Like a siren’s song, they call to us.  By day, we are compelled to climb to the very top to gaze out to sea, hoping to see we know not what. In the pitch black of night the unique rhythmic cadence of their flashing beacon signaling out into the unknown is at once haunting and comforting.   

The oldest known lighthouse, the Pharos of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was constructed by the ancient Greeks in the third century B.C. on the islet of Pharos marking the entrance to the major Medierranean port of Alexandria on the western tip of the Nile delta.  Rising 383-440 feet above the delta, it was one of the tallest man-made structures on earth for centuries.  Originally a daytime marker, the Romans later added fire and reflective mirrors for nighttime use.  As commerce and trade in Europe grew throughout the Middle Ages, lighthouses were built along the coasts of France and Italy.  During the competitive European maritime commerce of the 17th and 18th centuries, the number of lighthouses dotting the coastline of Europe increased dramatically.

The lifeblood of colonial America was dependent on maritime commerce.  As colonies grew, 11 lighthouses cropped up to safely guide vessels around dangerous rocks and shoals into the harbors of colonial towns.   

Boston Lighthouse

The first of these was a tower at the entrance to Boston Harbor on Little Brewster Island, built in 1716 and lit by tallow candles.  Accessible today by boat only, tours of this National Historic Landmark are offered June through October.  

Remarkably, the massive masonry stone light tower of the original 1764 Sandy Hook Light in New Jersey is still intact.  While an offshore light has lessened its importance, it still greets vessels entering New York’s busy harbor.      

Colonial lighthouses not ravished by nature were destroyed by the Civil War.  However, their role was so important that new ones were rebuilt on the same sites and many more added in the late 1800s.  To the delight of lighthouse lovers, many picturesque 19th century structures – some operational; others not - remain along America’s coastline and around the Great Lakes.  Made of brick, stone and masonry, distinctively painted in stark white, pitch-black, bright red, or painted in black and white stripes or diamonds, each holds a certain mystique.  We can only imagine what their eye has seen!

Florida’s extensive wrap-around coastline is dotted with historic lighthouses.  The oldest known structure in America, a Spanish watchtower in St. Augustine, appeared on a 1589 map belonging to Sir Francis Drake!  This precise location was so important for protection and navigation that subsequent towers were built on the same site by the English between 1763 and 1784, and the Americans after 1821, only to be washed away by coastal erosion.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

The current St. Augustine Lighthouse was built in 1876, about ¼ mile away from the original Spanish watchtower on more stable land, and is open to the public.  This distinctive black and white spiral banded lighthouse on Anastasia Island is said to be haunted, with good reason. The spirits of the keeper’s young daughters who perished there have been seen by some; the smell of cigar smoke from a keeper who fell to his death while painting the tower is detectable by others.   

While the history of the St. Augustine Lighthouse site is certainly older, the oldest existing lighthouse in Florida is the Cape Florida Lighthouse at the tip of upscale Key Biscayne in bustling Miami.  It, too, is open to the public. 

Cape Florida Lighthouse

Established in 1825, this little lighthouse, peacefully nestled among the sea oats on a sandy beach at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Recreaton Area, has seen its share of violence and tragedy.  During the second Seminole War in 1836, it was under siege by the Indians who murdered the keeper’s family and left the assistant keeper for dead.  His account of his horrifying experience is told in the lighthouse museum.

Sombrero Key Light

Perched atop the submerged coral reefs paralleling the Florida Keys are a series of pile tower lighthouses, skeleton-like structures built in the late 1800s to keep mariners traveling the busy Gulf Stream shipping lanes from straying into the jagged reefs.

Prior to their existence, Spanish galleons traveling northward on the Gulf Stream, heavy with gold and jewels, where blown off course and torn apart by reefs, scattering their bounty along the path of destruction.  Some of their treasure, recovered buried under the sand by legendary Mel Fisher, is on display in the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum.  Similarly, later merchant schooners lost cargo and lives on the reef, leading to the lucrative salvage or wrecking industry in early Key West.

