News about Old Places from New England to New York

Aloha all,

until last week, I had never read a poem by Robert Frost. I also had no idea what actually happened at ‘Concord & Lexington’. I was equally clueless about about the history of the textile industry in America. I knew of Mark Twain and Harriett Beecher Stowe, but knew nothing negative about either one of them. It also seemed weird to me that the only National Park in honor of a painter was for a certain Mr. Weir, whom I had never heard of. I knew next to nothing about West Point and exactly nothing about Bannerman Castle. I had never heard the whole ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. The fact that Jay Gould was once the richest man in America was lost on me and I always confused the various Rockefellers. All that has changed in just eight days. 

We actually had to check our calendar twice to confirm that we really did all this in just eight days, while also doing a little work, playing a round of golf and even a little pickle ball. 

It's hard not to smile when you're
playing pickleball

I’ll quickly have to write down a few lines about all the things we have learned before I forget it all again:

The best place to learn about the poet Robert Frost is a little farm outside of the small town of Derry along a rural road in New Hampshire…you could almost say you have to take “the road less traveled” to get there. The first thing we learned was that both of the quotes we knew (even though I didn’t know they were from Robert Frost) are both widely misunderstood. The poem that mentions “the road less traveled” is actually called “The Road Not Taken” and is not so much about not following the herd and going your own way, but about wondering what would have happened if one had taken another path in life. It’s a fun little poem and you obviously don’t need to come to Derry, New Hampshire to read it. The second quote I had heard of is “good fences make good neighbours”. But if you think it advocates having strict boundaries to get along, you might have to read that poem, too. 

The Robert Frost Farm along
"the road less traveled by"

Lowell, Massachusetts is a great place to learn about the Industrial Revolution in general and the American textile industry in particular. About 200 years ago, this town was specifically designed to create a new type of manufacturing. In one of history’s best stories of industrial espionage, the town’s namesake Francis Lowell went to England to copy the top secret technology of power looms. 

Power looms in the Mills at
 Lowell National Historical Park

The initial plan was to built beautiful, master planned factory towns and exclusively use young women from rural New England as labor to avoid the social problems encountered in Europe. The concept of women working outside the home for cash (other than as a maid or a prostitute) was as revolutionary in the 1800’s as the type and scale of production in these factories. For most of the “Mill Girls” it was the first time away from home and the first time they earned money they could call their own. It was also the first time all stages of textile manufacturing (from raw cotton to linen) were combined under one roof. A system of canals was built to power the machines by water.

Mill buildings along the canals
diverted to power the looms

The new system was very successful at first. Before the civil war, this factory town had grown to be the second largest town in all of New England. Imagine this: There were dozens of six story buildings with thousands of power looms in each, producing almost a million(!) yards of cloth a week….all without electricity! After the boom followed a bust. Currently, Lowell seems to be on the upswing again: At first we were surprised that the loft apartments in the former mill factories are more expensive than Maui real estate. But there are actually commuter trains from Lowell to Boston, so it’s not surprising people are willing to move into historic buildings in this unique town for prices that seem normal by Boston standards. 

Obviously, the war for American Independence was a long and complex process. But if you wanted to pick a time and place where the Revolutionary War actually started, you might choose April 19, 1775 at the North Bridge close to Concord, MA. This was the first time that American militia (who were all still British subjects and many of them still felt loyal to the king) were ordered to fire on British soldiers….the famous “shot heard around the world”. 

The North Bridge by Concord, where the
"Shot Heard Around the World" was fired 

It’s nice to fill in the gaps of the often simplified and romanticized stories, such as Paul Revere’s midnight ride. You wouldn’t know it from the famous poem, there were actually several riders sent out to warn the militia that night, but only one of their names rhymes with “Listen, my children, and you shall hear”. However, Revere never actually made it to Concord. Only a rider named Prescott did, but Prescott only rhymes with “forgot”.

