Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was pivotal in creating our new United States. Visiting the places where Franklin, Jefferson and other founders met is awe-inspiring. No visit would be complete without seeing the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. But be prepared. To protect these National treasures the security is high. It’s very similar to Airport security measures so factor this into your visit.

A good place to start, of course, is the visitor’s center to get oriented and a timed entrance ticket for the Independence Hall tour. Although these attractions are free they are organized from this location.

Do spend some time reading panels and plaques for a complete story and don’t miss Benjamin Franklin’s Burial Plot just down the street and the site where Thomas Jefferson completed the Declaration of Independence. Everywhere you turn in Philadelphia, History winks back!

Washington National Cathedral Gargoyle

Walking down the streets of older American cities, where spired, turreted Gothic Revival buildings tower overhead, have you ever felt the presence of someone watching you?

Well, they are.

Look up.

You’ll be amazed at what’s looking down at you! 

Gargoyles – those weird, usually grotesque, sometimes comic, often outrageous, always fantastic, fanciful caricatures with distinct personalities hanging all over older buildings - are intricate, amazingly detailed architectural carvings of hybrid monsters with both human and animal characteristics, often with mouths agape.  Cleverly blended into their architectural surroundings by master sculptors, they are out there in abundance, whole gatherings of them.  Lurking and leering from perches high overhead, hunched in outcroppings, clinging to outer walls, or poised to pounce from nooks and crannies of religious, educational and governmental buildings, and even from grand mansions, they are more often than not, noticed only through a double-take.  

While their presence in architecture dates back to ancient times and crosses all cultures, their purpose has no universally accepted explanation.  Originally the term used for the fanciful stone carved gutter spouts used to direct rainwater away from building foundations, a gargoyle generically has come to mean any decorative architectural carving of a grotesque nature, and cities are filled with them. 

To find them, just look up. In New York City on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, gargoyles found a welcome home in the arches and flying buttresses rising up to the Neo-Gothic cathedral-like tower of the Woolworth Building. Legions of them are on Wall Street, surely showing their displeasure with recent events.  On the Upper West Side, in the massive, yet unfinished St. John the Divine Cathedral, all manner of fanciful, grotesque creatures fiercely stand guard over niches filled with saints and angels.  On busy Lexington Avenue in Midtown, look up at the iconic Chrysler Building.  Jutting way out from the corners of the 61^st Floor of this spectacular Art Deco building are huge, shiny gargoyles – eagle heads- replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments.   

In Chicago, the decorative top of the Gothic Tribune Tower on Michigan Avenue is loaded with gargoyle bats! On elegant Nob Hill in San Francisco, those perpendicular protrusions sticking out just below the main spire of magnificent Grace Cathedral are actually eight identical gargoyles, winged dragons perched to take flight in case the forces of evil get too close.  Once sighted, they are obvious, but, without knowing they’re there, they are easily missed.  Such is a gargoyle…there, but not there.  

University of Chicago Gargoyle

Gargoyles are particularly fond of the collegial culture of universities over a century old. Throughout the campus of Princeton University, gargoyles pay homage to the disciplines studied in the buildings they haunt. There are so many there that they star in an online Grotesque Tour.  Click your way, too, for gargoyle sightings at Duke University.  The Quadrangle Building at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia is crawling with them.  Likewise, at the exquisite Gothic University of Chicago, their antics begin at the main entrance gate, where a series of them usher in newbies with warnings of perilous things to come on their climb through academia.   

These fanciful spirits also live in historic mansions throughout the country. In Savannah, many homes in the historic district have downspouts ending in stylized cast iron dolphin heads, gargoyles well suited to this colonial-era seaport city.  The Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina has an amazingly diverse gargoyle collection. While best viewed from below, a special rooftop tour gets them within pouncing range. 

A treasure trove of gargoyles with a 20^th century attitude reside throughout the Washington National Cathedral.  This spectacular Gothic building, completed in 1990, literally crawls with them.  Their unique humor and style comes through a collaborative effort between the private donors who commissioned them and the sculptors who created them.  Fantastically creative, they are wonderful caricatures of the times, the 1960s, 70s and 80s: hippies and yuppies; crooked politicians and greedy thieves; and countless other mischievous and appealing modern spirits in stone who bring a smile…to those who notice.  

Wherever your travels take you, get in the habit of looking up!

Biltmore Estate Gargoyle

They are always watching.

Ghost Tour of Philadelphia – Philadelphia, PA
Betsy Ross is one of Philadelphia’s most beloved icons-a local girl who garnered everlasting fame as the “Mother of the American Flag.” Betsy’s house still stands on Arch Street in the birthplace of the nation, the historic district of Philadelphia, and millions of people have walked through the storied halls of her modest dwelling.

