USA-C2C.com Site Ratings

TOURO SYNAGOGUE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-09-29T14:57:00.000-04:00

Newport, R.I.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Dedicated in 1763, the Touro Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in the United States.

BEAUTY (6/10)
The Synagogue's dullish yellow and brown exterior opens into a gorgeously restored one-room interior chamber. Five golden hanging candelabras sparkle as streaming natural light pours through the arched windows trimmed with olive frames and glistens off the eggshell white walls. 12 two-story Ionic and Corinthian pillars shape the square chamber and give the room a startling centrality and symmetry. The chamber's smallness emits a sense of urgency while its design, despite being largely neo-classical, feels almost exotic.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
Touro Synagogue represents, in the National Park Service, American religious tolerance and the freedom to worship. As a symbolic entity, this Site could only exist in Rhode Island, the cradle of religious freedom and the first colony to vehemently separate church and state.

It is no coincidence, that in 1658, fifteen Jewish settlers arrived here, in Newport, with the hope of starting a new life, free from religious persecution and without fear. After worshipping in each other's houses for 100 years, that humble congregation found the means, in 1763, to construct the Synagogue that still stands.

When Rhode Island joined the United States, all of its citizens must have worried about their continued freedom of religion. Neither the Constitution, nor the Declaration of Independence had explicitly spoken about religion. In 1790, the warden of Touro's congregation wrote a letter to President George Washington, asking for assurances of the continued right to worship as he and his congregation pleased.

Washington responded with a remarkable letter stating that the Government of the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction (and) to persecution no assistance”. The Bill of Rights was ratified just one year later; its first amendment guaranteeing the freedom of religion. The Touro Synagogue is the quintessence of this liberal abstract. The Synagogue and its congregation seized a primary role in every stage of religious freedom's 150-year journey from radical concept to a pillar American ideal.

CROWDS (7/10)
We appreciated one fellow tourist's knowledge of Hebrew congregational structure and Jewish-American history. He filled in many of the blanks that our tour guide could not answer. At the same time, there were people in our small group that knew less about Hebrew customs than we did so we weren't embarrassed to ask basic questions.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Synagogue is located near the center of Newport, R.I., anywhere from 45 to 60 minutes south of Providence via a slew of winding roads. Take the Downtown Newport Exit from Rhode Island Route 138. Turn left on Touro Street and look for the Synagogue on your left. Park on a side street. Also, acquire a map before you get here; all the roads on the Newport peninsula are narrow and tricky.

Daily tours are given from July 1 through Labor Day every half-hour from 10-5. Good luck the rest of the year. Check ahead for times.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
What other National Park Site, affiliated or otherwise, can you get a wall clock with Hebrew numbers and a Matisyahu CD? There a lot of interesting book titles for sale and countless items containing portions of George Washington's letter. We enjoyed the bookstore's distinctive personality so much that we bought a Ten Commandments magnet.

COSTS (2/5)
$5 per person. Since this is an affiliate NPS Site, the National Parks Pass is not accepted. The Site's steep entry fee was its primary drawback.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
No Rangers. Two teen members of the Synagogue's congregation administered the tours and offered insight that no Ranger could have provided.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
America's separation of church and state is a time-honored and culturally imperative concept. Then again, so is the American freedom of religion. How can the federally-run National Park System (NPS) tell the necessary story of our country's sacred past and its active churches? Through Touro Synagogue, an affiliated National Park Site with no Rangers, no NPS exhibits and no official brochure.

Instead, our teenage Tour Guide read from a personally prepared handwritten speech. She lacked big picture depth but clued us in to many of the Synagogue's design quirks and local legends. She was speaking for the congregation and its self-written history rather than the NPS and its historical mission.

FUN (5/10)
Our visit was much more fun and filled with less gravitas than our review suggests.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
The Touro Synagogue is a refreshing historic break from the excess incarnate of Newport's Gilded Age mansions. Don't drive to Newport just to see the Synagogue, but if you are here it is a perfect place to remember the unique freedoms that Americans take for granted.

TOTAL 46/80

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© 2004-06

ROGER WILLIAMS NATIONAL MEMORIAL

2006-09-28T14:57:00.000-04:00

Providence, RI
NPS Website

WHAT IS IT?
A one room Visitor Center/Museum located on 4½ acres of landscaped park near the center of Providence, R.I. dedicated to Rhode Island founder Roger Williams and his legacy of religious tolerance.

BEAUTY (2/10)
Neither the narrow blink-and-you’ll-miss-it city park nor the nondescript Visitor Center is anything to write home about. The park does afford a side view of the imposing white marble Rhode Island State Capitol and some shaded patches of lawn should local college greens get too crowded.

The regal Roger Williams Memorial statue stands in Prospect Terrace Park, two blocks east of the NPS site and directly uphill (drive here). Confusingly named, the statue is not a part of the National Park Site. No matter. The statue's high perch offers wide vistas of Providence. From here, Roger Williams still looks over his city and on clear days can probably view his entire state.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (6/10)
Roger Williams was a dogged dissenter and itinerant Seeker of religious enlightenment through God's truth. Naturally, he first angered the Church of England, whom he believed was too Catholic, and later alienated his own Massachusetts Puritans whom he deemed had not done enough to separate the church from the state.

Williams peaceably, if not hurriedly, left England in 1630 and was banished from Massachusetts in 1635 because of his troublesome beliefs and stubborn opinions. Williams, after receiving land from the Narragansett Indians, soon started the colony of Rhode Island as a respite for varying religious beliefs. A place where laws would be made “only in civill things”.

Williams' legacy of religious tolerance legally mandated through the separation of church and state would become a pillar in the creation of an American consciousness and would be made National law by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

What the current Park Site location has to do with this vitally important history is anybody's guess. Park literature say it is “a common lot of the original settlement” and goes no further. Doesn't all of Providence meet this requirement?

CROWDS (5/10)
Nobody else was inside the Lilliputian Visitor Center. A good thing. The Park, wedged between two busy cross-town Providence streets, is no welcoming expanse.

The few people that we encountered at Prospect Terrace Park did not have Roger Williams and tolerance on their minds. We overheard them discussing how no one should be let in the country if they don't speak English. What would Roger have thought about such exclusionary words spoken just yards from where he founded his colony on the principle of “shelter for persons distressed of conscience?”

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The largely one-way Providence streets can be a little confusing, especially when they skirt the prohibitively steep College Hill. North Main Street runs one-way northward, Canal Street runs one-way southward and Roger Williams NMEM is in between. Just past the Park's northern tip, these two roads converge and diverge, spawn new names, reverse one-way course and defy explanation.

Park literature says take Interstate Exit 23 and follows with a whole bunch of quick turns. We say visually find the Rhode Island State Capitol building. Find the road that goes in front of it: Smith Street. Drive past the Capitol (it will be on your right); turn right onto Canal Street then make a quick left into the small, free parking lot in front of the Visitor Center. There is no parking lot access from North Main Street.

The Visitor Center is accessible to individuals with disabilities. It is not that large so Rangers often travel out to schools or other interested groups to make their presentations.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The bookstore offered a nice selection of pen-and-ink and photographed postcards of Providence. The book choice was appeasingly esoteric and included a number of Roger Williams' original texts including Bloudy Tenent and A Key into the Language of America. We were intrigued by the award-winning The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity and Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England, 1650-1750. We did not buy them, but we were intrigued.

COSTS (4/5)
Free, free, free, free, free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
A very friendly Ranger gave us her undivided attention during our 2004 visit. When we returned in 2006, an aloof volunteer had taken the Ranger's place.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
Indoor size constraints allow only for wall-based exhibits panels. The first details Roger Williams’ wayward and influential life: from his birth in England to religious banishment from Massachusetts to his founding of Providence. The exhibit's detail is superficial at best. Read the surprisingly in-depth Park brochure for more info. Better yet, if you stroll down Main Street, you will see a mélange of multi-denominational places of worship and understand Williams’ influence on this fair city.

The other VC exhibit showcases Williams' legacy: the idea and the actualization of religious freedom. Time lines highlight progress and setbacks in American religious tolerance. Panels examine issues like the Constitutional separation of church and state whose importance and immediacy still resonate.

It is a shame that Freedom of Religion via the legal separation of church and state, a crucial, vital and often confusing American idea, gets so little space in the National Park System. Even more troubling was the darkness in the exhibit room during our 2006 visit. The volunteer turned out all the lights “too keep it cooler in here,” thus dimming the displays to almost unreadable. Is there no more light to shed on this subject?

FUN (2/10)
There is nothing to do at Roger Williams NMEM. The Site is a city park. The Park could offer a walking tour that spanned Roger Williams-related sites or point the visitor to historic churches and early settlements. The Park brochure mentions a few sites but contains no map. As it stands, the visitor is left to their own rudderless accord in a sea of Providence confusion. And PS, modern day Rhode Islanders aren’t known for their charm with visitors.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Where does Roger Williams NMEM rank among must-see Providence tourist destinations? Not so high. Use the Site’s green space to catch your breath after a climb up to College Hill to see Gab’s alma mater Brown University or the Rhode Island School of Design. Brown’s college green is idyllic and is encircled by lecture halls and buildings designed in every major architectural style. The RISD Museum with its collection of French Impressionist paintings, Greek and Roman sculptures and popular exhibits of contemporary art is particularly noteworthy.

Brown and RISD are among several schools that find their home in tiny Providence, along with countless meeting houses and places of worship whose congregations have been using them for hundreds of years. Federal Hill hosts dozens of Italian eateries and shops. The neighborhoods of Fox Point and East Providence hold on to their Portuguese and Cape Verdean roots. Providence packs in a lot of history and diversity in a small space. Rather than exemplify and celebrate this city trait, Roger Williams NMEM gets lost in the crowd.

TOTAL 34/80

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© 2004--06

NEW BEDFORD WHALING NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-28T14:56:00.000-04:00

New Bedford, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website; New Bedford Whaling Museum Website

WHAT IS IT?
13 block of New Bedford's cobblestone streets, restored 19th Century buildings and active port and harbor. The Site honors the town's storied whaling industry history through affiliations with private Museums, businesses and churches.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The Park's few square blocks contain quaint, sturdy New England-ish buildings, two imposing neo-classical designs, the U.S. Custom House and the Double Bank Building, and a busy stretch of working harbor. The cobblestone streets, whose bumpiness ably keeps out through traffic, are lined with floral arrangements and surprisingly large front lawns.

The Park's two most astounding sights are inside the Whaling Museum. A 66-foot long blue whale skeleton hangs in the Museum's courtyard and the world's largest ship model, a 1/3-scale replica of a whaling ship is sequestered in the Museum's second floor. If you wish to view the ship, you need to pay the Museum's entry fee; gasping at the skeleton, on the other hand, costs nothing.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The Park's brochure hails New Bedford as the “Whaling Capital of the World”. Nantucket Island might dispute this statement. Nonetheless, we are glad the National Park Service located its whaling history Site here and not a seasonal ferry boat ride away. New Bedford's lasting whale legacy owes equally to the 100-year old New Bedford Whaling Museum (affiliated with the Park) and Herman Melville's Moby Dick, whose opening 13 chapters are set in these very streets.

CROWDS (8/10)
New Bedford residents are so shocked to see tourists in their industrial town that they react with effusive and inquisitive kindness. In 2004, two separate strangers approached us offering suggestions on where to eat and where to go.