One of the most famous writers
hanging out with one of the
least famous ones

Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain and the author of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”) and Harriett Beecher Stowe (who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) were next door neighbors in Hartford, CT. These two are credited with writing two of the most important anti racism books in American literature. But I love it that at the respective house tours, they are honest enough to not idolize these people blindly. Even though our house tour was led by his wife, I’ve learned that Mark Twain was clearly racist in his younger years, opposing citizenship for black people. And Beecher Stowe, even though she wrote the most important anti slavery book, was at first in favor of sending black people “back” to Africa. Of course it’s always easy to criticize people with the hindsight of history. Who knows what any of us would have thought or done. And both of them changed their mind about those issues during their lifetime. It just shows that history is never as ‘black and white’ as it seems. That does not diminish the contributions these two Hartford neighbors made on our path to “a more prefect union”.

The Weir Farm National Historical Park

Since there is only one National Park dedicated to an American painter, you’d expect it to be someone really famous, wouldn’t you? Maybe some of you are better informed than me, but we had never heard of Julian A. Weir and we did not know a single of his paintings. I’ll admit it, the only reason we went to the Weir Farm in eastern Connecticut is that it’s managed by the National Park Service. And they did not disappoint, we got a great tour of the house and the studio, took a nice walk around Weir pond and had a long talk with the very informative ranger. 

They encourage visitors to create art
themselves at this park.
This is my attempt.

From there, it was a short drive back to the Hudson River Valley. We had seen the northern part in June, but had missed the whole southern part. In other parts of the country, we sometimes have to look for some old house we can tour. Along the Hudson River, there seem to be more mansions and historical sites than even we will ever be able to visit, so we just picked a few highlights.

Memorial at the West Point Military Academy,
using original links from the chain that was
strung across the Hudson to stop the British

Military installations are usually not on our list of “must see” places. But we are sure glad we made an exception for the Military Academy at West Point, NY. On our tour of the campus and in the visitor center and museum we learned that this place is actually very far up our ‘presidential alley’:

President George Washington chose the location at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, not for its natural beauty (which is stunning), but for its strategic importance controlling the Hudson River. 

President Thomas Jefferson signed the legislation to establish the Military Academy at West Point in 1802.

President Ulysses Grant is among the graduates of West Point. Interestingly, he would face fellow West Point alumni Robert E. Lee a little later…

President Dwight Eisenhower graduated from West Point, too. 

So you could argue that this school helped America achieve independence, helped keep the union together during the Civil War and helped liberate Europe during World War II. We were very impressed by what we learned about West Point. We have great respect for anyone who graduates from this school, but I have to admit: I’m glad we came here only to visit. 

"Chapel" at West Point

I often prefer to watch a movie without knowing what it’s about. Same is true for some historical sites. I’m actually glad we booked the boat trip to Bannerman Island simply because it looked cool. The only thing we knew was that the castle on the island lays in ruins, but we had no idea why. 

Sunset boat tour to Bannerman Castle

Spoiler Alert! If you’d also rather visit this place without knowing the history, you might want to skip the next paragraph. The actual name of the island is “Pollepel” and Mr. Bannerman bought it because he needed a safe storage place for his military surplus business. Apparently his neighbors in New York weren’t happy that he stored huge amount of ammunition and weapons in the city. 

So far, so good, this island in the Hudson seems like a safe place. However, for whatever reason, he wanted his storage facility to look pretty, like a European castle. And he wanted to design it himself, even though he had no expertise in architecture or structural engineering. It probably did not help that he used scrap metal instead of steel for rebar and the brackish river water to mix the cement. In hindsight, it’s surprising that over a century later, after explosions and fires, anything of this castle still stands.

Charmingly maintained Bannerman Island

There seems to be an endless number of mansions to visit along the Hudson River. For this part of our tour, we picked these three: Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, Gould’s Lyndhurst Mansion, and Rockefeller’s Kykuit.  All three of these homes are spectacular, different and intriguing. 

Tour at Washington Irving's "Sunnyside" home

Washington Irving built “Sunnyside” mostly from the money he made as an author. His most famous story is “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, which obviously gets milked for all its worth, especially before Halloween. I actually prefer his other famous story about “Rip Van Winkle”, who sleeps through the Revolutionary War. Washington Irving designed the home himself and it’s a very playful, eclectic architecture, mixing different European styles. It is a very peaceful setting along the Hudson River…until the train comes through. Irving was not happy about the railroad being built between his home and the river. But he was pressured into accepting it and in return they would stop the train for him when he wanted to go into New York City. 

