite as much as we would have liked) and we were walking on...and Archie starting yapping again about which side should he be on..... and he saw this sign of a minuteman...

And he was feeling very contrary and rebellious... and ..well you can guess what he did next........Let's just say the sign got a little wet....

And on the way home we did stop at a farm stand and got blueberries and raspberries and practically ate all of them before we got home!!! Now part two we will show you some famous literary sites in Concord!!!