In 2006, an incredulous boat captain, just back from a long commercial fishing haul, wondered why we would choose to vacation here at a working waterfront. “Are you guys from the local paper,” he wondered. After we said no, he explained his job and the role of the commercial fisherman for about ten minutes. We could not have asked for a better lesson. He is the modern-day equivalent of the New Bedford whaler that the Park honors.

Regardless, he was still unsure as to why we were here. Our explanations were insufficient. We were not the only ones. His “When I'm done working, I try to get out of here as soon as possible” comment was betrayed by the two cases of beer he was carrying to his boat as well as the impatient, thirsty faces of his deck hands.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Head for downtown New Bedford. Take Interstate 195 Exit 15 and head south for about one mile along Massachusetts Route 18. Turn right at Elm Street and then left into the cobblestone streets. The Park suggests the Elm Street Parking garage. We do not because the Park offers no validation. There is, however, free two-hour parking located on Bethel Street/Johnny Cake Hill next to the Whaling Museum. Park there. If spots are limited, street parking is only $0.25 per hour. Skip the garage.

The Park's accessibility is severely hampered by the fact that many of its buildings are privately run and not open to the public. Since there are so many establishments (private, fee and free) that fall under the New Bedford Whaling NHP umbrella, it is difficult to ascertain both which ones you should be looking at and what exactly you should do. The Park's multiple maps and brochures help focus your visit but also overwhelm.

Our suggestion is to begin your visit at the Park Visitor Center located at the corner of Second and William. Pick up the Herman Melville New Bedford walking tour brochure, wander the streets with that guide and then spend the remainder of your stay at the Whaling Museum.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
While the Park VC may stock a manageable array of gifts (we love the Melville dolls) skip it and head straight to the Whaling Museum for your shopping needs. Don't worry about fees, you do not need to buy a Museum ticket to enter its bookstore.

Wow, what a selection. The stores sells over ten different editions of Moby Dick. We prefer the Norton Critical Edition. And that's just the start of the whale tales; the store's total nautical yarns might break four digits. If your looking for a more tangible whaling memory, there is gorgeous carved scrimshaw and other intricately adorned leviathan likenesses.

COSTS (1/5)
New Bedford Whaling NHP's marquee stop is the Whaling Museum, located on Johnny Cake Hill. It costs $10 per person, no National Parks Pass discount, although AAA will help a bit. The Museum existed for 90 years before the National Park Service arrived in 1996. We do not like paying for museums, living in Washington DC spoiled Michael, but there is no point in coming to New Bedford if you skip the Whaling Museum.

Across the street from the Museum is Seamen's Bethel Church, the town's other can't miss attraction. Moby Dick's portentous “Jonah and the whale” sermon occurred here. Non-readers will notice that the church's pulpit is the same one used by Orson Welles in the cinematic retelling of Melville's classic.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
Two trips to New Bedford, zero Rangers seen. We twice waited patiently for the 10:30 am Ranger-led walking tour but no one showed up either time.

TOURS/CLASSES (4/10)
The Site does not hurt for educational options. You might need an extra bag to carry all of the Park's provided literature. There are modest exhibits at its two Visitor Centers, three themed walking trail brochures (Herman Melville's New Bedford; the Underground Railroad; and the Working Waterfront Dock Walk) and a free 20-minute movie shown in the Whaling Museum's ornate theater.

All these options are free albeit in-depth, a little dry and attention intensive. The Whaling Museum, while not free and not NPS run, is spectacular.

FUN (7/10)
Moby Dick is Michael’s favorite novel. The book starts out in New Bedford. The first few times he read it, he was eager to get through the first few chapters, out of the city, onto the sea and into adventure. After our first visit, this is how we felt about New Bedford Whaling NHP.

During Michael's last reading of Moby Dick, while we were camping in the solitude of Channel Islands NP, he paid closer attention to the book's opening chapters. Pages that had been an annoying means to an eventual end this time emitted wry humor that was part satire part ribald slapstick. The book's early pages now teemed with rewarding moments. Michael was still ready to search for the white whale but he appreciated the goofy charm of an underappreciated town.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Was Melville right when he told visitors to believe that New Bedford has more to offer than “harpooners, cannibals and bumpkins?” Yes, it has a Whaling Museum. Er...that's fits the harpooners category. On the plus side, we saw neither cannibals nor bumpkins.

If whaling history and Melville are your thing, you have probably already been to New Bedford. We cannot come up with a good reason for a neophyte whaling enthusiast or somebody without anti-transcendentalist interests to come here. The cobblestone streets and historic buildings are similar to many other New England coastal towns and no whale watching excursions leave from this port.

TOTAL 40/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

ADAMS NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-28T14:53:00.000-04:00

Quincy, Mass.
NPS Website

WHAT IS IT?
Birthplace and final resting place of both the 2nd and 6th Presidents, John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams. The Site also includes the Old House, home of both Adamses, fully furnished with artwork, books and furniture all owned by some generation of that venerable Quincy family.

BEAUTY (6/10)
The exteriors of Presidents 2 and 6's homes lack the panache and grandeur of their Commander-in-Chief contemporaries'. The Old House is no ostentatious Southern neo-classical plantation mansion. Its gems are inside and not on public display for every horse-drawn (or horse-powered) passerby.

Inside are 78,000 original Adams artifacts arranged for display by John Quincy's grandsons. The tasteful and subdued colors, furniture and artwork speak of a quiet confidence and contained dignity. The house's mood is comfortable and liveable, seemingly unchanged for 200 years. The Old House does not feel like a museum; if John, John Quincy, Abigail, Louisa Catherine or Charles Francis were to magically appear they would not be existentially displaced.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
The Adamses are America's most distinguished and most accomplished family. The gravity of the titles held by the Old House's residents would sink the Titanic. US President; US Vice President; US VP Candidate; US Senator; US Congressman; Secretary of State; Ambassador to Great Britain, France, Prussia and Russia; the list just goes on. Nearly every important incident in our country's first 75 years involved someone who lived here.

The home's artifacts are equally astounding. For example, tucked in an unassuming corner in the Old House's first floor is an original 1823 William Stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence. Stone's engraving is the basis for most modern reproductions because of the 1776 copies poor transfer. An 1823 Declaration is America's most treasured and valuable antique; less than forty of the 201 prints are known to be in existence.

Our Ranger assured us that the document on display was one of the prized remaining copies. And why shouldn't it be? As President, John Quincy Adams commissioned the engraving. His father and not Thomas Jefferson, some historian's argue, is the document's primary author. The desk where John Adams may have written the Declaration (and surely wrote his famed correspondences to Jefferson) is upstairs. The Old House lives and breathes the same rarefied American history air as Mount Vernon and Monticello.

CROWDS (5/10)
The narrow corridors and low ceilings of all three Adams abodes felt cramped with just us and a Ranger. A crowded tour could be oppressively claustrophobic. The space limitations and lack of parking around the homes necessitates a Park trolley bus. The mandatory shuttle further constrains your time and enjoyment. We felt rushed during our whole visit.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
After our miserable showing direction-wise in Quincy, we have no business giving you directions. We could blame the streets which seldom meet a right angles or connect with other. We could blame the Adams NHP map which aligns the direction coordinates wrong (North faces leftward). Or we could blame the glut of Dunkin' Donuts which skewed our landmark references (the Dunk started here). Or we could blame ourselves, meaning Gab, the navigator.

Here's what worked. We exited from Interstate 93 onto Massachusetts Route 3 and went towards Quincy Center. Look closely for Adams NHP signs, follow them with care and may the force be with you. The Visitor Center (VC) is located on Hancock Street on the first floor of a commercial complex. There is validated parking in the adjunct garage. You could also take the Boston T (the subway) red line to the Quincy Center Station.

Luckily, a Park trolley takes visitors from the VC to two different stops: the Birthplace Houses and the Old House. Unluckily, the trolly's wheelchair lift was out of service and a fellow tourist and his family were left searching for transportation options. Much of the Old House, including the entire second floor, is wheelchair inaccessible; an unfortunate but unfixable shame.

The Adams NHP is closed for house tours during the long New England winter months of November, December, January, February, March and most of April. We missed its 2004 Patriot's Day opening and had to return in 2006 to visit the Site.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
The Adams NHP bookstore contains a wealth of wonderful texts, not just David McCullough's recent Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller, John Adams. An entire stack is dedicated to John-Abigail correspondences as well as the voluminous (and long out-of-print) Diary of Charles Francis Adams, on sale at amazon.com for $125 a pop. We wished we would have checked the Adams NHP prices.

The bookstore's gems don't stop with those Diaries. We arrived to the salesperson shelving the racks with two boxes of rare and out-of-print Adams sagas. “We'll go through all of these in a few days,” he assured us. We will quibble about the absence of the masterpiece, The Education of Henry Adams, the Modern Library's best non-fiction book of the 20th Century (He lived here, too) but on the whole the standards and rarities sold here are too good and too numerous.

COSTS (3/5)
Park entry and shuttle service to the Adams home costs $5 per person but it free with the National Parks Pass. If you park in the Visitors Center's adjacent parking garage be sure to validate your parking. One Ranger-administered stamp and your parking is free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
While there, we had trouble keeping track of all the Rangers. Let's try and remember. We saw two at the VC, two at the Birthplace Tour and three at the Old House. No repeaters either.

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
The Adams NHP Tour's order and lesson arrangement are perfect. First come the John Adams and John Quincy Adams birthplaces. Inside a Ranger offers a refresher course on the Presidents, speaks of their childhood, reintroduces day-to-day Colonial-era items and whisks you off onto the trolley for the main course, the Old House.

The Old House tour picks up where the Birthplace Tour started but continues wherever you wish to take it. The Guide gauged our level of interest and proceeded to share a wealth of in-depth Adams knowledge. There is so much to see in the Old House and what the Guide chooses to show is based on the visitors' interests. Our learning experience was overwhelming and much too short despite the two-hour length.

Like Thomas Jefferson's Monticello home, there is too much to see and too little time inside the Old House. We probably should have asked for a second tour; we are sure we would have seen completely different things.

FUN (8/10)
The Adams NHP House Tours were wonderfully engaging and full of historic surprises. The original Adams artifacts alone were worth the price of admission. We were taken aback by the value and worth of what we were seeing; perhaps it was because we had just watched an Antiques Roadshow marathon. Regardless, our highlight of the tours was the 12,000+ volume library that Quincy's grandchildren built to store their ancestors' impressive collection.

Make sure that there is enough time between your Old House tour and trolley pick-up time to ensure a look inside the Library. This can be tricky. We unnecessarily rushed ourselves because of the waiting trolley. But had we missed that ride, it would have been at least 30 minutes until the next.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
The blustery talkers and historical agents from Boston and Cambridge have staked their claim as the center of Massachusetts and, dare we say, American life and accomplishments. The facts show that the rural Adamses of Quincy were the lifeblood of Massachusetts politics. John Adams' diffident nature has unfairly kept him out of the founding fathers pantheon of Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. John Quincy's often icy and irrational behavior has kept him off nearly everybody's beloved Presidents list.

Do not make the mistake of ignoring the Adamses. The Adams NHP offers one of New England's best and most historically significant house tours. You should visit this Site especially if your (Michael's sister) in-laws live just a few miles away in Holbrook, Mass.