Lyndhurst Mansion

Jay Gould was one of the richest ‘robber barons’ of the Gilded Age. This seems like a very appropriate term to describe them since they became ridiculously rich through very unscrupulous business practices and then acted like royalty. Gould made his money mostly with railroads, which apparently was even more lucrative than writing. He bought the “Lyndhurst Mansion”, which looks more like a castle. On the tour we learned that “fake” was very popular back then: They made wood look like rocks and plaster look like marble and they even painted wood to look like another kind of wood. Apparently it was more impressive to have fake marble than real marble. We had a very gifted tour guide here, the home was fascinating to visit, but if I owned it, I would probably move into the little bowling alley building down by the river.

The Rockefeller family's Kykuit Mansion

I was surprised that the Rockefellers, as the richest robber barons, could not afford a property right along the Hudson River. That’s only because I don’t speak Dutch. The Rockefeller Estate is called “Kykuit”, which means “Lookout” in Dutch and even though it’s quite a bit away from the river, it’s on the highest hill in the area and really has spectacular views. Compared to some of the other mansions, Kykuit is a small home with no grand staircase and no big ballroom…on the tour we learned that it’s called "understated elegance”. It can’t be easy to spend this much money without appearing to boast about your wealth, but apparently that’s what they were going for.

After being confused about who is who in the Rockefeller family for years, the long tour of Kykuit was a great way to learn about the three most prominent Rockefellers:

John D. Rockefeller came from humble beginnings, but quickly became the wealthiest person in America. He started the family fortune (mostly from his ‘Standard Oil Company’), which is considered to have been the largest in American history, if calculated as a percentage of GDP. As a devout baptist, he saw it as his god given right and duty to make as much money as possible, but also to donate as much as possible. This makes him both - an exploitative businessman and one of the most generous philanthropists the world has ever seen. Two traits that he passed on to future generations of Rockefellers.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. inherited a lot, but also added to the wealth, amongst other ways by developing Rockefeller Center in NYC. Apparently he tried to outdo his father in exploitation and in philanthropy. On one hand, he is blamed for a deadly attack on striking miners, on the other hand he helped finance worthy projects like Colonial Williamsburg, as well as the Acadia, Grand Teton, Great Smokey Mountains, Yosemite, Mesa Verde and Shenandoah National Parks. We have been to and love all of these places. 

Plenty of art and plenty of views from Kykuit

Nelson Rockefeller is the most famous of the next generation of Rockefellers. He loved art and politics. His love of the arts is clearly visible throughout the Kykuit Mansion and gardens. He also converted the basement into an art gallery that rivals some museums. He was a four term governor of New York, that’s when he did that ambitious and controversial Empire Plaza project in Albany (see the blog post from June). He was also selected as Vice President by Gerald Ford. His own presidential ambitions never came to fruition, probably because he had gotten a divorce. One single, little divorce seems negligible by today’s standards, but apparently that was different then.

As mentioned earlier, all these mansions are spectacular. But when I asked Sandra in which one of them she would prefer to live, she quickly answered “in Joy”. I agree, as much as we enjoy visiting these places, I don’t think we’d be happier living there, even if we could afford it. Apparently most of the heirs of these estates agree; there’s a reason that so many of them were donated and became historical sites open for the public to visit. Looks like the the current Rockefellers, Goulds and Irvings don’t want to live in those mansions themselves. However, I haven’t seen any of them around the campground or overnighting at a Walmart parking lot either… 

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

Counting our Blessings in New England

Aloha all,

we loved our time with family in Europe. We are also truly looking forward seeing our Maui ohana again. But as most of you know, road trips are our big passion, so we were very excited to come back to America and hit the road with Joy again. 

