a wide place

Hello again! Are you ready for Day Two?

We had a 5:30 alarm set for Saturday so that we could catch the commuter train to Concord, which is 20 miles outside of Boston.

I love public transportation. I love the walking lifestyle it necessitates. I used to yearn to live in a city with public transportation, like New York. Well, the closest I ever came was the auto-rickshaws of India, and it was honestly one of my favorite parts of living in our city.

Amie saw this photo and said, “Mom! I can’t believe you were drinking Dunkin’ Donuts,” to which I replied, “Oh no, this was just the cup of coffee in the train station to tide me over until we found a real coffee shop.” I blame David for turning me into a coffee snob (it doesn’t have to be expensive coffee, just strong coffee).

We decided to buy weekend passes for the T, which is Boston’s subway system. We took the T to the train station, where we caught a 7:15 train for Concord. While waiting for the train, we thoroughly enjoyed see the motley group of people gathering to travel to Salem to (we assumed) take all the October witch tours. Some were dressed up. Jessica and I agreed we want to visit Salem, but not around Halloween. I find it grisly to celebrate women being murdered out of superstition.

It was a 45 minute journey to Concord, and I enjoyed glimpses of the outskirts of the city. Even the empty lots and weeds and unattractive apartment complexes. The lovely and the un-lovely are all part of the experience of taking in a brand-new place.

Haute Coffee, Concord.

From the train stop, we walked the half-mile to downtown Concord, which is one of the most quaint places you’ll ever see. Jessica says it gives off major Stars Hollow vibes from Gilmore Girls, and I agree. At that time of morning it was us and all the locals in the coffee shop, which felt very fun.

We ordered strong, hot Counter Culture coffee and pastries for breakfast (an almond croissant for Jessica, and a chai chocolate scone for me), then sat outside to people-watch and enjoy the crisp New England morning.

Walden Pond.

Next, we took a Lyft to Walden Pond, just a couple miles away.

I confess that I’ve never actually read Walden, though I kept meaning to in preparation for this visit. I know the general story of Thoreau’s journey to the woods, and have many a time read his famous quotes from his experience, but the book itself just never appealed to me. That didn’t stop me from wanting to visit this iconic spot.

At 9:00 it was still very quiet, and we walked the 1.7 mile trail around the pond, taking in its quiet beauty. There were several people fishing, plus a few swimmers (!!!) and a lone-paddle boarder. I told David that’s something to add to his bucket list: paddle board on Walden Pond.

The morning was delightfully breezy, so that we could hear the rustling of the leaves while admiring the crystal clear water.

The trail veered off to the site of Thoreau’s cabin. If you aren’t familiar with the story, Thoreau’s friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson, owned the land and in 1845, allowed Thoreau to live there in a two-year experiment of living in nature. I can see why he was so happy here.

We have Emerson’s descendants to thank for deeding the pond and the land surrounding it to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and here’s a fun fact I learned from Wikipedia: Don Henley of the Eagles was responsible for helping prevent the land from being sold for development and turned into a state park. I find that it’s so easy to take our national and state parks for granted instead of remembering all the people who labored and donated to preserve them for us.

Back near the visitor center is a scale replica of the one-room cabin where Thoreau lived and wrote.

What do you think? Can you imagine living here for two years?

Thank you, Henry David Thoreau, for making this lovely place famous so we can enjoy it today.

The Cheese Shop

We took a Lyft back downtown and bought a picnic lunch of sandwich and pasta salad at the Cheese Shop. We also, of course, bought cheese and crackers and olives for an afternoon snack. Jessica found us a little park to spread her travel picnic-blanket (that’s right. a travel picnic blanket. she literally thought of everything).

The weather on Saturday was spectacular. I was actually hot in my sweater and next time I’d wear layers I could more easily shed. But it was worth it for the sunshine.

One of the things I hoped to see in Boston was fall leaves, and in Concord, we found them! It’s still a bit early in the season, but a few trees were already ablaze.

We walked the mile from downtown to Orchard House, drinking in the shady streets and playing a round of, “Which colonial house would you choose to live in?” It was impossible to pick.

Orchard House.

One of my number one desires for our trip was a visit to Louisa May Alcott’s home in Concord, and it was dreamy to walk the shaded sidewalks from town rather than park in a touristy parking lot. I pretended it was winter and were we laden with Christmas surprises for Marmee and will confess I felt a bit teary when we spotted the house.

Fun fact: Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film adaptation of Little Women used the actual Orchard House for its exterior shots, and modeled the fabricated interior after the house interior.

I enjoy that movie, although the Winona Ryder version will always be my favorite, most likely due to simple nostalgia. If you love the more recent version, here’s a fun article detailing all the Boston sites in which the movie was filmed.

You can’t tell from the photos, but Orchard House was crowded! We had reserved our spot for a 1:00 tour, which I’m thankful for, so we didn’t have to wait.

This is Bronson Alcott’s School of Philosophy, where we sat to watch a video about LMA’s life and about Orchard House before the tour. Something we both enjoyed was that the video gave room-by-room descriptions of the house, so that by the time we walked through, we knew what to look for.

We couldn’t take any pictures in the house, but it was surreal to walk from room to room, imagine the Alcott’s fascinating lives within those walls, seeing the tiny writing desk Bronson made for his daughter, Louisa, and her sister May’s (whom Amy was modeled after) artwork throughout. The rooms were very small and there were a lot of us on the tour (this makes me happy, that it’s so popular), so we didn’t get to linger, but we learned a lot.

Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson were good friends of the family and visited Orchard House often. Nathaniel Hawthorne lived less than a mile away. And the house was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Visiting was a dream come true. Our tour guide recommended Louisa May Alcott’s lesser known novel, Work, so I bought a copy in the gift shop.

We never made it to Author’s Ridge, but on the way back to town passed the very charming Sleepy Hollow cemetery where it’s located. In need of refreshment, we paused at a stone bench for a little snack. If you’re wondering about the cheeses, we chose a triple-cream Brie and an England Coastal sharp cheddar. Both were divine.

We spent an hour meandering through town and stopped in at two book shops. Don’t you love this sign?

It was warm at this point of the afternoon and oh-so-crowded in downtown Concord. We considered stopping back in at Haute Coffee for their pumpkin chai lattes, but the line snaked out the door and it just didn’t feel like we could possibly do any more standing.

The Colonial Inn.

There was only one thing to be done: find a spot to sit and sip a stronger beverage! The Colonial Inn restaurant was packed, but back near the bar was a little tavern room where we found space to rest after all our walking and sight-seeing.

See what I mean? Everything in Concord is charming. Even the back room off the bar.

Even the stairs and planked walls and wallpaper and paint as you walk to the restroom. Even the restrooms themselves.

After an hour relaxing, we walked to the train stop to take the 5:15 train back into the city. Our train was delayed due to an “unruly passenger,” which sounded intriguing. That’s the downside of public transportation, isn’t it? Sometimes you feel like you do a lot of waiting. Alas, there was no sign of the unruly passenger on our journey home.

It was 7:00 by the time we got off the T in our part of the city, and we were far too exhausted to eat dinner out. There’s an Italian food hall called Eataly around the corner from our hotel, so we stopped there for pizza to-go. It was two-stories of every Italian delight you can imagine: stalls for pizza, fresh-made pasta, cannoli and gelato and wine. There was even a market right in the center brimming with fresh produce. The food hall was also loud and packed with people. We were both a little shell-shocked by all the options and noise but finally found some dinner and escaped.

Back at the hotel, we ate pizza and of course started Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. We made it about halfway through the movie before falling asleep.

What a perfect day!`