TOTAL 58/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

BOSTON HARBOR ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK AREA

2006-09-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Boston, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
34 islands of various shape, size, origin, accessibility, population and history that dot the Boston’s wide G-shaped harbor.

BEAUTY (5/10)
Boston Harbor is more utilitarian than beautiful. Industry takes precedence both on the water and along the shores. A mild, unfiltered haze hangs over the city even on the clearest and sunniest days. The most accessible islands, Georges and Spectacle, are situated too far from the city skyline to produce awe-inspiring views. In addition, Georges' Fort Warren is in mild disrepair and Spectacle has a long history as a trash dump.

No matter, it is still nice to be out on the water and away from the city's hustle and bustle. The most stunning views on the Boston Harbor Islands tour come early so be alert. When you leave the docks, Boston's surprisingly imposing downtown skyline appears. It looms far more impressively from the water than from land. The cruise also offers the opportunity to spot Boston's famous church steeples. Is that one lamp or two?

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
History has largely ignored the Boston Harbor Islands but humans have not. Man has hunted, farmed, built on, trashed and, most recently, set aside the land for recreational purposes.

Georges Island's main attraction is Fort Warren, an early 19th Century coastal defense fortification. The Fort never saw a naval attack but it did serve as a Civil War prison camp for Southern VIP detainees. Many of the Islands contain modern civilization's necessities: Little Brewster Island boasts the requisite charming lighthouse; Deer Island has a water treatment plant; and Thompson Island is an Outward Bound-administered destination.

Spectacle Island's twin peaks, the North and South Drumlins, have grown over 60 feet in height in just 15 years. Its hills' newfound augmentation comes as the result of the much derided Boston boondoggle, the Big Dig. This Island was the dumping ground for all the dirt unearthed during the infamous tunneling project.

CROWDS (9/10)
The Boston Harbor Islands are primarily a locals' destination, an excursion unknown to most tourists. The people on Georges and Spectacle Islands had been there before and were excited to return. We toured the Islands on a Sunday. On Georges, large groups staked their claim on the BBQ grills. Spontaneous soccer games started. Wafts of good smells hung in the air. In every directions, kids ran around in circles, screaming with joy trying to catch elusive sea gulls. To hundreds of people, Georges Island was their private weekend fun getaway.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (1/5)
Unless you have your own boat, you will need use the Harbor Islands Express ferries to get to most of the Park's attractions. Direct ferries leave often from Boston's Long Wharf to both Georges Island and Spectacle Island. Long Wharf is located downtown at the Boston T (subway) Blue Line Aquarium Station.

Island hopping ferries travel to and from Georges and Spectacle Islands. Check the schedule once you get there. If you wish to avoid the city altogether, less frequent ferries leave from Quincy, Mass. to Georges Island daily.

World's End Park, located in the southeastern corner of the harbor, near Hingham, is not even an island and is completely accessible by car. The 274-acre peninsula is a Frederick Law Olmsted landscaped park and has miles of carriage trails.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
Georges Island's status as a locals destination is reinforced by its lack of a Visitor Center and knick-knack vending bookstore. The tourists here are not interested in Boston reminders, they already live here. The only thing you can buy on Georges is food. Grillers flip hamburgers vigilantly while the fryers stay busy. French fries, steak kabobs and fried dough are not your standard National Park Site fare.

COSTS (1/5)
On weekends, a round-trip ferry ticket (with unlimited island hopping) runs $12 per adult, $7 per child. A family 4-pack (2 adults and 2 kids) costs $32. These prices are not bad, considering a) its a lot cheaper than carting the family to the beach; b) you can take the T to the pier; and c) transport means a Harbor cruise with beautiful views of Boston.

Primitive backcountry camping is available on a few of the more remote islands. Cost per site is $10. If you wish to ensure your spot through online reservation, there is an exorbitant $9.50 transaction charge.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
The National Park Service (NPS) has no museum or exhibits on any of the Harbor Islands probably because they do not administer any of the Islands. Confusingly, the Park is a National Park Site. NPS Rangers answer questions at the Pier prior to boarding but we saw none on any of the Islands. An 90-minute long $18.95 per person Ranger-led catamaran cruise leaves three times a day during the summer months.

The Islands themselves are full of State Park Rangers and volunteers. If you have questions, they won't go unanswered.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
During our weekend stop, both Spectacle and Georges Island were veritable tour machines. Fort tours, birdwatching tours and island history tours led by very young volunteers seemed to be going on in all directions.

We lucked into a New England Aquarium Kids Day going on in Fort Warren's unmowed and slowly-going-back-to-nature parade ground. The exhibit brought many of the Aquarium's live animals to the Island. Michael was transfixed by a gorgeous, inquisitive and playful Raven while most of the crowd gravitated to the shellfish and owls.

An interactive State Park-run display room on Spectacle Island recounts its turbulent past as the city's dumping ground and transformation into a wildlife zone. The area between Spectacle's two Drumlins (hills) was reclaimed from the harbor in 1902 and used as a trash heap until 1959. Some accounts say the dumping ceased because the festering trash swallowed a bulldozer. Other accounts say that the underground fires, sparked by the dangerously contained methane gases, had made the situation too dangerous. Today, Spectacle is a much more attractive destination with its gentle hiking trails, countless birds and harbor views.

FUN (8/10)
Fort Warren screams fun. Literally. Its dilapidated interiors are the perfect place for amateur explorers. Children and adults armed only with sputtering flashlights wander its pitch black corridors imagining ghost tales and filling themselves with healthy fear. Their shrieks echo uncontrollably until they emerge from the dark. No other Fort in the National Park System is so dishevelled, so non-OSHA compliant, so ignored and so much fun.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
The Islands are more of a fun, weekend getaway for city denizens than an out-of-town tourist destination. The trip here is more for relaxation than tourism and if your vacation is about relaxation then why would you be in Boston?

The ferry rides to and from the Islands guarantee your visit will gobble up much of the day. The Park warns against camping on the Islands and spending the day in Boston; the ferry schedule makes that cost-saving strategy difficult. If you absolutely must get out onto the Harbor, the 90-minute Ranger-led catamaran cruise sounds like fun. Call ahead for reservations and enjoy what the Park calls “Boston's best kept secret.”

TOTAL 43/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

JOHN F. KENNEDY LIBRARY & MUSEUM

2006-09-28T08:29:00.000-04:00

Boston, Mass.
Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The Presidential Library and Museum of our 35th President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

BEAUTY (7/10)
I.M. Pei's modernist design recalls a historical path that never occurred. His angular white towering structure feels like the space-age, clean, civilized future we imagined would come but never did. The building is anachronistic and progressive at the same time. Like Kennedy, it leaves you with a feeling of “what went wrong”, where did the chaos and uncertainty come from. Weren't we in complete control of our perfect destiny?

The Museum's interior layout casually takes you through the past with style, an ordered past and without confusion. You always know where to go and those places fill you with reassurance. The black-walled corridor adorned only with the date, November 22, 1963 empties into another, larger corridor that shows the achievements of JFK's initiatives, other Kennedy members, and JFK's political heirs.

The final room is a 155-foot tall glass-enclosed pavilion which looks out onto the Harbor and the Boston skyline. Above a gargantuan American flag hangs. The tower speaks of lofty dreams which are belied by the oppressive, criss-crossed girders which even, 155 feet above the ground, limit any further soaring.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (6/10)
The Museum does a terrific job of explaining and evoking Camelot, the romance of a young, charming and handsome President and in the promise that hope brought a modern nation.

CROWDS (7/10)
The memory of JFK and his mythic life still hold powerful sway in New England. The 43 years that have passed since his assassination are reduced to none once you step into his Library. The crowds' lingering love for Kennedy makes the Museum a very emotional, somber and hero-affirming place.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
The JFK Library and Museum is located just off Interstate 93 on the campus of Umass-Boston, about five miles south of downtown Boston. Take either Exit 15 (from the North) or Exit 14 (from the South) onto Morrissey Boulevard. Follow the signs, they are abundant, to the Museum. Parking is free.

From the T (the Boston subway), take the red line to the aptly titled JFK/UMass station. A frequent shuttle ferries museum mavens from the stop to the Library.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
A first glance at the bookstore reveals classy souvenirs and a slew of books. Further perusals confirm the ritzy knick-knack part: Robert Berks casted JFK busts, stylish Jackie O accessories, sailboat miniatures and lots of scrimshaw. We bought a wonderful large Irish-made teapot for Michael's parents. It is very hard to find nice large teapots.

A second glance proved the book part lacking. 90% of the books are written by a Kennedy family member (or ghostwritten by Ted Sorensen). It is easy to imagine that their books take up two shelves given the Kennedy family's prodigious writing output. What does this have to do with the historical research done at the Library and analysis of JFK's Presidency? Nothing at all.
We have been largely disappointed at the lack of critical books stocked at most modern-day Presidential Libraries: Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Kennedy. Why not stock everything written about the men?

Even more disappointing was the lack of Ernest Hemingway books. Yes, Hemingway. The Kennedy Library manages the entire collection of Hemingway's manuscripts, letters and correspondences. Why no Hemingway rarities for sale and why no Hemingway exhibits in the Museum?

COSTS (1/5)
Entry is $10 per person, making it the second most expensive Presidential Library. The Reagan Library in Simi Valley has undergone a dramatic price hike to $12 per from our $7 visit in May of 2005. Most Presidential Libraries run about $7 per person and also hold significant AAA discount potential.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
No one. This tour is fully self-guided.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
The early Kennedy imagery (the Nixon debate and the Inauguration speech) is so ubiquitous, so canonized and so familiar that witnessing them play out on Hi-Def televisions in Disney-esque set-pieces seems natural and immediately acceptable. We were not born until 1974 but it still feels like we were there when these events happened.

Once JFK is elected, the Museum's chronological layout switches from a jumbled walkway surrounding exhibits to a long corridor with topical antechambers. It is with the less familiar material that JFK's aura and lasting sway over the American people becomes clearer. One exhibit space recreates the White House briefing room where a full JFK press conference is replayed on a small 60's cabinet monitor. The literary brilliance of his staff reports and personal correspondences line the walls.

Kennedy's press conference performance is so natural, so charming, so intelligent, so witty, so suave and so confident. He is a polished level-headed representation of our grown-up USA, he is class, he is the promise of a modern, perfect world.

Promise, however, is what the Museum must lean on. Kennedy's accomplishments are beginnings, thoughts, inspirations and legacies. His actions sometimes contradict the mythology and the Museum largely ignores the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the beginnings of Vietnam, the personal peccadilloes and the lack of Civil Rights legislation. The Museum is about the Kennedy dream and romance rather than the Kennedy reality; it is debatable which holds more meaning.

FUN (7/10)
We enjoyed being transported back in time through I.M. Pei's alternate universe spaceship. Back to a time of heroes and legends and of hope and dreams. Back to a time when greatness was the goal, when the future was a part of the plan and when fear was forgotten and dreams were met without cynicism. It felt good to be a part of that world. Knowing that historically it quickly ended and perhaps never even existed was heartbreaking.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (7/10)
Jack Kennedy is as Boston as baked beans, Jerry Remy and Faneuil Hall. If you visit Boston, you should travel to the JFK Presidential Library. It is a perfect commemoration of his time as President, especially in remembering the mythology and charm that wooed hundreds of millions of people the world over. Camelot still lives at UMass-Boston.