But there is another side to Betsy’s story, one told only in whispers over the course of generations. In that unassuming house on Arch Street, the ghost of Betsy herself has been seen weeping at the foot of a bed in an upstairs bedroom. In the basement, a murky shadow appears, in the same place where a man was shot to death long ago. Betsy’s gravestone stands just outside of the house, but it hasn’t always. Her remains have been moved three times, and it only takes once to conjure a vengeful spirit.

Why do these and other spirits still roam the historic streets and buildings of Philadelphia?

Hear chilling tales from the other side of Philadelphia history and folklore on the Ghost Tour of Philadelphia, a candlelight walking tour of America’s most historic and most haunted city!

Through the back streets and mysterious gardens of Society Hill and Independence Park, costumed guides narrate the evening with haunting tales from Philadelphia’s past and present in the tradition of storytelling. All of the tales are considered true ghost stories, some of which appear in the book Ghost Stories of Philadelphia, PA, by Tim Reeser.

The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia departs daily at 7:30 pm, with an additional 9:30 pm tour on weekends, from Signers Garden at 5^th and Chestnut Streets. It is appropriate for all ages.

The Ghost Tour of Philadelphia is one of the oldest ghost tour operators in the country and has been offering ghost tours in Philadelphia since 1997.

For more information please visit our Trusted Tours webpage at:
http://www.trustedtours.com/store/Ghost-Tour-of-Philadelphia-C630.aspx

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!

Punxsutawney Phil is a legend. They claim he is over 120 years old and predicts the weather with 100% accuracy. According to legend, if Groundhog Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring. The first official trek to Gobbler’s Knob was made on February 2, 1887 although the celebration itself is much older. Since then, the official spectacle of all spectacles takes place each February 2^nd in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Here are 5 reasons I love Groundhog Day.

The Movie “Groundhog Day”

How can you not love director Harold Ramis’s wonderful movie starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliot and a great supporting cast? It’s funny and profound. The lesson I get is to live each day to the fullest and appreciate everything around you. Like It’s a Wonderful Life meets Caddyshack. Sweet.

It’s also Candlemas Day

February 2^nd historically celebrates the midpoint of winter called Candlemas Day. Winter’s half over (at least) and Spring is on the way. Let’s celebrate!

I’m a Groundhog

I was born on Groundhog Day. Yes, every year thousands of people ask me if I saw my shadow. It never gets old.

Pennsylvania is worth a visit

Pennsylvania doesn’t get the credit it deserves.  There’s more to it than Philadelphia and Pittsburg. Hershey and Lancaster. I grew up in Maryland so Pennsylvania is one of my favorite states. Do yourself a kindness by venturing out to Punxsutawney and experiencing a new side of this rectangular state.

It’s a great excuse for a party

Gather your friends and family and throw a Groundhog theme party while watching this amazing event. If for some reason you can’t travel to Pennsylvania, you can watch the pageantry live here. You can even send free Groundhog Day postcards to invite your guests from the site.

So bake your chocolate groundhog-shaped cake, paint your face brown while dressing up in your fur suit, decorate in a Winter-Spring theme before playing Sonny and Cher’s

“I got you Babe” endlessly to join the festivities!

It just doesn’t get any better than this.

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

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…

I cried… I didn’t intend it…I wasn’t expecting it. But I did. It got to me.

The multi-media Show at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is called “Freedom Rising” and is one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had at an attraction.

While you sit in a modern theatre-in-the-round a live narrator combined with music and images explains the story of America. It’s triumphs and tragedies. It’s struggles and shining moments. How the Constitution has pulled citizens together as one nation and divided them at times. “We the People” comes to life in a crescendo of emotion. Then you walk out to the interactive areas to participate and learn more. I truly enjoyed the Founder’s Hall and original documents here but what got to me was the end of the show “Freedom Rising”. After immersing ourselves in the grand story of America’s history and the people who sacrificed so much along the way, the narrator looked right at me, pointed and said, “Now it’s up to you.” …that’s when I cried.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed this Aquarium! Don’t let the location keep you from going. The Adventure Aquarium is located in Camden, New Jersey just across the river from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. River Shuttle is the best method but you can also take a bus or taxi there.

What a treat. “Scuba Santa” was visiting when I was there and the kids went berserk. Well… I did too. The huge Ocean Theater is so much fun to watch with a theater sized viewing window and stadium seating. Everyone got a great view of Santa and the sea creatures in the tank. Great exhibits, touch a shark, 4D theater (showing Sponge Bob), Penguin Island and more. Shark Realm was one of my favorites with a 40 foot viewing tunnel that makes you feel part of their world. After visiting Jules Verne Gallery where creepy ocean creatures like Giant Spider Crabs and Jellyfish lurk I am convinced that this is one of the best Aquariums around.