Since their construction, the skeletal arms of these lighthouses – Fowey, Carysfort, Alligator, Sombrero, American Shoal, Sand Key – have sustained ferocious hurricane winds, seen their keepers and their families perish, embraced Cuban and Haitian migrants trying to reach America, alerted against illegal drug boats speeding ashore for secret rendezvous, and mark some of the best snorkeling and recreational dive spots in the world.

Key West Lighthouse

 

The historic Key West Lighthouse is landlocked and open to the public.  The view of quaint Key West from the top is 360° wonderful!  The first lighthouse was built in 1825, only to be destroyed by the violent hurricane of 1848, which killed 14 people sheltering inside. The present tower was built in 1848, but over time the sea built up land around it, rendering it ineffective.

Garden Key Light atop Fort Jefferson

Seventy miles off Key West, perched on top of the brick walls of the remarkable Civil War-era Fort Jefferson is Garden Key Light.  The fascinating fort, appearing out of nowhere, a sliver of red brick appearing where blue sky meets turquoise sea, is a sight to behold on the day-long trip aboard the Yankee Freedom .  The isolated fort, 70 miles from land, is an engineering feat - visually incongruous, eerily isolated, extremely historic.   

Picturesque lighthouses dotting the outer banks of North Carolina belie the navigational challenges that lie offshore.  The lighthouses of Cape Hatteras, Cape Lookout, Cape Fear, Ocracoke Island, Bodie Island – all witnesses to the tragedies of this treacherous navigational hook of perilous shoals wicked currents, fierce winds, and dense, disorienting fog.  Besides the perils of nature encountered along this heavily traveled sea lane, mariners also contended with pirates, most nortorious among them, Blackbeard, who lurked among the coastal inlets, ready to pounce on passing merchant ships. 

During Civil War, the lighthouses of the Outer Banks were caught in a blockade/blockade-running tug of war between the Union and the Confederacy.  As recently as World War II, German U-boats prowled the Carolina coast in search a way to stage a submarine attack on the U.S.  In their efforts they sank so many merchant ships and Navy vessels the waters off the Outer Banks were known as Torpedo Junction. 

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Marking the easternmost tip of the elbow of the Outer Banks is one of the best known of U. S. lighthouses, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.  Jutting out into the Altantic where the warmer Gulf Stream collides with the cold Labrador Current, the area is so treacherous it’s called the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

 One of the most interesting lighthouses, Tybee Island Lighthouse, sits at the mouth of the Savannah River, leading to the port of Savannah, the fourth busiest and fastest growing container port in the U.S.  Some form of a tower has sat on this very spot since 1736, guiding mariners safely into the Savannah River. 

Tybee Island Lighthouse

The present-day 1867 structure sits on the foundation of a brick tower built in 1773, which was built as on the site of the original wooden tower of 1736 , the third of the colonial lighthouses!

The venerable Old Charleston Lighthouse on Morris Island at the entrance to the port of Charleston is the eighth of the colonial lighthouses.  Ancient-looking, with the sea lapping at its edges, it was retired in 1962, but it’s a great photo op. 

America’s historic coastal guardians - Visit them, climb them, photograph them, paint them, collect miniatures as souvenirs.  Picturesque and charming, they command attention.

Walk on the unusual side – take a tour of a historic cemetery, graveyard or burying ground. Macabre, moving, or appealing, these silent cities have fascinating stories to tell.  Beneath fieldstone, granite, marble and bronze, lie superstition and belief, tragedy and triumph, romance and scandal, humor and sadness, politics and war.

Burying ground, graveyard or cemetery - all are time frozen, part history, part folklore.  There is a certain stillness about them - reverence mixed with intrigue.  In them, gravestones, simple or ornate, provide clues that fuel the imagination.  Through artistic symbolism and fascinating phraseology, gravestones tell the stories of a generations, one person at a time.  They reflect the historic quirks, artistic taste and architecture of a moment in time. They lay bare prejudices and honor heroes.  They tell of prince and pauper; the known and unknown.

Some silent cities, moss-covered, ancient-feeling places like Boston’s historic burying grounds, tell America’s early story through those buried there.  Others, like Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, are serenely quiet green spaces with magnificent grounds and remarkable statuary.  Some make unique architectural statements, like those in New Orleans, so dryly observed by Mark Twain: ”There is no architecture in New Orleans, except in the cemeteries.”   Yet others, like Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C., in their sheer simplicity, have the power to move.