TOTAL 49/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

BOSTON AFRICAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-09-15T16:09:00.000-04:00

Boston, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website; Museum of Afro-American History Website

WHAT IS IT?
Trail through Beacon Hill that commemorates the 19th Century community of freed African-Americans that lived in this section of Boston.

BEAUTY (6/10)
The Boston African-American NHS Heritage Trail begins at its most recognizable site, Augustus Saint-Gaudens' monument to the 54th Regiment, the fighting force of freed African-Americans immortalized in the film, Glory. Saint-Gaudens' stunning masterpiece captures the heroism and grandeur of these groundbreaking soldiers.

The rest of the Trail weaves up and down the streets of Boston's most elite neighborhood, Beacon Hill. The Sites on the Trail are among these stunning and oft-photographed redbrick Federal-style mansions. Trail Stops are largely private homes.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
Who and what are being honored at the Boston African-American NHS? It is hard to say given the Site's decentralized approach; there is no Visitor Center (VC) and no accessible National Park Service (NPS) building. If you intend to walk the self-guided Trail you need to ask for the pamphlet while at another Boston-area NPS Site. Complicated stuff.

So who does the Park honor again? The lives of the whole neighborhood of freed African-Americans, the soldiers of the 54th Regiment who might have lived in the area and possibly the white Abolitionists who helped house fugitive slaves. The Site could benefit from some focus. As it is, it just celebrates a neighborhood and its everyday life, a place with as much significance and historical merit as areas in dozens of other northern cities.

CROWDS (7/10)
We were not the only ones milling about Beacon Hill reading the Park Trail brochure aloud to each other. We nearly crashed into a simpatico couple on Joy Street; both of of heads ensconced in the description of the Abiel Smith House. It is nice to know we are not the only history buff crazies. We were both supremely disappointed that the Museum of Afro-American History was closed and that the adjoining African Meeting House was completely encased for construction purposes in a Christos-eque wrapping paper.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Is Beacon Hill the most difficult American neighborhood to park in for a non-Resident? Yes. Do not drive here. There a a number of T (Subway) stations nearby: Charles/MGH, Bowdoin, and Park Street; each one at the base of one of Beacon Hill's corners.

Beacon Hill is a steep hill with cobblestone pavement and awkwardly quaint sidewalks. They're very historic. The prescribed 1.6-mile long Heritage Trail Route sends you up and then down and then back up the hill again so eat your Wheaties the morning before your trip.

Unlike the highly accessible Freedom Trail, most of the Heritage Trail's attractions are privately-owned and not open to the public. A small, not-so-handy sign outside a door or window is all the explanation you get. We felt uncomfortable taking photographs of peoples' houses and were startled when a retiring-age man in a Brooks Brothers polo shirt opened the door of the Lewis and Harriet Hayden House. We apologized for lingering outside his door and he went about his Sunday business.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
The Museum of Afro-American History's basement bookstore stocks many interesting and recently published titles, including 2005's Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery, written by Hartford Courant journalists and Anne Bailey's 2006 African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade. The titles we could see focused entirely on antebellum subjects. Because the Museum was closed, our rating took into consideration the shelves that face the outside window and gave the rest the benefit of the doubt.

COSTS (5/5)
Walking around the Boston's unbearably posh Beacon Hill neighborhood is free, although at every turn you half expect a toll collector to appear. From Memorial Day through Labor Day, three free guided Ranger tours on Monday-Saturday depart from the Shaw Memorial at 10, noon and 2.

The privately-run Museum of Afro-American History, located in the Abiel Smith School building, is free and open everyday of the week from 10 to 4 except Sunday.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
There we were at the Shaw Memorial, 10 am, waiting. A Boston movie tour passed by, then an Old Town Trolley tour, then a Duck Boat tour. No NPS Ranger. Turns out it was Sunday. Bad luck, us. Our misadventure hammered home the point that there is no Boston African-American NHS Visitor Center and no way to talk to a Ranger from the Site except during their guided tours. Couldn't the Boston NHP VC, located nearby, share some of its space?

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The Park Brochure goes into great depth about each of the stops along the Trail. Its descriptions, while lengthy, are surprisingly lacking in excitement, interesting characters and in plot. Wow, this guy James Scott was a tailor and David Bartlett was a hairdresser. Louis Glapion was a hairdresser too? That's something else. Perhaps the Tour Guide gives these stories some life.

Strangely, a placard on a house on Joy Street declares it as the former residence of David Walker. Now we are getting somewhere. David Walker's Appeal, published in 1829 is one of the most controversial and important documents written by and for antebellum African-Americans.
The 76-page pamphlet called for immediate emancipation, defended and endorsed violent slave revolts, set off a wave of hysteria in Southern states and was castigated as too violent by white abolitionists. Walker was found dead at his Boston doorstep less than a year after the pamphlet's publication. City records site tuberculosis.

For unknown reasons, Walker's house and life is NOT INCLUDED in the Boston African-American NHS brochure or in its Heritage Trail. His omission is akin to the Freedom Trail not including Samuel Adams because his speech was too scurrilous and too revolutionary.

After getting worked up into that lather, it was probably a good thing that the Museum of Afro-American History is closed on Sundays. Its exhibit space, on constant rotation, currently remembers Boston's “Ambassadors of Abolition”. The last thing Michael wanted to hear at that point was a puff piece on the wonders of New England's morally omniscient white abolitionists.

FUN (3/10)
Walking around high-priced real estate taking pictures is not our idea of fun. We are renters, not buyers. The Heritage Trail sounds like a good idea but it suffers from the inevitable comparison to Boston's other Trail, the Freedom one. When one Trail shows you the “Cradle of Liberty” and everything you learned on Pages 45-90 in your history textbooks, it is hard to concentrate on a Trail that recounts the lives of liverymen, hairdressers and chimney sweeps.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Only to those already bent on wandering through Beacon Hill. Why not grab a pamphlet and learn something about Boston's freed African-American community while you are trying to figure out in which house John Kerry and Theresa Heinz live. (It is 19 Louisburg Square.)

TOTAL 39/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

LONGFELLOW NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-09-15T16:06:00.000-04:00

Cambridge, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The quintessential American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, lived in this yellow Georgian mansion from 1837 to 1882. The house also served as temporary headquarters for George Washington during the Revolutionary War.

BEAUTY (2/10)
In the 1800's painting your house a blandish yellow equated to wealth and success. We are glad that went out of style.

The insides of Longfellow's mansion represent the worst of Victorian-era excesses: unending clutter, elaborate showiness and more marble busts than we could keep track of. Each room we entered got progressively uglier. “It can't get any worse than this one,” we kept thinking. Oh yes it can. Our tour guide's insistence on the room's absolute beauty only made the situation more comical.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Poet, teacher and creator of American legends through his grand epics Song of Hiawatha, Evangeline and The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.

Or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Glorified limerick writer, nostalgic, sentimental hack whose ridiculously dumb-downed themes and simplistic rhyme schemes are appropriately read primarily by first graders. We know which judgment we tend towards.

CROWDS (3/10)
Bad news all around. We missed the 11:30 am House tour by 3 minutes and were not allowed to catch up meaning the next tour was at 1:00 pm. We tried to piggy back onto a special college tour after an invitation from two considerate undergrads. No dice. Their leader ratted us out, told us to leave and we were left to wander the sweltering streets of Cambridge. Oh, if eyes could shoot daggers.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Site is about a half-mile from the Harvard Square Red Line T (Subway) Station. So that's where we went. We enjoyed our unexpected lunchtime break on the Harvard University's library steps and in a few Cambridge book stores. Time well spent.

Park literature recommends the T because street parking can very very difficult and time limited. From the Harvard Square Stop, travel west on either Church and then right onto Brattle. The House is located at 105 Brattle; the pleasant walk will pass Radcliffe College.

The Site is open only Wednesdays through Sundays from 10 am through 4:30 pm. Six tours leave daily: at 10:30; 11:30; 1; 2; 3; and 4. Harsh Boston weather shuts the Park down from October through the end of May; the Polar Bears and Sabre-toothed Tigers migrate back to Canada around Mother's Day.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
Its literary merits aside, the title of Harold Bloom's anthology Stories and Poems for Extremely Intelligent Children of All Ages (for sale here) captures the mood of the Longfellow NHS perfectly. Unbearably pompous, condescending and superior despite the fact that its subject matter is meant for children.

The historical fiction novel, The Dante Club, in which Longfellow is a character is on sale here in its best-selling glory as is the more intriguingly-titled Longfellow's Tattoo's which examines the body art and physical art Longfellow's son's collected while living in Japan in 1871.

COSTS (3/5)
Tours of the house run $3 per person, free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
Six Ranger-led tours a day with a max size of 15 is not bad. Unless you are the 16th and 17th persons that is. Walking around Cambridge at noon was nice, it really was.

TOURS/CLASSES (1/10)
We might have forgotten about our meandering time had the tour been worthwhile. But like the Victorian designs, our lessons got laughably worse as we moved from room to room. We were not the only disappointed ones; we think the husband who dragged his pregnant wife onto the tour is still repaying her for her visible anguish.

Did we learn nothing or was there just nothing to learn? The Site has no intro film and no museum to answer that question.

FUN (1/10)
Longfellow NHS successfully completes the trifecta of un-fun Historic Sites: 1) Dubiously distinguished dude; 2) Dreadfully dull discourse; and 3) Disastrously disgusting decor.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (1/10)
The 1:00 pm tour was not the first time we had to return to the Longfellow NHS. We came here on a gorgeous April, 2004 afternoon only to find out the Site does not open until May. You, good tourist, don't have to worry about when the Site is open or not open because there is no need to come here.

TOTAL 25/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

BOSTON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

Boston, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website ; Freedom Trail Foundation Website

WHAT IS IT?
The 2½-mile Freedom Trail. Blazed in Boston’s streets is a redbrick pathway leading from the verdant Boston Common downtown to a 211 foot-high obelisk, the Bunker Hill Monument, in Charlestown. The helpful path guides you (and 1.5 million annually) to 16 sites critical to the birth and early life of our nation.

BEAUTY (9/10)
The redbrick historic structures that make up Boston’s Freedom Trail intermingle well with the surrounding modern buildings. The inner vistas provided by Boston Common’s expansiveness are breathtaking as is its welcoming verdant space.

Many of the historic buildings that skirt the Freedom Trail are archetypical examples of Georgian-style architecture, as in these are the ones shown in textbooks as the most representative and the most beautiful. The State House is an exception as the most famous use of Federalist-style architecture.

No American city's buildings garner more of a powerful historic sense than those in Boston, primarily because they remain vibrant, living among the skyscrapers of today. These structures never died. Most of them still serve the same purpose as they did in the 18th Century.

The Site's numerous graveyards hold their own macabre feeling of beauty. Many of the ancient tombstones hold fancy etched calligraphy and intricate, symbolic designs including sinister skulls, mourning angels and mirthful skeletons. These designs, while pleasantly normal in Puritan New England, would be out-of-place in a modern cemetery.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (10/10)
Downtown Boston and its famous portion of the Freedom Trail are the epitome of American history. It is our self-imagined vision of what American history is: Georgian-style, redbrick buildings; stern men with white wigs saying important things; men with tri-cornered hats on horseback; lots of talking and rabble rousing; serious churches and Revolutionary War success. Our history-deficient country takes history-themed vacations here where we “follow in the footsteps of history” and clamor to listen to high-priced tour guides recount facts we tried not to listen to in school.