Enjoying New England in Joy

I don’t find it easy to put in words how full life on the road is, so I will try it with numbers instead: In the first 14 days since we are back in America, we have…

• Reconnected with 4 Maui friends in New England
• Visited 3 presidential sites of 4 presidents
• Toured 4 mansions and 2 state capitols
• Traveled back to 1620 and 1627
• Saw 2 live theater performances
• Visited 3 National Park Service sites (2 of which we had never heard of)
• Did tastings of 4 different beverages (ranging in price from 79 Cents to $400)
• And we rescued 1 sunken sailboat…

If you prefer words over numbers, you can read on for the longer version, if you don’t like numbers or words, you can scroll on for the photos.

We returned right to where we took off in July; reuniting not just with Joy, but also with Trip and Dora at their historical home and farm estate in Westport, MA. There is always something fun to do there. This time, we played darts at a brewery and did a little whiskey tasting. I wasn’t aware how much of whiskey connoisseurs we are, but we immediately took a liking to the one that turns out to cost $400 a bottle…

Should it make us think that all our friends
plan multiple outing around drinking
when we come to visit?

As mentioned before, we also got to rescue a sunken sailboat. That might sound a little dramatic, but if you are like me and have never rescued a sunken ship before, this is the way to start: You don’t go out into the depth of the open seas and retrieve the Titanic. You start small and wade out into a shallow bay and bail out a tiny sailboat and that’s exactly what Trip and Dora provided for us to practice our ship rescue skills.

Bringing the rescued
'Beetle' ashore

Joy enjoyed her summer break in New England while we were in Europe, but she seemed as eager as us to get back on the road. We only had a small plumbing issue: We first thought it was a faulty valve, but it turns out it was a faulty user. Luckily, I have married a smart girl. Sandra figured this one out…even though she cheated in this case by actually getting out the manual and reading it. Such a girly thing to do.

Yes, Doris Duke had camels
at her Newport "Cottage"

We loved Newport when we were there on our 2008 trip. It was the summer getaway of the rich and famous during the Gilded Age. There seem to be an endless number of mansions, or “summer cottages” as they like to call even the largest castles. Many of them offer tours. In 2008 we had toured the Astor mansion, which was one of the best tours we have ever taken anywhere! But apparently owning a whole Hawaiian island was not enough for Larry Ellison, so he also bought the Astor mansion and it’s no longer open to the public. “The Breaker” was the other mansion we toured in 2008, but it was hands down the worst tour we have ever taken in America. Comically bad, so we did not want to go back there. Instead we toured Doris Duke’s “Rough Point” and the very impressive “Marble House”. It was interesting to compare Doris Duke’s place to her home in Honolulu and the  Marble House to the two other Vanderbilt mansions we have seen this year. The Marble House, the Biltmore and the Vanderbilt Mansion in the Hudson River Valley were all built by brothers. 

Even "The Marble House"
 is called a cottage in Newport

The next three days we spent on Cape Cod. We weren’t aware that Cape Cod is actually a man made island. Yes, it used to be a peninsula, but it was made into an island when a canal was built between it and the mainland. While on the cape, we explored the cute towns of Chatham, Hyannis and Provincetown. 

Provincetown on Cape Cod

Our favorite place on the cape was Provincetown. It’s a very gay place in both senses of the word. Since this is where the Pilgrims first landed (before moving on and settling in Plymouth), Provincetown built the Pilgrim Monument with an interesting museum and a 252 feet tall observation tower. 

The Pilgrim Monument

“P-Town” is also where we had the best lobster bisque since we followed our friend’s advice and went to a lobster shack rather than a regular restaurant. Other times, we weren’t so smart and just wanted to eat in a nice location. On the Cape that usually means paying $30+ for an ok dish served on a paper plate. As nice as the Cape is, it seems crazy how expensive it is, even by Maui standards! Luckily there are things to do for free, like strolling along a beach or visiting the National Seashore. And thanks to a brewery and a rest stop, we were able to avoid the very expensive and hard to get campgrounds.

"The Fantastics" at the Cape Cod Playhouse

Since Cape Cod is still a favorite summer getaway for city people in the Northeast, they have an impressive theater, “where Broadway goes for summer break”. We saw “The Fantastics”, which we had never seen before, even though I learned that it was the longest running musical of all times. 