Boston is home to some of America’s oldest burying grounds.  It is in King’s Chapel, Copp’s Hill, and the Granary, that legendary figures of America’s founding, those we learn about in history class – Paul Revere, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, victims of the Boston Massacre - are interred.  These sites are of such historic value that Boston’s Freedom Trail runs by them, and all are highlights of the stops on Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston’s tour route.  For the more sinister, Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston’s entertaining Ghosts & Gravestones tour offers a different prospective on night walks through Copp’s Hill and Granary Burying Grounds.  In nearby Plymouth, on the interesting Historic Plymouth Cemetery Tour, the meaning behind some of some of the gravestone iconography is explained.

In other colonial cities, look for early graveyards alongside historic churches, testaments to the religious beginnings of some colonies. Benjamin Franklin and four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in the Christ Church Burial Ground, two beautiful acres in the heart of the historic “Old City” of Philadelphia.  Other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in graveyards of St. Michael’s and St. Philip’s Churches, the early churches of Charleston, S. C.

As populations outgrew small burying grounds and church graveyards, the large, park-like ”rural” cemeteries of the mid-1800s provided final resting places.  They, too, offer interesting perspectives on history and are great places to walk.  All contain unusual elements, beautiful and bizzare.  Some have spectacular grounds; others, elaborate monuments.  All have an atmosphere more uplifting than the burying grounds of the somber colonial era.  Noticeably absent is the ”death’s head,” common on colonial gravestones, which gave way to the more hopeful winged cherubs, reflective of the more romantic thinking of the Victorian era.

Spend an awesome morning or afternoon walking through Savannah’s Bonaventure Cemetery, a fine example of America’s rural cemeteries, revealed to the world in the book, “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”  Here, under canopies of live oak, surrounded by an array of elegant statuary and impressive monuments, the silence is serene.  While you won’t see the famous Bird Girl there anymore (she’s been moved to Savannah’s Telfair Museum of Art for viewing), there is so much else to see and photograph.

Big and diverse, Manhattan should have equally interesting cemeteries, but all it has are remnant cemeteries!    Forbidden by ordinance as available land became scarce, graves were relocated to the other boroughs, displaced by glass and concrete towers.  What’s left are remnants: the tiny, tucked away Marble Cemeteries in the Lower East side.  And, in San Francisco, similarly land-limited, nothing is forever - at least one’s final resting place is not!  The city has moved its dead time and time again, each time to a “newer” spot, further and further off the peninsula, and there are amazing stories of those left behind, only to be discovered during later ground excavation!  Today, there are only two cemeteries left within city limits, the graveyard at historic Mission Dolores Church and the San Francisco National Cemetery in the Presidio, and two columbariums, one inside the famous Grace Cathedral on Nob Hill.

While each historic burying place is unique, it’s hard to top the visual impact of the above-ground vaults of New Orleans’ “Cities of the Dead,” miniature cities of elaborate tombs built like small houses laid out along streets.  Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, in the historic Garden District is significant for its history, location and architecture.  In St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, just outside the French Quarter, offerings are left for Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau.  Elaborate marble tombs and larger-than-life statuary in Metairie Cemetery are dramatic statements of “new” wealth and prestige of the city’s intriguing, ethnically diverse residents.   For safety reasons, as well as for a memorable time, take one of New Orleans’ Cemetery Tours.

Bigger isn’t necessarily better.  Another sea-level city, albeit small, with an above-ground cemetery is the island of Key West.  As haphazard and colorful as the island itself, and true to the character for this quirky place, the small-scaled cemetery, located in the dead center of town, as locals are amused to say, is not grandiose.  Eye-level, whitewashed tombs are close-quartered, and giant gumbo limbo tree roots pushing up against the ground, causing cracked gravemarkers and lopsided statuary, leave a lingering sense that the tropical elements are about to take over.  It’s a great place to take in the oddities of the inscriptions on some of the gravestones: “I told you I was sick” reads the gravemarker of a well-known hypochondriac!

Wherever your travels take you, tour a historic cemetery.  Bring your camera; bring paper for gravestone rubbings…and most of all, bring your imagination!

