Boston Day 6

We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. In the winter, everything in Concord is either closed or it opens late, so we started our morning by driving around to take pictures—we took pictures of Emerson’s house (closed for the winter season), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house (closed for renovations), and Louisa May Alcott’s house. It was expected to rain in the afternoon, so we wanted to get our pictures done early. We still had to read in the car for 30 minutes though.

(Emerson's house)

(Louisa May Alcott's house)

At 11, the Concord Museum opened. It is a small, but well-managed museum. Thoreau’s original desk is there as well as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s entire study. (I never could figure out why it’s not in his house.) There are period rooms and lots of interesting artifacts. Concord has had an impressive history from Indian times on.

We had lunch at the Trail’s End Cafe, which was delicious. We lingered a bit, but about 1:30, we headed for a tour of Louisa May Alcott’s house. It was a fairly typical home, but I enjoyed seeing her bedroom. The tour felt a bit rushed—I would have liked to linger, in Louisa’s room particularly. But I was pleased to see it and to learn a bit more about her and her family.

While we were touring the house, the rain started. We made a quick stop at the Concord Free Public Library, which was a gorgeous place. There were busts of all the Concord writers and each writer had their own section. Definitely a place I would frequent a lot if I lived in the area.

(Emerson statute at the library.)

We went back to the hotel and rested. We had leftovers for dinner, but then went out for dessert at Margarita’s, the Mexican restaurant next door to our hotel. I had HUGE sopapillas. 

Interesting fact of the day: we typically say Henry David Thoreau’s name Ther-row, but apparently the proper way to say it is just like the word thorough. The guide at the Louisa May Alcott house informed us of this.