The casual (and happy) side of JFK

We also visited the JFK Museum in Hyannis. That’s where the Kennedy Compound is and where they spent some of their happier days. We talked to the museum volunteer guide for a long time, she had just moved back here from Hawaii and was a wealth of information about the Kennedys. I can’t think of another family which such an abundance of privilege and an equal abundance of tragedy in their lives.

Replica of the Mayflower as she looked
on her trip fromPlymouth to Plymouth
in 1620

The Pilgrims actually first landed on Cape Cod in 1620, before they moved on and settled in Plymouth. For better or for worse: In the dumbed down, easiest version, American history starts here. They have a replica of the Mayflower, which we boarded to learn what a “cruise” in 1620 was like. And they have a reconstruction of the early English settlement, where it’s always 1627. Several buildings have actors portraying specific people who lived here 400 years ago. We love living history museums!

Welcome to 1627

Without wanting to diminishing the enormous courage and hardships, it seems a bit random that these 102 out of millions and millions of immigrants came to represent the origin story of America. But by now, they do a pretty good job in Plymouth debunking some of the myths and presenting a slightly more honest version of history: The Pilgrims were not the first to come here, not even the first Europeans. They were not the first to settle in the “new world” either, St. Augustine in Florida was founded over half a century earlier. And while it is true that some of them came here for “religious freedom”, they only wanted the freedom to practice THEIR new version of Christianity. Towards other religions, many of the pilgrims were just as (or even more!) intolerant than the places they came from.

Replica of the English settlement in Plymouth

Also: The pilgrims would not have made it without the help of the natives. And it’s surprising anyone from the Wampanoag tribe was willing to help, since their previous contact with white people ended with several natives being kidnapped and sold into slavery. Even with the help from natives, only half of the pilgrims survived the first winter. But that’s still better than the 80% of the native population that got wiped out by imported European diseases. 

Telling the other side of the story...

Presidential sites are always on top of our list of things to do. And there are not many places where you get a “2 for 1”: John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams were born in houses right next to each other. We were lucky to get on a sold out tour to see the birthplaces of presidents number 2 and 6 as well as their “Old House at Peace Park” and what could be described as the earliest presidential library.

The Adams library in Quincy, MA

State Capitols are another item on our “must see” list. We had been to Augusta before, but had not been able to tour the Maine State House then. It’s called State House because “state capitol” sounds just a little bit too pretentious for Maine and for Augusta in particular. With only 18,000 inhabitants, the capital of the state of Maine is just slightly larger than Breisach, my small hometown in Germany. But that made parking so much easier. 

Picture of a window of Joy,
that's how close you can park
to the capitol in Augusta, ME

Judging by the few days we spent in Maine: It seems like a very special place…

…and I guess it had to be a very special place to make our friends Alexis and Steven leave Maui. If you’re not familiar with the Maui theater scene: They were the heart and soul of the Iao Theater for a decade. They transformed it from a sleepy community theater where sometimes there were more people on stage than in the audience to a thriving, top notch theater program with sold out shows. We know it wasn’t easy for them to leave Maui behind, but now that we got to see their new home, we understand why they had to go. Their passion is “Camp Center Stage”, a summer camp for kids with the goal to teach them to love the arts and to be better people. 

We got to tour the property, which used to be a golf course but was converted into an ideal place for summer camps in four short years. If there is such as thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a kid at Camp Center Stage, with Alexis organizing the games and Steven as the singing chef. 

Tour of Camp Center Stage

Homage to the Maui theater connection

The famous "Council Hill"

A former water hazard from the golf course
 is now a beach for the camp

Cottages at Camp Center Stage

I can see why they like this even more than running the Iao Theater on Maui and they seem pretty darn good at both. It was so good to reconnect with these two very special people. We spent two fun filled days catching up at an apple cidery and at a beer garden, not to forget around a campfire with the cultural exchange of New England Moxie and German Schnapps.