This summer and fall, as you travel about the US, include a visit to a city market, community garden, greenmarket, farmers’ markets, tailgate market, and seek out restaurants whose menus feature fresh, regionally grown vegetables and sustainable cuisine.  You’ll love this new tourism twist!Enjoy make-shift stalls and shaded lots filled with bins and buckets exploding with color.  Smell, pinch and snap, sample. Indulge in something delicious, freshly baked or locally canned.  Take in the regional flavor, the fresh air, the bustling sounds, the camaraderie.  Mingle with locals.

Get used to the term community garden as it’s making a comeback. They’ve been around since man began farming, and in the US became popular and patriotic during WWII when they were known as Victory Gardens.  In urban centers, blighted areas have long been greened by window boxes, roof gardens, green sproutings carefully tended in tiny plots, or in abandoned lots tucked between concrete walls.

The most recent urban community garden to make a big splash is the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden on the lawn of San Francisco’s City Hall, part of the Victory Gardens 2008+ project that is sweeping the city!  The food from the garden will be donated to local food banks and meal programs, and the overall message is to show urban residents that they, too, can grow their own, even in a limited space.   If you’re visiting San Francisco between July and September 2008, stop by City Hall in the Civic Center area.  You can get there several ways, but why not take the San Francisco Trolley Hop, get off at its Union Square stop, walk a couple of blocks to the BART stop at Market & Powell.  Get on the BART to the Civic Center stop.  You can’t miss the domed City Hall.  Or, if you’re just walking about, find one of San Francisco’s 40 community gardens on city-owned property.

Visiting Boston?  Hop on the Old Town Trolley Tours of Boston (a great tour with the added perk of being able to hop off at any one of the convenient stops to see the sights), get off at Stop # 11, walk down to the light, cross the street and Fenway Victory Gardens, the last of the WWII Victory Gardens, is right in front.   Or, get off at trolley Stop # 8, walk past the John Hancock Building, turn right onto Berkeley Street and walk 4 blocks to Berkeley Gardens, where Asian families carry on centuries-old tradition of farming garden plots.

Whether in a big city or small town, greenmarkets and farmers’ markets are no longer off the beaten path.  They’re sprouting up everywhere.  Greenmarket is a term more frequently associated with urban areas, while farmers’ markets can be large and urban, or small-town and colloquial.  Both can sell not only produce, but meat, seafood, baked goods, arrays of cheeses and other dairy products, preserves, honey, flowers and even crafts.  The produce can be organic, or not.

In big cities, while greenmarkets are becoming increasingly popular, some have been around forever. New York City, the penultimate urban community, has over 40, the biggest of which is Union Square Greenmarket, a must see!  Be sure to get there early as this is where the city’s famous chefs go shortly after dawn in search of the freshest ingredients for the day’s menu.  Washington’s beloved Eastern Market, a neighborhood market in the Capitol Hill neighborhood for over a century, was badly burned in a fire in April 2007, but vendors have kept the market open by setting up outside or across the street!  In Philadelphia, the year-round Reading Terminal Market has been a city fixture since William Penn’s time, and in historic Boston, the Copely Square Farmer’s Market sets up from mid-May to mid-November on Tuesdays and Fridays right in front of glorious Trinity Church on the famous square.

And the list goes on … Chicago has its Green City Market, a year-round market set up at the center of Lincoln Park in the summer, and inside the Peggy Notebaert Nature Center in the winter, which encourages sustainable practices from farmers selling there.  In New Orleans, be sure to stop by the Mid-City Green Market, which, to the delight of locals and visitors, just re-opened in May after having been closed since Katrina.  Glittery Las Vegas is more than nighttime neon - stop by Garden Park Farmers’ Market for a breath of fresh air.  On Saturdays in trendy Miami, walk through the venerable Coconut Grove Organic Farmers Market for a change of pace.

Smaller farmers’ markets, more regional in flavor, tend to have a real neighborly feel.  In Washington DC, within the beltway residents love their year-round Farm Fresh Market, open Sundays in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, and seasonally in Foggy Bottom and in up and coming Penn Quarter.  In the Los Angeles area, surrounded by miles and miles of fertile fields, farmers’ markets are everywhere, many featuring Asian and Hispanic specialties. San Diego has so many that the Farm Bureau of San Diego County pulishes a Farmer’s Market Schedule!