What exactly happened along this part of the Freedom Trail? Well, from Stops 1-11 (the downtown section) there was a lot of talking and political planning and a lot of everyday boring activity that occurs in every large city. History remembers many of the important people buried in the cemeteries along the way.

Stops 12-14 (the North End section) are where the fun starts and where the legends were made. OK, stop 10 is the Boston Massacre site but if you blink you'll miss it. Its only marked by a circle of cobblestones and is located next to a busy auto intersection. Where were we? Stop 12 is Paul Revere's House, the oldest house in Boston and Stop 13 is the Old North Church of two lantern lighting fame. If you want the rest of the Patriot's Day story go to Minute Man NHP. Stop 14 is another cemetery.

Stops 15-16 are located in Charlestown, a long walk (bridge crossing included) from downtown Boston. Stop 15 is the USS Constitution, our first and greatest warship and Stop 16 is Bunker Hill, site of the Revolutionary War's first major battle. FYI, the Boston Tea Party ship is NOT a part of the Freedom Trail and the National Park Service but it is within walking distance of downtown and was the sight of a significant historic event.

CROWDS (8/10)
Downtown Boston is perpetually crowded with cars, tourists, workers and everything in between. In addition, Beantown’s streets are maddeningly circuitous, cross at weird angles and make it very easy to get lost. No worries, though, the redbricked and clearly painted Freedom Trail changes everything.

It’s OK to be a tourist and almost impossible to get lost once you get downtown and onto the Trail. You share the walk in this vibrant beautiful city with its citizens and the sightseers around you. There is so much to see and so much to take in. Time quickly becomes irrelevant and the crowds become a joy.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
First, the bad parts. Parking is a nightmare. We tried and it nearly reduced us to tears. We repeat, do not attempt to park on the streets. Parking garages are a pricey but do-able option; the garage under Boston Common runs $6 for the first hour, $18 for up to nine hours. Downtown Hotel self-parking runs about $25 per day. Boston traffic is notoriously bad. The Big Dig collapsing has made things worse.

The good parts. Well, once you get downtown you should have no worries. After testing the car option, we stayed on the outskirts of town, took the subway (the T) in and had no problems. Many Boston tourists choose one of the myriad guided tour trolleys that circumnavigate the historic areas. They allow you unlimited re-boarding privileges and take you to most tourist-friendly parts of town.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The National Park Service (NPS) Visitor Center bookstore stocks a half-hearted selection of Revolutionary War-era books. You are better off looking for that perfect title at one of the bookstores in the privately-run Freedom Trail sites. Remember, no admission price is necessary if you are just going to the bookstore.

Freedom Trail Stop 8 used to be the Old Corner Bookstore, once home to Ticknor and Fields the Boston publisher who brought the world Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson, Alcott and Stowe, among others. As recently as our 2004 visit, the building housed the Globe Corner Bookstore. No longer. The current resident is the Chicago-based diamond retailing chain, Ultra Diamonds, who have 143 nationwide stores where “you should Never Pay Retail”. Why must one of them be in one of America's most storied literary buildings and a part of the Freedom Trail?

The Globe Corner bookstore is now located across the Charles River in Cambridge. If books are your thing, you might as well go to Cambridge and browse its many clean and well lit bookshops.

COSTS (3/5)
The NPS portion of Boston NHP is free. However, the NPS maintains only a few of the Freedom Trail's attractions. Still, only three of the 16 units charge an entrance fee: the Old South Meeting House, Paul Revere House and the Old State House. Entry into the Trail's three churches is free but a donation is suggested. The USS Constitution Museum, while free, also asks for donations.

Check the listings at the bottom of the review for the following information: Freedom Trail Site and Stop Number; whether the Site is free; if the Site offers free tours; if the Site has a Museum; and with whom the Site is affiliated.

Boston and the Freedom Trail can be as cheap or as expensive as you would like. Just be careful. Staying in the city, parking in the city, visiting all the Freedom Trail stops, taking a guided tour and riding a tourist trolley will make your costs skyrocket. If you stay outside the city, ride the subway in and around town, walk the Freedom Trail, visit only the free sites and take only the NPS, State House and USS Constitution tours your day could be surprisingly inexpensive but also long and tiring.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
The NPS presence at Boston NHP takes a back-seat to private and public entities who are, in turn, seen as Park affiliates, as well as the numerous for-hire tour services. There are Rangers here who give tours and talks but unless you are looking for them, as we were, you might not even realize that the Freedom Trail is a National Park Site.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
The Freedom Trail is easy to follow, stacked with informational help and sufficiently self-guided. We skipped the Ranger-led tour along the Freedom Trail but hit two other wonderful (and free) Ranger-led talks which included a humorous look at the history of Faneuil Hall, from inside the so-called “Cradle of Liberty”, and a terrific tour of the USS Constitution.

The tour of the 200 year-old Old Ironsides, still an active warship, is given by the U.S. Navy. Our guide was an active duty sailor. Despite the large group, 80 or so, he answered every question, cracked jokes, and explained everything we could want to know about the ship. He was superb. Arrive early to ensure a spot on the Old Ironsides tour. There is limited access, security checkpoints can be an issue and the waiting queues sometimes grow out of control.

FUN (9/10)
Great free Ranger talks, sunny days, hours spent lounging and reading in Boston Common, easily followed tour paths, superb people watching and gorgeous views made our trips to Boston NHP unforgettable. There are also plenty of restaurants, shopping opportunities and taverns along the Freedom Trail in case you need a break from walking through history.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
Of course. Walking the Freedom Trail will bring every American History test you have taken come to life. Seriously, though, Boston sits among the pantheon of American cities and the Freedom Trail is a perfectly created tourist center. We prefer the suburban Boston Minute Man NHP but you cannot go wrong in downtown. Just don't forgot to visit the North End and Charlestown portions of the Freedom Trail; the Old North Church and the USS Constitution are Boston NHP's shining gems.

TOTAL 61/80

1. Boston Common; FREE; NO; NO; City of Boston
2. The State House; FREE; YES; NO; Comm. of Mass.
3. Park Street Church; FREE; NO; NO; Self
4. Granary Burying Ground ; FREE; NO; NO; City of Boston
5. King's Chapel; FREE; NO; NO; Self
6. First Public School; FREE; NO; NO; Old City Hall
7. Old South Meeting House; $5; NO; YES; Self
8. Old Corner Bookstore; FREE; NO; NO; Ultra Diamonds
9. Old State House ; $5; NO; YES; Bostonian Society
10. Boston Massacre Site; FREE; NO;NO; City of Boston
11. Faneuil Hall; FREE; YES; NO; NPS
12. Paul Revere House; $3; NO; YES; Self
13. Old North Church; FREE; NO;NO; Self
14. Copp's Hill Burying Ground; FREE; NO; NO; City of Boston
15. USS Constitution; FREE; YES; YES; U.S. Navy
16. Bunker Hill Monument; FREE; YES; YES; NPS

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

JOHN F. KENNEDY NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-09-15T16:02:00.000-04:00

Brookline, Mass.
NPS Website

WHAT IS IT?
Birthplace, on May 19, 1917, and boyhood home of our 35th President, John F. (Jack) Kennedy. The Site is a memoriam designed and dedicated by JFK’s mother, Rose Kennedy, consisting almost entirely of items used by her President son during his childhood.

BEAUTY (4/10)
From the outside, it looks just like any other house on the block: front porch, narrow width, two stories and mildly charming if it were not for Boston's high housing costs. We digress.

From the inside, the layout probably looks just like any other house on the block. The difference is that the furnishings are all Kennedy originals. Rose retrieved them from basements and relatives for the sole purpose of reconstructing the House exactly as she had remembered it while living there with young Jack. These included many of Jack's personal items, books, outfits, silverware and baby stuff.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
Jack's birth, his sickly youth, his crowded house and stern but loving parental hands serve as the backdrop to the larger story told by Rose and the National Park Service (NPS). It is the story of early 20th Century immigrants, of hard work, of getting your children ahead in life and ultimately of the American dream.

83 Beals Street, the House location, would always be a starter house. Its one bathroom and cramped quarters would never be enough for the burgeoning family. Success was their destiny. A President of the United States would rise from these comfortable but meager Catholic means, would rise as surely as if all the Sibyls of antiquity had guaranteed it.

That success actually occurred is an afterthought. The existence of the dream and the immigrant's hope in America's promise is the point. The Site elicits the unmistakable aura of the Robert DeNiro section of Godfather Part II: the brood of children, the stoic wife, the nostalgic innocence, the quiet yearning for power, the masculine competition and the neighborhood feel.

CROWDS (5/10)
When the Site opened in 1969 it was the primary Kennedy memorial. Tens of thousands flocked here to pay tribute to the slain President. Such is not the case today. The JFK Presidential Library and Museum opened in 1979 and quickly supplanted the Brookline House as Boston's most popular Kennedy attraction. The House's lack of visitors must account for its limited hours and operating schedule.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The Site is open only from Wednesday through Sunday 10 am-4:30 pm. In addition the House closes its doors to visitors from October through April. Winter must last a long time in Boston. Plan your visit accordingly.

JFK's boyhood home is located in Brookline, Mass. about four miles west of Boston's downtown Freedom Trail attractions. The closest subway (The T) stop is the Green T Coolidge Corner Station. From the bustling Coolidge Corner commercial intersection it is a half-mile walk to JFK NHS.

From Coolidge Corner, walk northwest along Harvard Avenue for two blocks until you reach Beals Street. Turn right. It is green and on the right side. Beals Street is still a residential area. Our stroll was witnessed by dozens of denizens lounging on their front porches. The Park literature warns against driving here but we saw plenty of open street parking places in front of the House.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The Site's Visitor Center, Bookstore and Film viewing area all share space in the House's basement. There is little room to house a large Kennedy-related book selection. If its a Kennedy book you want, you should not have a problem finding one in any Boston or Cambridge bookstore.

COSTS (3/5)
$3 per person, free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Two of us and at least three Rangers. In addition, a guided Ranger tour of the House leaves every half hour.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
JFK's boyhood home tour is subdued. The colors are muted, the memories are poignant and the scale is small. This is a mother remembering her son's youth. The tour guide's stories give little hint of the violent touch football games, the fraternal competition and the cutthroat politics. Instead we see and hear about dinner table discussions, JFK's communion dress, Jack and Joe Jr.'s tiny adjunct dining room table, the formative years, bassinets and Rose's desire for a bigger house.

The tour portrays Joe Sr. as an absent but defining hand, working endlessly but molding the character and dreams of his children by proxy. Joe Sr. had no time for the little stuff and this tour is all about the little stuff. The tragedy that would come remains an unsaid anchor that fuels the sad retellings.

The last room of the tour, the kitchen, is accompanied by a recording of Rose's memories. The tour once consisted entirely of her talking which is now ironically limited to the room into which she legendarily never set foot. Her cracking but prideful voice, while not sad, stirs emotions of loss. The House and the tour still belong to Rose.

