The Bashful Adventurer goes to Orchard House in Concord, MA to see all things Louisa May Alcott. But it’s another Alcott sister, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker (AKA “Amy” in Little Women) who turns out to have a big presence there.
Are you wondering whether the Granary Burying Ground in Boston is a graveyard worth visiting? In Boston on a business trip, I skip out during a lunch break to find Boston Common, which happens to be the closest historic site…
Seen in Salem Found on an entry to a house built in Salem around 1710 by Jonathan Archer, cordwainer, is the best ‘no soliciting’ sign ever—unless you are selling thin mints, do not knock! For the curious, cordwainers made shoes.…
How to Make the Most of Limited Time in Witch City An extemporaneous trip to Salem, MA gives us an adventure to look forward to—quickly—but it also means that we are too late to book a hotel in Salem itself.…
I haven’t visited any places specifically to learn about the War of Independence, but I have stumbled upon little reminders at a few places. Seeing little bits of the past brings history alive for me. I know I learned about…
Surprises at the Salem, Mass. Building that Hawthorne Made Famous It has been a long time since I have read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables, but I am still excited to learn that he based his book on…
Of Pilgrims, Progress, Power I begin reading Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower with the hope that the ending is going to be a slightly different one. I resist picking up this work for a long time because I know it isn’t going…
A Road Trip to Cape Cod On a road trip to Hyannis, Mass., we almost pass our motel by —despite admonitions from our global positioning system—because it looks just a bit like a car dealership. We know we are in…
The first time I sign up for whale watching, on a trip to San Diego, I somehow manage to book myself on a pretty small boat on what I consider to be a pretty choppy ocean, or maybe it only…
Post Office Tourism in the Land of Kennedy Remember the days when post offices had unique designs? When they weren’t generically and homogeneously crafted buildings designed, if only aspirationally, for some sort of efficiency? Remember when going to the post…