Maine Beergarden

Apple cider tasting with Alexis and Steven

Only appropriate that we were heading straight to a theater after leaving Steven and Alexis. The Weathervane Theater in Whitefield, NH put on “Intimate Apparel”. We loved the play and were very impressed with the acting talent in this rural area. Apparently Maui is not the only place with very dedicated and talented people producing fabulous theater. And I’m not just saying that because they let us park Joy overnight right in front of the theater after the show.

The Weathervane Theater 

In Woodstock, Vermont we visited the very intriguing Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, named after the three families who lived in this charming home in a remote valley. It’s the only National Park Service site dedicated to the history of environmental conservation. If you are like us, you only recognize one of those names, so it seems a little weird to give the place such a long name. But after watching the excellent park film and taking two different ranger guided tours of the property, it makes a lot of sense to give credit to all three of them. 

Great ranger guided tour
at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP

George P. Marsh, Frederick Billings and Laurance S. Rockefeller were all three very instrumental in the early environmental movement in America. Marsh was literally the first to write the book on conservation of natural lands (“Man and Nature”) in 1864. By that time 80% of the once almost completely forested state of Vermont was clear cut. Thanks to the Marshes, the Billings and the Rockefellers, this ratio is now reversed: 80% of Vermont is reforested and we find it to be delightful. 

The three families who lived in this home had hundreds of thousands of trees planted and were involved in the creation of over 20 national parks. But most importantly, they helped change the national mindset about the importance of taking care of the land so that the land can take care of us. All three of them were rich enough that they could have lived comfortable lives of luxury. But all three of them dedicated a lot of time, effort and money in their common cause for environmental protection. It's such a pretty part of the country, we should thank people like them every time we see something like this:

The very first fall colors 

We almost accidentally found two more presidential sites: The homes of Calvin Coolidge and Franklin Pierce. As you might know, neither one of them is really all that well known. President Coolidge might be forgotten in most of the country  but not in his home town Plymouth Notch. So much in fact, that the whole town is now a State Historic Site dedicated to President Coolidge. 

The Coolidge Historical Site includes the back room of the general store, where he was born, the church he attended and the very modest house where he lived as vice president. That’s where he was sworn in as President of the United States (by his dad!) at 2:47am on August 3rd, 1923 after they found out that President Harding had died. The story goes that after being sworn in, he proclaimed that this calls for a drink. And this being during the prohibition and him being the quintessential New Englander, that drink had to be Moxie. And if you don’t know what Moxie is, you better ask any of your New England friends. And if you don’t have any, you should get some; from our experience they are super nice people!

Think this is a fancy place for a president?
The front is the general store. Coolidge was
born in the shed in the back.

Even though Calvin Coolidge presided during the “Roaring 20s”, he did not roar much himself. In fact, his nickname was “Silent Cal” since he was not a fan of small talk. Presumably, a lady seated next to him at a White House dinner told him once that she had a bet going to make him say more than three words, to which he replied “You loose”. 

Calvin Coolidge seems to have been a very humble, very down to earth kind of guy. In the museum, they had a quote from him that basically said: “Anybody who claims that only he can solve all the problems, does not understand what this country is all about.” An irony that I am afraid was lost on our fellow visitor with a red hat.

Calvin Coolidge is also the only president born on the 4th of July! So if I ever wish you a Happy 4th, please remind me to also toast to Calvin, whether it’s with a Moxie or any other beverage…unless it’s a $400 whiskey, then I’ll toast to Trip & Dora.

President Franklin Pierce is not only forgotten by many, but historians often rank him near the bottom of the all the presidents. But at the museum for President Pierce in Concord, NH, they are pretty hopeful: “Recently, we feel like we are working our way up on those lists”. 

Working hard on the legacy of President Pierce

Pierce has the dubious honor to be the only president who sought reelection, but was not renominated by his own party. I guess pre-civil war, you didn’t make many friends by being a Northerner who said that he didn’t like slavery, but was very much in favor of letting the South keep slaves forever, because he was a strict constitutionalist and the constitution said that it was ok to own slaves. 

Without diminishing the historic leap forward that the constitution was at the time, I am glad that the country agreed that adding or changing the constitution is very much needed. I hope that everybody who reads through the 27 amendments agrees that they are mostly important improvements. The only one I would have a real issue with was number #18 establishing prohibition, but that’s also the one and only amendment that was repealed.