Likewise in small communities and towns across the country, small farmers’ markets and even smaller tailgate markets are everywhere. Traveling about by car this summer? If you see a farmers’ market along the way, stop. Get out to stretch your legs and pick up fresh ingredients for a spontaneous picnic lunch.  Sure beats the packaged, fast-food alternative!

For a change in restaurant fare, become a  “Locavore!” Designated as the word of the year in November 2007 by the New Oxford American Dictionary, it means one who is passionate about eating local ingredients.  In many cities, chefs are creating market-driven menus with selections prepared with regionally produced and available ingredients. In San Diego, locavores go to JSix in the Gaslamp District, just a couple of blocks from Old Town Trolley Tours of San Diego’s Stop #5A for innovative lunch and dinner menus featuring fresh, seasonal regional produce and sustainable seafood.  In New York City, many restaurants are following the market-driven menu trend, and do so with creativity and flair.  For example, Tribeca Grill, owned by Robert DiNiro, is fabulous and reflects the artistic character of the surrounding Tribeca neighborhood; BLT Market in the Ritz Carleton reflects its upscale Midtown East neighborhood.  In Washington, D.C., Nora’s became America’s first certified organic restaurant in 1999; 15 ria’s new American cuisine is fabulously created with market-fresh ingredients that change with the season; and, Hook in Georgetown offers a wonderful dining experience with a menu that changes daily to reflect whatever sustainable fish are in season and available.

Get out; get in touch.  See America as you have never before see it!

1. Museum of Bad Art (MoBA) – Not sure how else to describe this museum… the title sums it up pretty well. The Museum of Bad Art describes its mission perfectly – “dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms.” Artists that are featured at the MoBA are talented, esteemed artists that have created works that cause fans to say “what was he thinking?”. Founded by Scott Wilson who began the museum with its first masterpiece in 1993, “Lucy in the Field of Flowers”, apparently discovered in a trash pile in Boston. Museum Of Bad Art, Basement of Dedham Communitiy Theatre, 580 High Street, Dedham MA, Telephone: 1-781-444-6757 www.museumofbadart.org
    
    

 

2. Glore Psychiatric Museum – Housed in the building that was originally called the “State Lunatic Asylum No. 2”, the Glore Psychiatric Museum takes a look at the history of psychiatric institutions and techniques for administering “care” for the mentally disabled. Earliest diagnoses for treatment of the mentally ill started with a sharp stick or perhaps a club. Human progress and compassion through history introduced humiliation, dunking, burnings at the stake and bleeding as “treatment”. Fortunately, modern 20th century medicine has made significant breakthroughs in psychiatric care including icy baths, shock therapy, tranquilizers, and vibrating chairs (just a hint of sarcasm here). The museum has an exhibit entitled “1,446 Objects Swallowed by a Patient” (see picture… includes 453 nails, 409 pins, 63 buttons, 42 screws, 5 thimbles, and 3 salt shaker tops). Other artifacts and exhibits include a tranquilizer chair, a giant “hamster wheel” for energetic patients, electroshock devices, and hydrotherapy devices (ice bath) www.stjosephmuseum.org/glore.php Glore Psychiatric Museum, 3408 Frederick Ave., St. Joseph, MO, Telephone: 1- 816-364-1209
   

3. Fall River Historical Society – If you ever find your way up through the New England countryside and the quaint town of Fall River, be sure to stop in to visit this little museum of history. Amongst its collection of 19^th century decorative arts, costumes, steamship history and other mild-mannered-exhibits will you find an exhibit of one of the most horrific murder s of the late 19^th century. Lizzie Borden (as in “Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks….”) was charged in 1892 of murdering her mother and father with an axe (and giving them both 40 whacks). Later acquitted, this was considered to be the trial of the century. The Fall River Historical Society boasts the largest collection of memorabilia from the crime and trial including the hatchet used, photographs of the crime scene, pillow cases with blood on them, pictures of Lizzie’s mom and dad skull’s, and other REALLY macomb artifacts. If you haven’t had enough of Lizzie Borden, you can visit the crime scene. In fact you can even stay at the place. The home where the crime was committed is now open as a bed and breakfast. www.lizzieborden.org, Fall River Historical Society, 451 Rock St, Fall River, MA Telephone 1-508-679-1071
    

