Last Day in Concord!

Visited this museum called deCordova, which I have the hardest time pronouncing, because when I first heard it, I thought someone was saying "THE Cordova" and that just threw me all off.

Anyway, they have this sculpture garden, and you should know by now how much I LOVE sculptures!!!  I will call these what I would have named them, not what the artists called them.

But first, here's a picture of East Coast Bridget and me -

 Isn't she adorable?!?

We were at a Bonsai nursery, and I had NO IDEA how expensive they were!!  Guess how much this one is (it's maybe 2 - 3 feet tall)?

$7500!!  That's right - SEVEN - FIVE - ZERO - ZERO!!! 

Ok, now I'm at the sculpture park...

 "Fun Music Maker Thing-y"

You could walk/run/trot up and down this line of upright pipes while banging a stick against it, and it made beautiful sounds (or noise, depending on your point of view).  I did it about 10 times.

 "Two Big Ol' Hearts"

(sometimes I'm not real creative with my naming)

 "TRASH!!!"

Close-up view of "Trash".  This is one of those exhibits I see where I think, 'Really?  This is ART?!?"  Just lots of piles of old newspapers.  And my hair.

 "Toy Soldiers"

Looks likes they're made out of natural materials, but they're really metal.

 "Five Guys"

(My big head is blocking one.)

 "Chicken"

"Breakfast for 2...HUNDRED" 

 "Ohm"

This one was really called "Humming", and I may or may not have been the model for it.  I'll never tell.

 "I'm a Goofball"

Named moreso for my attempt to recreate than for the sculpture itself.

 "Bubbles"

Hard to see, but it's HUGE metal circles piled on each other, rolling down the hill.

 I don't know what to call this one.  It's a HUGE head, so I could name it based on that, but because I couldn't get close to it, it doesn't look big, but instead looks like he and I are of equal size, so I could name it something about that.

 This is a view of "Bubbles" from the top of the hill.

 "Creepy Stalker Guy"

This one really was creepy.

 "Pop Beads"

"Secret Keeper"

I was trying to take a picture that looked like I was telling this guy a secret, but it kind of looks like I'm licking his ear. 

Different view of "Secret Keeper".  This was the one sculpture that I wish I could have asked someone else to take the picture, because it was hard to get both of us in the picture, but I was one of the only people in the park at the time.



Guess where??

Ok, so this is unexpected, but I'm still in CONCORD!  Yes, still with the family that I didn't even know 2 days ago!  But it's all good - there's a TON of stuff to see, and we get along!

 Went to the North Bridge, which is the site of the first battle of the Revolutionary War.

 Me and a guy in garb.  You know how the Lincoln Memorial is my favorite memorial in Washington? Well, this statue was done by the same guy, but years earlier when he was TWENTY-THREE years old!!

 Then I went to the Concord Museum, and they had some CRAZY paintings that reminded me of the one from "Pet Sematary".  This one - and don't tell my sister-in-law - but this one looks just like my youngest nephew...IN A DRESS.

 I think the artist for this series got lazy and just painted the same man twice, and put a dress on him in one of the paintings.

 Went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and saw the graves of some famous people.  They were all decorated, but I didn't leave anything.  This is Lousa May Alcott's...

 and Ralph Waldo Emerson's...

and Nathaniel Hawthorne's...

and Henry David Thoreau's.

This didn't have an inscription on it, so I don't know if it was a grave, but I thought it was interesting.

I'm BACK!!

OMG - so much to tell, too tired to tell it!

Had a fabulous time with my family in GA, and then the family reunion in DE?!  What a BLAST!  So so so much fun.  I hadn't seen some of my cousins in...10 years?  And we all agreed it'd been too long and we needed to keep in better touch and see each other more often, but don't we always say that, and then life happens?  I'm going to make a real effort to keep in better touch, though; these are my KINFOLK!!

Ok, let's knock this out -

Statue at my folks' church in Carrollton, GA that I like.  Kind of reminds me of the pigeon downtown in Walla Walla.

VAMPIRE BEDBUGS?!?  They itched like CRAZY.  (That's the heel of my hand you're looking at.)

ROCK IN MY WINDSHIELD ON THE WAY TO DE!!!  Ugh!!

Crazy milkshake machine on the road to DE in some gas station.  My nephew had to teach me how to use it.  He recommended the medium thickness, but NO!, I knew better and went full thickness...and it was at least TEN MINUTES before I could get any up the straw.  I got cake batter.

People in DE park crazy!  It would stress me out to leave my car parked like this.  (They're just pulled in, one after the other, in rows next to each other, so once you're parked, that's it!  This was at church.)

Waiting for the ferry from DE to NJ.  That's one of those crazy plastic owls behind me?

On the ferry.

Helpful Hint - If you're ever on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, there are just a handful of LOUNGE chairs on the upper deck!  I snagged this one just because it was in the middle, and I guess everyone assumed that it belonged to someone else.