FUN (5/10)
The JFK NHS is among the most personal and voyeuristic National Park Sites. There is no detachment from the past. All the artifacts were used by the Kennedy's and all the stories are from Rose. There is no talk of JFK's public life and no historical conclusions. Just family portraits and stories. We enjoyed our time and our tour guide but lacked the personal attachment necessary to fully appreciate Kennedy's youth.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
Only the most fervent Kennedy worshippers should travel here; that means practically everyone in Massachusetts and a good portion of those who grew up in the 60's. Boston offers too many other stellar visitor attractions (including the JFK Presidential Library Museum) for us to fully endorse a trip out to Brookline.

TOTAL 41/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

MINUTE MAN NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-14T16:07:00.000-04:00

Lexington and Concord, Mass.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Battle Road, Hartwell Tavern, the North Bridge and other sights preserved to commemorate the events of April 19, 1775, Patriots Day. The day that the American Revolution began. Also included at Minute Man NHP is The Wayside, the Concord home of Louisa May Alcott, later purchased by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

BEAUTY (4/10)
Minute Man NHP is situated along Boston’s outskirts, in between the city’s urban sprawl and the beginnings of the Massachusetts countryside. In fact, the Battle Road portion of the Site ends before it reaches Lexington because of U.S. Interstate 95, the road that is effectively Boston’s beltway. The Site itself is not particularly beautiful; it looks like a pleasant suburban park. The significance is historical, not natural, as are the visual draws: the Lexington and Concord Minute Man statues, the oft-rebuilt North Bridge and the period structures that still stand along the Battle Road.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (10/10)
The place where the American Revolution began. That's the popular, understood and correct contextualization of the events of that fateful April day. At the time, however, the event was purely a local phenomenon. A single national consciousness and determination began to form over a year later when the Declaration of Independence was signed. And even then the solidarity was dubious and pragmatic at best.

Bostonians wanted the British out of their backyard. Simple as that. At no time did these unruly and violent rebels see themselves as either a part of a greater national whole or catalysts for a world-quaking governmental revolution. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, William Dawes and thousands of Bostonians probably never thought they were starting a War. The British only thought they were seizing contraband rifles.

The notion that the United States of America, in every sense, began and exists today due to a few Minute Man who fired back because they (mistakenly) believed the Redcoats were burning their rural town is overwhelming. We wonder if those Minute Man are the epitome of the American spirit: determined, hot-headed, reactionary, delusional, resourceful and stubbornly successful. They started it all, right?

If that is not enough, the Site also includes the house where much of Louisa May Alcott’s novel “Little Women” took place, perhaps America's most beloved children’s novel.

CROWDS (6/10)
Our first visit to Minute Man NHP came on Patriot's Day, 2004. Understandably the crowds were large and the excitement was tangible. A whole lot of people were wearing three-cornered hats. If you can visit Boston during their Patriot's Day holiday, do it.

Our next visit was a lot less hectic, although there were no open spaces in the Minute Man Visitor Center parking lot (too many bus spaces). On Patriot's Day everyone parked on the grass. On a mid-summer weekday, however, the crowd tended more towards babysitters and their obligations, local joggers enjoying their park and (gasp) foreign, even British, tourists.

Most out-of-town Boston vacationers appear to stay downtown where they slog the Freedom Trail, relax at Boston Common and enjoy the city from their centralized hotel. Few venture out to the sticks to see where the Revolution began and that's a shame. But who can blame them, Boston's subway does not drop you off here and the traffic can be horrific.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Site's Minute Man VC is located right off U.S. Interstate 95, about 20 miles west of Boston. Take I-95, Exit 30 (Massachusetts Route 2A) and go west. The Minute Man VC will be on your right in about a quarter-mile. The Site continues westward from the Minute Man VC along the Battle Road. A driving route parallels the Battle Road Trail for about four miles until you get to the town of Concord and the North Bridge Visitor Center.

There are five parking lots located along the Battle Road Trail if you wish to walk the historic trail. The trail itself consists of crushed stone and might be difficult in a wheelchair. Both the Hartwell Tavern, a restored tavern that sits along the Battle Road, and The Wayside are only open from May through October.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The Minute Man NHP Visitor Centers vend a good selection of Revolutionary War books as well as books by and about the Concord-area writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

COSTS (4/5)
Battle Road and all Minute Man related sections of the Park are free. There is a $5 per person charge (free with the National Parks Pass) for entry into The Wayside and the mandatory Ranger-led tour.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
The Rangers were working hard on Patriots Day weekend. Most were dressed in period costume. Lectures were plentiful. We spoke to the musket-shooting Ranger about Revolutionary War-era Tavern culture and the events of April 19 for about 20 minutes. After his lecture, we saw him walking with about seven other people explaining incidents along the Trail. He was wonderful. He had a nose for people who wanted to ask questions.

Our second, less eventful visit, happily brought the same level of Ranger surplus and attentiveness. And a few were still dressed in period costume! They probably dress in modern clothing when off-duty. Then again, who knows?

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
We really enjoyed the multi-media “Road to Revolution” theater presentation shown at the Minute Man VC. The show, which combines electronic maps with set pieces, video screens and a moving clock, does a terrific job at establishing the complicated geography and time frame of the day's events. Michael had been inculcated with the “one if by land, two if by sea” story since he could read but never fully grasped its complete topographic meaning before the multi-media presentation. Start your visit here.

The best part of the Site is that Minute Man NHP posts a few of its Rangers at the important Battle Road locations, instead of just at the Visitor Centers. We love this method and wish that more Parks would put there knowledgeable staff at the places where the questions are sparked. The Rangers at Minute Man NHP know their history and are immediately engaging. Our interactions delved into historical theory, legend creation and 18th Century tavern life. And yeah, they all shoot muskets too!

We were disappointed by the confusing, abstract designs of the Minute Man VC and in the lack of substantial learning opportunities at the North Bridge VC but the Rangers and the intro film more than made up for any static display shortcomings. The Wayside Tour was a little under whelming and very slow; perhaps the privately-run Concord area writers' museums (Louisa May Alcott's The Orchard House and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Old Manse) offer more engaging tours.

FUN (9/10)
Pictures of the North Bridge and Daniel Chester French's Minute Man statue are so ubiquitous in tourist photos and history text books that seeing them in person feels revelatory. The distant past, the reckless bravery, the fiery chase down the Battle Road, the manic urgency and the epic drama become inescapably real. The 'Shot Heard Round the World' is instantly imagined; this is a place where the World's political path irrevocably changed, moving towards a system of representative government and away from the monarchy not because of political decisions, voting solutions or protracted thought but because an angry farmer fired a rifle.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (10/10)
The Battle Road from Lexington to Concord, with its leafy shade, forested turns, restored buildings, oft-pictured statues and famous bridge, is the real Freedom Trail. Don't be distracted by the moniker of downtown Boston's wonderful tourist walk. No visit to New England is complete without a visit to Minute Man NHP and no place offers a better visceral understanding of the American Revolution and the American character.

TOTAL 62/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

SAINT-GAUDENS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-09-13T07:52:00.000-04:00

Cornish, N.H.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Sprawling estate and studio of one of America’s most celebrated sculptors, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907).

BEAUTY (8/10)
Now this is what an artists' colony should look like. Dramatic views of the solitary and volcanic-shaped Mt. Ascutney, swaths of manicured green grass surrounded by a thick white pine forest, formal hedge gardens that showcase astounding sculptures, a half-dozen utlitarian detached buildings born again as studios and a stately white main house.

The grounds' endearing allure is its countless nooks and many offerings of solitude amidst man-made and natural beauty. The Site also houses casts of all Saint-Gaudens most famous sculptures. These works range from evocative complex portraits of historic heroes (statues of General Sherman, President Lincoln and the Shaw Memorial) to displays of mythologic elegance (Diana and Nike) to sublime understandings of the profound (the Adams Memorial).

Casts of these masterpieces are standouts in public space throughout the United States. New York's Central Park, Boston Common, DC's Rock Creek Park and Lincoln Park in Chicago. Saint-Gaudens NHS offers the wonderful opportunity to see all of these without amassing frequent flier miles.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
Augustus Saint-Gaudens was just six months old when he and his French shoemaker father and Irish mother immigrated to the United States in 1848 from Dublin. Augustus' fathers chic French shoe store thrived in New York City and he was able to send his talented 19-year old son to the famed Beaux-Artes School in Paris, the preeminent art school of the era. While in Paris, Augustus insisted on the Americanized pronunciation of his name (SAINT-GAW-dens).

Saint-Gaudens first major public work was his monument to Civil War hero, Admiral David Farragut, unveiled in New York City's Madison Square in 1881. Farragut's heroic, gritty, non-classical portrayal initiated a wave of similarly themed work for Saint-Gaudens and other realist Civil War soldier commemerators. Augustus did much of his sculpting here in Cornish. His estate served as a popular magnet for writers, poets, painters and fellow sculptors.

Saint Gaudens' works have remained etched in our collective artistic conscience and he can fairly be compared to his famed sculpting contemporary Augustus Rodin.

CROWDS (6/10)
The day's rain, the Site's remoteness and Saint-Gaudens unjust obscurity could all be responsible for the Park's light vistitor turnout. But even if there were many guests, it would still be very easy to lose yourself amidst one of the artist's many works without anyone there to spoil your serenity.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Saint-Gaudens NHS is located in west-central New Hampshire, a stone's throw from the White River and just across the border from Windsor, Vermont. The bridge that crosses from Windsor over to New Hampshire is covered. No lie. As you would imagine, the nearest large cities (Albany, Hartford and Boston) are all over 120 miles away.

Interstates 89 and 91 both drop you off about 15 miles from the Site. The most direct route would be I-89, Exit 20 and then south on New Hampshire Route 12A for 12 miles. The Site's entrance is on the eastern side of Route 12A.

Come in summer. Harsh New Hampshire winters close the site from October through late May.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
The Site's has a thin but compelling selection of books, including an entire stack of rare and/or out-of-print Saint-Gaudens books. Michael was tempted by Erik Larson's bestseller Devil in the White City in which Saint-Gaudens makes a cameo (pardon the pun). Has anybody out there read it?

We also liked the site-specific charmers that included fancy Diana brooches, make-your-first sculpture starter kits, maple syrup and replicas of Saint-Gaudens famous coin designs.

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $5 per person, free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
The Site's Rangers, most of which were on the young side, tended to appear stealthfully and suddenly from the Park's many niches. We were grateful for the effusive guidance from the Ranger posted at the fee-station kiosk. He suggested a route through the Site and made us aware of the Ranger talks. Without his help, the large grounds could have been intimidating.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
Every inch of the Site's grounds can fairly be called museum space; everywhere you look there are casts, sculptures, gardens, fountains and attractions. None of these exhibits, however, are accompanied by any self-directed panels or explanations.

No matter, Saint-Gaudens NHS says. That is why, during the summer, six Ranger-led tours are scheduled per day. In addition, the Site has a Sculptor-in-Residence stationed at the Ravine Studio and ready all day (except lunch-time) to answer your sculpture technique questions.

We took in an excellent 10-minute lecuture about the Farragut Memorial and continued on to the remaining sculptures by ourselves. Saint-Gaudens' works are intimate, powerful and deeply moving. Sometimes listening to the art is preferable to learning trivia and historical datum.

FUN (7/10)
We had a terrific day wandering from studio to studio appreciating the stunning surroundings, enjoying Saint-Gaudens' life and works. We even liked the rotating modern photography and sculpture exhbits although, judging from the comment book, we were the only ones. We were not there to enjoy the Park's Sunday afternoon summer classical music concerts but we would be hard pressed to come up with a more perfect setting.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
Only to the hardcore art tourist. I mean, when was the last time you found yourself in Cornish, New Hampshire? You have probably seen and admired Saint-Gaudens sculptures and not even realized it. His work has a place in a few major East Coast cities.