4. Liberace Museum – While in Las Vegas be sure to pay your respects to a very famous Vegas showman – Wladziu Valentino Liberace (you may call him Liberace). Famous for his outrageous costumes, incredible piano skills and performances, and a Baldwin piano encrusted in with thousands of rhinestones, Liberace deserves his museum in Sin City. The Liberace Museum has on display (including the Baldwin piano) Liberace’s legendary wardrobes, elaborately ornate cars (check out the Rolls Royce), and his jewelry. www.liberace.org/liberace_museum/ Liberace Museum, 1775 East Tropicana Avenue (at Spencer) Las Vegas, NV Telephone: 1-702-798-5595
    
    

5. National Museum of Funeral History – dedicated to the history of the coffin building industry and the funeral business, the National Museum of Funeral History is located in the reproduction of an early 1900’s coffin factory. Visitors will experience and learn how coffins were constructed over the years and how coffins are made today. Other exhibits include Civil War embalming, fantasy coffins (how about a coffin made in the shape of a fish, or an airplane, or how about a chicken?), and the funeral industry Hall of Fame. www.nmfh.org The National Museum of Funeral History, 415 Barren Springs Drive , Houston, TX Telephone: 1-281-876-3063
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

6. The Mütter Museum – M, m, m, m…. museum of horrors! The Mutter Museum is a medical museum located at the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. It was originally created in 1858 from the collection that was donated by Thomas Dent Mutter. The museum displays medical oddities, instruments, and preserved human specimens. Highlights of the Mutter Museum include the skeleton of the tallest human being in North America, a preserved 5’ long colon, preserved human organs and body parts, President Grover Cleveland’s tumor, the conjoined liver of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker, a growth removed from Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth, and mummified corpse of the Soap Lady… all here and preserved for your viewing pleasure. www.collphyphil.org/mutter.asp The Mutter Museum , 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA, Telephone: 1-215-563-3737
    

7. Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum - Coined as the only museum dedicated to the art ventriloquism, the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum will delight visitors of all ages. The museum showcases over 700 figures and thousands of books, playbills and photographs that are related to ventriloquism. www.venthavenmuseum.net Vent Haven Museum, 33 West Maple Avenue, Fort Mitchell, KY, 1-859-341-0461
    
    
   

   
    
   

8. National Museum of Health and Medicine – Haven’t had enough of seeing preserved body parts? Well, you’re in luck! Skip on over to Washington DC for fun filled day of people watching (dead people watching that is). John Wilkes Booth sure does get around! At the National Museum of Health and Medicine you can find even more preserved parts of the assassin. Other exhibits include Civil War skeletons and pictures and illustrations of wounds, Korean War artifacts, live leeche display, and largest collection of microscopes dating to the 1600’s. The National Museum of Health and Medicine claims to have more than 10,000 preserved organs and 5,000 skeletal specimens that explore medical cases of disease and injury. Be sure to visit the “Anatifacts” exhibit featuring the preserved giant tumor, a human hair ball, and body parts of famous Americans – vetebraes of John Wilkes Booth and James Garfield. The National Museum of Health and Medicine also has on display the bullet that killed Lincoln. www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/medtour/nmhm.html National Museum of Health and Medicine, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW Washington, DC
    

9. American Sanitary Plumbing Museum - Located just outside of Boston in Worcester, MA, you will find the official museum dedicated to the history of the commode. Why shouldn’t there be a museum dedicated to such an important household fixture? The museum tells the history of the toilet and other sanitary fixtures as well provides visitors with a number of “artifacts”. Visitors will learn interesting facts such as how we went from corncobs to toilet paper (ouch!)… now that is something to be grateful for! 39 Piedmont Street, Worcester, MA Telephone: 1-508-754-9453
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