It probably didn’t help that there was nobody to fight for Pierce’s legacy: His wife, his best friend and all of his children died tragically young. But at least Pierce is no longer the president we know least about.

Speaking about people we know least about: Have you heard of Augustus Saint-Gaudens? I’ll be honest: We didn’t until two days ago. Apparently, he is America’s best known sculptor. But I have to admit, even knowing that, we probably would not have gone out of our way to see where he lived or worked…if the site weren’t run by our beloved National Park Service. We find those places are always worth a visit and the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish, NH was no exception. 

They show an excellence film about the artist, they preserve the house where he lived and the studio where he worked and the beautiful gardens around it. The ranger guided tour was excellent, even though it’s probably not easy to give a tour that is interesting for people like us who know next to nothing as well as art lovers who have known about Saint-Gaudens for decades. 

Ranger tour at the Saint-Gaudens NHP

Saint-Gaudens died over 100 years ago. But not only does his legacy live on at the park, they also established the first Artist-in-Residence program of any National Park site. And even though it was a bit hidden in the forest, we got to talk to the current artist in residence for quite a while. Lucky for us, he was actually thrilled to speak German because he had lived in Berlin for a few years. 

Artist in Residence Sean Hunter William
at Saint-Gaudens NHP

Concord is another small town state capital. Their state capitol is also called a “State House”. They pride themselves to be very accessible and they really were. We parked Joy right next to the building and were in the building in less than 60 seconds, with no security checks of any kind. 

Surprisingly, it doesn’t get boring to visit so many capitols, it gets more and more interesting. Many of them might look somewhat similar, but they all have their own character and unique things about them. For example: With 400 members, the New Hampshire House of Representatives is the 3rd largest English speaking legislative body in the world, only behind the House of Commons in the UK and the US House of Representatives. To make up for it they have one of the smallest senates, with only 24 senators and they pay all their senators and representatives only a symbolic wage of $100 per year.

The 400 seats of the New Hampshire
House of Representatives 

Another unique feature of New Hampshire is that they have a third legislative body called the “Executive Council”. These five people are elected directly by New Hampshire voters and they have to approve appointments the governor makes and approve every expense over $10,000. Sound like a pretty good idea, especially if you find decent and honest people willing to do that for just $100 per year.

They love their status of the
"first in the nation primary"
in New Hampshire

Last night, we did an evening tour from the Currier Art Museum in Manchester, NH to two Frank Lloyd Wright homes. We have seen about a dozen of his buildings and always find them fascinating. Any of his buildings is unique and beautiful. But I am most amazed that his buildings always look very modern, even though they are 60-130 years old. 

The Zimmerman House by Frank Lloyd Wright

While we like to see and visit as many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings as possible, most of them, we would not want to live in. However, Sandra and I both agreed that we’d be very happy to move into the Zimmerman House. As any Wright home, it’s pretty, but this one is also practical and to top it all off: It doesn’t leak. Most of his homes had flat roofs before the technology was really ready for flat roofs. So far each and every Frank Lloyd Wright building we had visited previously had issues with leaks. 

The comfy (and dry!) living room
 at the Zimmerman House

The second Frank Lloyd Wright home on the tour was the Kalil House, still pretty and original, but probably my least favorite. The Kalils were friends of the Zimmermans and asked Frank Lloyd Wright to design a house for them because they loved their friend's house so much. The style is pretty similar, but it was mostly concrete instead of wood, which felt pretty cold. It was supposed to be a new type of house that people can just stack together like legos (called "Usonian Automatic"). That didn't work and Wright also went back to his beloved flat roofs, which of course leaked. Apparently, the Kalils loved it anyway, but we didn't. So the fact that the Zimmermann House is not for sale or for rent made our decision pretty easy: We happily returned to Joy and will stay in her on the road for a few more weeks.

The Kalil House; too much concrete for me, 
but still looks pretty at night

That’s our news from New England. As pretty as it is here, we are heading south now because we are mortally afraid of the cold. That also means we will be back on Maui in a few weeks and count our blessings there.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra & Joy