If you are in New England and don't want to make the drive to New Hampshire, be sure to stop in Boston and admire the Shaw Memorial across from the Massachusetts State House. The Memorial commemorates the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, the first official African-American unit in the United States Army. Their story was told in the 1989 Denzel Washington movie, Glory. You might remember Saint-Gaudens' work from the film; it was featured in the credits.

TOTAL 49/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

MARSH-BILLINGS-ROCKEFELLER NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-08T08:26:00.000-04:00

Woodstock, Vt.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site dedicated to the three generations of American families (ID'd in the Park's name) who inhabited the estate’s Richardson Romanesque mansion and the adjacent 555 acres of managed forest. Next door to the National Park Site is the privately-run and better known Billings Farm and Museum, which tells the story of Vermont farm life.

BEAUTY (7/10)
The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP consists of two distinct parts: the area in and around the Billings Mansion (permissible only with a tour ticket) and the surrounding forest (accessible for free via carriage road trails).

The insides of the Mansion hold nearly all of the Park's charm and beauty; Mr. Billings was one tasteful railroad baron. Up until his death in 1890, Billings amassed what still ranks among the finest private collections of 19th Century American art. Amazingly, Billings bought all but three of the paintings from the artists themselves. Coles, Bierstadts and Durands hang throughout the mansion, a perfect representation of American landscape art, our nation's first endemic art form. Billings' decorations are subtle, understated and confident in ways that escape most Victorian-era robber baron mansions; a classy counterpoint to the garishness of the Biltmore in Asheville, N.C. or Newport, R.I.'s countless monstrosities.

The forest is attractive in the same way that golf courses are attractive. Every tree is “managed” by experts, the undergrowth is excessively maintained, many of the trees are transplanted (and, gasp, non-native), it is green and wide carriage roads hustle you to exactly where you need to be. You are in nature but then again you are not in the wild. The outdoor land's centerpiece is the idyllic pond coarsely dubbed The Pogue. The pond's small, peaceful nature is reminiscent of the mind's eye's vision of Thoreau's Walden Pond.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
The mansion's first resident, George Perkins Marsh, would certainly be shocked at his historical remembrance, especially considering that he is honored side-by-side with Billings and a member of the Rockefeller clan. He might even be more shocked that they are all remembered under the umbrella of promoting conservation and environmentalism.

During the 1840's Marsh grew increasingly aghast at America's antebellum industrial revolution onslaught. He, akin to the transcendentalist authors of the same period, was repulsed by the widespread ecological destruction done in the name of progress and civilization; loggers were ravenously felling every tree in the Vermont countryside. So, in turn, he obtained a diplomatic post in Italy (during the American Civil War no less), wrote a dry tome, apparently a precursor the environmental movement, entitled Man and Nature and never returned to the United States.

When Frederick Billings purchased the Mansion in 1869 the surrounding countryside had been ravaged by loggers. So, in turn, he planted a few trees in his backyard, managed its contents and started a small dairy farm. We remain unclear as to what this has to do with conservation. The Site also never delved into the environmental ramifications wrought by the expansion of Billings' Northern Pacific Railroad through Montana, Idaho and into Washington State, all, post-Northern Pacific's expansion, lumber-intensive states.

And what can you say about Laurence Rockefeller, grandson of the Standard Oil Founder, and husband to Billings' granddaughter? Evidently, only gushing plaudits while in Woodstock. The Park Rangers and town denizens view him as a unimaginably benevelont patrician and do not take kindly to even the slightest perceived denigration. Trust us, we know. His monetary kindness towards his summer home community has brought its residents carriage road trails, five-star restaurants, off-the-chart property values and a snooty faux-quaint chicness.

CROWDS (6/10)
We enjoyed our 8 am Carriage Road hike up to The Pogue in glorious solitude and appreciated the pond with a trancendentalist-esque stupor. We picked the right time. By 9:30am dozens passed us while we headed to a Mansion Tour. The Park's website warns that tours fill up given their 12-person limit. Be vigilant.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Site is located directly off Vermont Route 12, just north of Woodstock, Vt. The intersection of Interstates 89 and 91 is just 15 miles to the east along U.S. Route 4. Woodstock is not particularly close to any population centers. Boston, Mass., Hartford, Conn. and Albany, N.Y. are all about three hours away. But who comes to Vermont to be near people? Many come here to ski and the famed Killington ski resort is just 20 miles west of Woodstock. It is a shame that the Park and its Mansion tours are only open from Memorial Day through Halloween.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
The bookstore sells a terrific selection of conservation-related books. Even better is the wonderful adjecent library that contains an even better selection of green books. Read through them at the sturdy wood table, decide which one you want to take home, walk two steps over to the for-sale bookshelf and take said book home. Poof, Bob's your Uncle.

COSTS (2/5)
Mansion tours run $6 per person, half price with the National Parks Pass. All special Ranger-led tours, held on the weekends, also cost $6 per person. A combo ticket with the Billings Farm and Museum costs $14. For a Site endowed and maintained by a Rockefeller's estate, the tours sure cost a lot of money.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
Enough Rangers to give a house tour every hour from 10-4 but not enough to staff the Carriage House Visitor Center from 8-10 am despite its doors being left wide open.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The Carriage House Visitor Center hosts a few new exhibit panels. The 30-minute long intro movie was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999.

We were vexed and frustrated by our Mansion tour guide's typically New England just so stubbornness and steadfast obstinancy. Why did we spend 40 minutes of a 60 minute mansion tour talking about the wonderful artwork and musing about the stunning designs WHILE SITTING ON THE FRONT PORCH? Who knows? Our numerous pleadings of “can we go inside” were skillfully ignored with our Ranger's that's-just-how-it-is look.

Once we got inside, our host ably ran down the artist, school and style of most paintings and offered brief stories about a few quirky artifacts. But the time given inside allowed us neither the time to inquire in-depth about the paintings nor the ability to spend more than a few seconds looking at the works of art.

FUN (3/10)
After spending ten minutes of porch time explaining the wonder of the Billings Mansion Garden, our host received a call on his walkie talkie. A local film crew was filming there and our entry was forbidden. “The roses are stunning, world-class” he assured us at least ten more times throughout the house tour. “Look out this window, it might be your only chance to see them.”

When we finished the tour, the TV crew was lounging on a garden bench, tripods folded up and cameras on the ground. They were done. A seperately-led Italian-speaking tour group was meandering through the flowers. “Can we go know?” we asked. “Nope, its not allowed until I get a call.” “But...” “That's just how it is” his disapproving look told us.

So we left our group, joined the Italians and were wholly underwhelmed by the gardens. Rebels, us. Five minutes later, our Ranger got a walkie talkie call. “You guys can go up there now,” he announced to our patiently waiting group within our garden departing earshot.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
We loved our time in Vermont from Lake Champlain to Burlington through the Green Mountains and amidst its wonderful small towns. We were disappointed by Woodstock because it claimed to be the epitome of Vermont but felt exclusionary and had urban air despite its sparse population. The Billings Farm labels itself as the “Gateway to Vermont's Rural Heritage” which is accurate. Start here and continue your travels northward.

Do not come here expecting an in-depth examination of the American conservation movement. This Park is about three families, no more no less, and their legacy towards the environment is contradictory and confusing. Managing the forest might allow us to reinforce our lust for disposable paper products but it hardly seems like a natural solution.

Mankind has attempted to manage and domesticate plant and animal life for the geological blip of about 10,000 years. In that span, we have produced mass extinctions, created deserts where life once bloomed and done amounts of harm equaled historically only by catastrophic seismic events and asteroid impacts.

So, yeah. Tour Vermont. Its green and really pretty. We had fun. Yes, yes lots of fun. Maple syrup, green mountains and Ben and Jerry's.

TOTAL 37/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

SARATOGA NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-09-06T09:59:00.000-04:00

Stillwater, N.Y.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of two pivotal 1777 Revolutionary War battles.

BEAUTY (5/10)
Hills mixed with forested terrain and open fields characterize the main portion of Saratoga NHP, the approximately 3000-acre battlefield site. A 10-mile self-guided auto tour route scurries the visitor around the countryside to the time-honored places of interest with able battlefield park aplomb. Helpful red and blue stakes throughout the Site remind the visitor of the battle lines held by the British and American soldiers respectively in 1777.

Once you leave the pavement and set off on foot, the landscape’s historical power sinks in. The up-and-down hike from Chatfield Farm to the Balcarres Redoubt delves into the forest, crosses a mild ravine and eventually delivers you to the Barber Wheatfield, and open field where hours of fierce fighting occurred.

The path is the same trail that the American soldiers took over 225 years ago. When you edge out of the forest and see the cannons pointed toward you and the British fortification stakes it is not hard to be transported back in time.

The Schuyler House and the Saratoga Monument sit eight miles northeast of the Saratoga Battlefield grounds and share the small New York town ambiance of their host, Schuylersville. The Schuyler House, country home of General and patroon Philip Schuyler, is a typical two-story yellow Colonial Georgian design, fully restored and ready to tour. The 155-foot tall Saratoga Monument is a surprisingly ornate obelisk that offers spectacular views of the not so spectacular scenery.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (9/10)
The National Parks Guidebook ranks the Battle at Saratoga as one of the 15 most decisive battles in World History. It was our nation’s first significant victory of the Revolution. A Park Brochure states that in 1999 the New York Times Magazine called it the “most crucial battle of the 1000 years.” We are not going to succumb to that kind of hyperbole.

Nevertheless, had we not won, the Britons would have effectively cut New England from the remainder of the breakaway nation, dooming our chances for success. From the victory came French support and perhaps most importantly an impetus to France to rekindle war efforts in Europe against England. No Saratoga victory, no United States.

CROWDS (8/10)
During our first visit, in March of 2004, we saw very few people, just locals walking their dogs and joggers enjoying their isolated park. In March, the auto tour road had not even opened for travel. You can use your car only from April through November.

In August, however, the Saratoga area becomes a tourist mecca with the beginning of Saratoga Spring’s racing season and jam-packed waters of nearby Lake George. Given the season, the Site’s crowds were still not as large as expected. We had the hikes and the auto tour road largely to ourselves.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Schuylerville, N.Y. is ten miles west of Saratoga Springs and I-87, Exit 14 via the winding New York Route 29. The Battlefield is a further eight miles south on U.S. Route 4. Once the auto tour road is opened, the Battlefield is very accessible. But during any time of the year you owe it to yourself to get out of the auto tour rut and walk. Short paved trails to and through the Redoubts make your excursion easy.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
As would be imagined, the Store stocks a good selection of Revolutionary War texts. We bought a nice postcard of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the handsomest man of the War and designer of the Saratoga Battlefield’s redoubt defense system.

We are pretty sure no other National Park Site vends bottled Saratoga spring water outside its Visitor Center.

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $5 per car into the Battlefield portion of the Park. Admission is free with the National Parks Pass and free from November through March (when the roads are closed).
The Schuylerville sites are both free. You can climb Saratoga Monument and tour the Schuyler House without spending one penny. What a bargain!