10. BODIES…The Exhibition - I guess Americans have a fascination (obsession) with seeing dead people preserved. Now if you’ve visited the Muller in Philadelphia and the National museum of Health and Medicine in Washington D.C. and you want more… Bodies… The Exhibition is your next stop. You can find Bodies in a city nearest you as they have exhibitions in New York City, Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, Framingham, Columbus, Las Vegas (now that’s a big surprise) and Pittsburgh. Utilizing a patented preservation process, curators of Bodies display real human cadavers in everyday positions (minus skin tissue of course) www.bodiestheexhibition.com
     

11. New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum – Believed to be the only museum dedicated to the practice of Voodoo, the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum tells visitors about the traditional practices of the Voodoo religion in New Orleans. The Voodoo Museum houses artifacts of the Great Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveau. Walking tours are provided daily and during the evening. www.voodoomuseum.com New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum, 724 Dumaine Street, New Orleans, LA, Telephone: 1-504-680-0128

The United States has celebrated St. Patrick’s Day well before it’s independence from Great Britain. The first St. Patrick’s Day and parade in North America was held in Boston in 1737 followed by New York City in 1756. While St. Patrick’s Day originated in Ireland, the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade is held in Chicago with over 2 million spectators and participants. The US, with it’s large Irish ancestory, has parties, parades and events throughout the country. Are you planning to “Go Green” in March? The largest St. Patrick’s Day Parades are:

1. Chicago, Illinois, since 1843 – Over 2 Million Spectators
2. New York City, Since 1756 – Tied with Chicago
3. Savannah, Georgia – Over 400,000
4. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Another pre-Declaration of Independence aged St. Patrick’s Day
5. Kansas City, Missouri – 200,00 spectators
6. Boston, Massachusetts
7. San Francisco, California – Oldest and biggest west of the Mississippi
8. Houston, Texas
9. Cleveland, Ohio
10. New London, Wisconsin

Air Force Brigadier General Paul Tibbets just died. He was 92 years old and requested that no funeral be held and no marker be placed on his grave. He was concerned that these memorials might draw protest. Protest for what he and his crew flying the Enola Gay did on August 6, 1945. They dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. It’s estimated that over 200,000 people lost their lives as a result of these two explosions. Six days later World War II ended with the surrender of Japan.

My Uncle Harry was one of almost a million U.S. soldiers staged in the Philippines at that time…waiting to see if the bombs ended the war. If they did not, an invasion was planned.

I learned this weekend about a program called Honor Flight dedicated to bringing the remaining World War II veterans to Washington D.C. at no cost to tour the WWII Memorial in their honor. They estimate that 1200 of these veterans are passing away each day. I saw a man in the street that wore a t-shirt saying “Freedom isn’t really free.” The Sky and Sea Spectacular took place in Jacksonville, Florida this weekend featuring the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. It all reminded me of my mother and my father and a visit I made earlier this year to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. It all made me pause and reflect.

During these challenging times, I think it’s important to take the long view. Now is an excellent time to look back on American history and see where we came from and where we are going. Here are a few spots to get you started.

Tour Boston and walk the Freedom Trail. Visit Paul Revere’s house and tour Old Ironsides. Stand in the Old South Meeting House and visit Fanueil Hall.

Tour Washington D.C. and see where laws are made. Tour Mount Vernon and Ford’s theater. Stand at the Wall and visit all the monuments to our Nation and it’s citizens.

Tour Philadelphia and see the Liberty Bell. Be moved at the National Constitution Center and visit Independence Hall. Experience where it all began.

There are thousands of stories and places and people but time is running out for some. Spend a little time with the Greatest Generation before they are all gone. Thank them for their sacrifices and humble service to America. Travel and tour the places where history was made. Do it now. Thanks, Mom and Dad…

Halloween is just around the corner and one of my favorite Holidays. As a kid, it was the candy. Now, it’s the fantasy. I love seeing people dress up and become other characters. (You can tell a lot about people by the characters they choose). Pirates, Pop stars or witches the spectacle is endless.

The photo is from our Ghosts & Gravestones tour in Boston, MA. We also have them in Savannah, GA and St. Augustine, FL. All of them are different and each of them is a blast.

I’m involved with ghosts and storytelling year round but the height of the season is that day of days, October 31st. What are you doing this year? Countdown begins!

If you need some inspiration visit Bucky’s Boneyard or the Monster List of Halloween Projects.