RoadsideAmerica stop #27 - Lucy the Elephant in Margate City, NJ.  Bought my 3rd t-shirt here, but I HAD to - a) proceeds support her upkeep, and b) the front of the shirt has a picture of the front of Lucy, and the back of the shirt...HAS A PICTURE OF THE BACK OF LUCY!!  Do you see why it was a no-brainer?!?  There was a $7 tour, but I was on a schedule.

 I was going to tell you that I had a foot fetish, but I know most of my readers are looking for ANY excuse to make fun of me, so then I thought I'd tell you I liked big feet, but OH!, the comments I'd get about that... (head shaking)  But I like this picture.

Me and Luc

Ok, between Lucy and this picture, there is a HUGE, LONG story to tell.  Can I make it short?  (snort)  I'll try...  If you know me, then you probably know - or at least know OF - my friend Brien.  Brien has a good friend in Concord, MA named, oddly enough, BRIDGET!!  She and I became Facebook friends, and she INVITED ME TO STAY WITH HER AND HER FAMILY ON MY TRIP!  How crazy nice is that?!  So, I'm thinking I'll show up Monday, spend the night, leave Tuesday.  Nope, I find myself on a train Monday morning, heading into Boston!  So this is me on the train.  Now, since I hadn't planned on visiting Boston, I had, well...nothing planned!  No RoadsideAmerica, no smashed pennies, NOTHING.  I texted Brien from the train (9am my time, 6am his time), and what does he say?  "I'm on it"!  By the time I got off the train, I had a string of texts with names and addresses of things to do and places to smash.

My mom's one suggestion was, "If you get to Quincy Market, be sure to have a lobster roll".  BOOM!  Quincy Market.

BOOM!  Lobster roll.  However, I can't even LOOK at this picture without wanting to cry.  The special of the day was a lobster roll AND a cup of bisque.  I asked the girl if it was a crazy amount of food and she said yes, BUT the lobster roll was so darn expensive by itself that adding the cup of soup for the special was only an extra 20 cents.  TWENTY CENTS?!?  Um, hello?  I was a marketing major - I'm not going to pass that deal up!!  Alas, I put a good dent in the sandwich, but as a result could only TASTE the soup before crying 'uncle'... 



Don't know what this is about and don't even remember what it said, since my big fat head is in the way, I just liked the warning at the bottom...

So this is probably a mean picture, but that is a BIG guy in the back of that pedicab.

Me and Christopher Columbus in oh! Christopher Columbus park!  Duh!  (I just grabbed my map to get the name.)

 Me at the aquarium.  Long line.  I didn't want to go it, but I was told that there was a sealion exhibit outside?  Maybe there was, but I missed it.

 Funny drain cover.  And check out those shoes!  Have I told you about those shoes?  That the only reason I got them was because I took my old pair in to be repaired...and didn't bring a pair with me to wear home!

 Based on the map, I thought this was Paul Revere's house.  I was surprised that it wasn't better marked so I asked in a gift shop, and the cashier was nice enough to leave her post (EVERYONE was nice in Boston!)...

 and point me in the direction of the REAL house of Paul Revere!!  (My hair in this one cracks me up.  It was windy and mild; I couldn't have asked for better weather.)

 Smashed penny location that was CLOSED.  Blech.

 Speaking of Paul...

 RoadsideAmerica stop #28 - Wall of Saints.  Smashed in between two buildings is this...shrine?  With pictures and pictures and pictures of saints on the walls.

 I loved this stop.

 RoadsideAmerica stop #29 - Molasses Flood plaque.  This one was tough.  It was on a half-wall surrounding a park.  So although I had a 'street address' for it, when there are no numbers for an entire block, it's hard to pinpoint where one should be, especially since it was on a busy street, so it was hard for me to see the numbers on the other side.  Two local women who were power-walking during their lunch stopped to help when they saw me with a map (this happened at least 4 times).  They didn't know anything about it, and when I finally found it, they were on their 2nd lap, so I was able to show them!

Can you imagine?  I think that would be a horrible way to go.

 I'm trying to show you that there seemed to be some sort of celebration going on, because for several blocks there was the same flower decoration strung across the street.  Swear.

 Ok...this is the Holocaust Memorial.  No big deal, bunch of pretty glass towers, right?  Nope.  On each of the towers are stories from survivors, and then in teeny, tiny print, etched in the glass, were just lines and lines and lines of numbers that were tattooed on the prisoners.  I was bawling by the time I finished the half-block walk.

 I've got a stalker!  Statue of some guy sitting on a bench, so of course I had to sit with him.

 See?  Another foot picture...

 Funny break dancers in front of Faneuil Hall.

 A major highway comes into town and then Poof! disappears by going underground, and there's a park built on top of it.

I never pass up a chance for some more good luck.

 Where am I supposed to put my parcels, good sir?!?  Blurry because the train was moving.

 So you know how I look for signs in everything, right?  Pull into the parking lot this morning, get out to see which slot I need to put the money in, and it's 109 - that was my street address in Thibodaux!!  So I knew Hot Tamale was going to be ok.  (Omg, I need to clean those headlights!)