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
There are very helpful Rangers at the Battlefield Visitor Center. Once you get out on the auto tour, however, you are on your own.

It is a different story in Schuylerville where stellar, knowledgeable Rangers spew Revolutionary info at both its attractions.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
The Saratoga NHP Visitor Center Museum has seen a flurry of recent additions. In 2002, a new film debuted while in 2005 the Museum welcomed a gargantuan fiber-optic map and new exhibit panels. We were not overly impressed by any of the improvements, especially the 15-minute+ electric map program, which would have been perfect with a good deal of editing.

The Site’s educational forte is its Rangers. Their talks and understandings are indispensable. Our Ranger-led tour of the Schuyler House was one of the most skilled, subtle and perfect historical teaching talks of our entire trip. A different Ranger, posted at the Saratoga Monument, talked our socks off about Benedict Arnold, the Monument’s quirks, answered dozens of our questions and enchanted us with his vibrant personality.

FUN (8/10)
When we came through Saratoga NHP the first time, we thought a 5-mile hike through the battlefield was sufficient. We were wrong. While we may have gotten the gist of the battles, we missed out on a great house tour and an equally impressive monument, each with their own stories. We made the right choice stopping in Schuylerville this time around.

We toured the Schuylerville sites with wonderful fellow central Pennsylvania tourists and a set of friendly New York history buffs and golfing enthusiasts. Our conversations and laughter with our traveling cohorts were the highlights of our return visit and made us thankful that we had given this Site another chance.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
Yes. It is such an important part of American history. If you are in the delightful and historic town Saratoga Springs for the races in August, definitely come. If not, Saratoga NHP deserves far more pilgrimages than it receives. At least as many people as the throngs that flock to Gettysburg.

TOTAL 58/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

THOMAS COLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-08-22T08:59:00.000-04:00

Catskill, N.Y.
Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Cedar Grove. The home of Thomas Cole, America’s earliest and most renowned landscape painter and founder of the Hudson River school style of art.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Thomas Cole’s home, Cedar Grove, fails to provoke the grandeur of his large canvasses or the scope of his ambitious themes. Heck, the grounds do not even provide a vista of the Hudson River; instead they face the Catskill Mountains which are currently obscured by encroaching trees.

The Federal-style mansion’s yellow exterior, while lovingly restored, is a bit of a yawner. The insides are much of the same. Most of the items are either reproductions of the originals or just time-period pieces. An upstairs room contains a few original Cole sketches but our tour guide scurried us out before we could even stop to look.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Art books and historians often cite Thomas Cole as the first truly American artist, the first to portray a uniquely American perspective which spoke of our country’s place in the world. Cole’s painting used large canvasses and sweeping landscape, eschewing the British portraiture aesthetic utilized by most artists working in America at that time.

Cole and his fellow Hudson River school painters were the visual equivalent of the period’s transcendental writers, notably Emerson and Thoreau, the American romantics. They found beauty in America’s boundless nature and profound beauty.

Cole’s famed five-piece Course of Empire places his modern-day America at stage two of the cycle, The Pastoral State, from The Savage State to Desolation. Cole places America along the same course as the great Roman and Greek Civilizations of the past. We are their heirs. Cole would easily place today’s America at the opulent third stage, The Consummation. How close are we to The Destruction and subsequent Desolation? Who knows, but Cole proves that high-budget dystopian sagas are just as American as apple pie.

CROWDS (8/10)
Thomas Cole NHS sits just across the Hudson River from Hudson, N.Y. a small New York city whose downtown has recently seen an economic revival resulting in dozens of boutiques, galleries and fancy restaurants. As a result, the Thomas Cole NHS brings in a well-versed, artistic crowd.

Our tour was no exception. One visitor, a painter, discussed sunlight tones at different times of the day and explained how Cole would have mixed his pigments. Another tourist, an avid antique-hunter, helped our group with understanding restoration techniques. Our fellow visitors filled in a lot of loose ends and answered artistic questions that our guide was unable to resolve.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Cedar Grove is located just off the New York Thruway, I-87, 35 miles south of Albany and 40 miles north of New Paltz. From the Thruway take exit 21. Make a left at the stop sign and a quick left onto Route 23 East. Go two miles. At Spring Street make a right. (If you miss this right turn you will go onto the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. Bad news because it’s a toll bridge in that direction). After the right onto Spring Street make a quick left into the Site’s driveway. There is a sign.

If you are coming from Hudson, cross the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, turn left at the first stoplight and make a left into the Site. The Site is only open from May through late October. You must take a guided tour in order to see the house.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The book carries a small selection of elaborate 19th Century American art coffee table books, some of which the Site says are rare and out of print. The pictures inside them were enchanting and glossy but somehow not worth their books’ $50+ price tags.

Also on sale were framed and matted photographs of the places that inspired the Hudson River School artists taken by modern day local artists. We thought the theme of art as a collective continuous community commodity was a cool idea.

COSTS (2/5)
Entry is $7 per person. Your National Parks Pass will not get you free admission, Cedar Grove is owned by the Greene County Historical Society rather than the NPS, but it will lop the tour price in half to $3.50 per. 2 for 1, not a bad deal.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
40-minute tours leave once every hour from 10 am to 4 pm and are limited to 12 visitors.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
Local, non-Park Service-related docents offer a different set of skill sets than Rangers. Our docent had lived in Catskill her entire life. She serves on the Site’s Board of Governors and was present during the infamous 1970’s Cedar Grove front lawn auction when much of Cole’s estate was sold at shocking prices, including an original Cole painting for less than $1,000.

She was sincerely amazed and appreciative of the House’s incredible restoration because she had witnessed its nadir of disrepair in 1998 and instilled in her tour group her profound sense of Cole’s importance and personal appreciation. A Park Ranger might have been able to shed a greater light on Cole’s historical role, American context or artistic milieu but could not have given us a more localized viewpoint.

FUN (5/10)
Cedar Grove has been on our “must (not forget to) visit” list for well over two years, ever since we arrived in New York too soon in the season to see it. We saw Cole’s influence across the U.S. in landscapes of the American West done by the second and third generations of the Hudson River School. We heard his name mentioned in dozens of National Park sites. We have had time to ponder Cole, his historical significance and develop some preconceived notions about how his home and studio might look.

We were shocked to realize that he didn’t awake every morning to views of the Hudson.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
The Hudson River Valley makes for a good travel destination for American art and literature lovers alike, both forms debatably began here, with Cole’s art and Washington Irving’s stories. The Hudson River School Art Trail travels around the region to places that inspired the famed painters and might make for a fulfilling day.

The Olana State Historic Site, home of Cole student Frederic Edwin Church is reportedly wonderful. Dozens of people told us to go there. Then they added, “Well not this summer because it’s under construction.” Another day perusing Hudson’s Warren Street shops and boutiques and dining in its chic restaurants could complete an artsy rural getaway from New York City.

TOTAL 43/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

MARTIN VAN BUREN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-08-22T08:51:00.000-04:00

Kinderhook, N.Y.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Lindenwald, the longtime home and farm of our 8th President, Martin Van Buren.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Lindenwald is a sinfully ugly yellow mishmash of unfortunate architectural styles: Italianate, Gothic, Palladian and Georgian because each renovation and addition to the house ushered in a new style. Couldn’t they just decide on one?

Lindenwald’s interior holds greater interest than the dismal exterior not because of spellbinding design but because it breathes the personality of old Marty, a son of a tavern keeper unsuccessfully hoping to be remembered as wealthy, learned man of manners and genius. A man of the people hoping that money could transform him into an aristocrat or a patrician.

The most stunning example of his social desires is the formal dining room, located in what would be the receiving lobby in most mansions of the time period. The wallpaper surrounding the 15-foot long dining table depicts an elaborate fox hunt presumably taking place in a rich Tuscan landscape.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Martin Van Buren NHS describes its honoree as the first President born an American (meaning post-1776), the creator of the Albany Regency, New York first political machine, and an important contributor to the birth of the two-party American political system.

While these legacies may be lasting, they are in stunning contrast to the republican vision (unrelated to today’s Republicans) of the Founding Fathers. Andrew Jackson and Van Buren, his Vice President, were the first two American Presidents born to neither Virginia landowners nor Massachusetts patricians. But personality-wise, Van Buren was no Andrew Jackson.

Martin’s one term in office saw few positives, the worst of which being the Panic of 1837, America’s direst financial crisis to that date.

CROWDS (7/10)
We were the only two people who traveled to Lindenwald that rainy summer morning. Our unique interest meant a private extended Ranger tour where we learned every possible thing we could ever want to know about Martin Van Buren.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Martin Van Buren NHS is located in Kinderhook, N.Y., about 20 miles south of Albany and only six miles south of I-90 exit B1 along New York Route 9H, the same road I-90 exits onto. Should be easy to get to, right? Wrong.

Route 9H weaves in out and even becomes U.S. Route 9. There’s traffic circles, forks in the road and lots of confusion. Our advice: drive slowly, look for the signs and stay on 9H.

In addition, nearby are New York Routes 9J, 9G and 9W. These are three different and largely unrelated roads. Do not confuse them or mix and match them. You will get lost. Also, Martin Van Buren NHS is open for house tours only half the year, from mid-May through October. We missed out in April 2004 and had to come back.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
There have not been many historical treatises to remember Mr. Van Buren. The Site carries all five of the texts that are currently in print. There is not much else for sale here aside from some Dover Thrift Edition of early 19th Century literary classics (a nice touch) and a few books on the history of the Presidency. We also liked the pen and ink reproductions of Van Buren-related political cartoons. But we didn’t buy any; where would we put them?

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $4 per person or $9 per family. Entry is free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
We ran into three different Rangers at Marty World (what the Home of FDR NHS Rangers called this place) and enjoyed great conversations with all. We hardly minded the Site’s makeshift Visitor Center/Bookstore: a converted portable classroom unit.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
We relaxed in the portable unit, watching the brief introductory film and chatting with Ranger #1 until Ranger #2 came to fetch us for the house tour. Since the rain had stopped, we lingered outside as he briefed us on some Van Buren basics. Conversation soon turned to the cultivation of political machines and parties, an explanation of the term “patroon” and the aesthetics or lack thereof of the Albany Egg. Almost an hour later, we needed to gently prod our Ranger back on track and into the house.

The house tour was equally tangential and fun. We aren’t sure whether our customized tour followed the usual room pattern. We are fairly certain that we saw every nook and cranny of Marty World. The next tour group was just coming in as our Ranger excitedly asked, “do you guys want to see the basement?” And with that we scurried down the stairs to check out the unfinished kitchen, some servants’ rooms and piles and piles of what must have been meticulously catalogued period pieces that had yet to be unwrapped and placed in the main rooms of the house. Martin van Buren: Behind the Scenes. How cool!

FUN (7/10)
We had a terrific time because of our terrific guided Ranger tour. Often at National Park Sites, as the historical personality or incident becomes more obscure, the Rangers on duty delve into the history, its obscure facts and grander scope, with greater fervor. They understand that you just don’t happen upon Martin Van Buren’s country home. At Lindenwald, our historical curiosity was rewarded with high level discussion and earnest answers to our many questions. The Rangers even told us the best place to buy the area’s culinary contribution to the world: apple cider doughnuts.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Is there any reason to make the special trip up the Hudson to visit Marty World? Not really. But then again, where else can you learn about Martin Van Buren, the first forgettable American President.

TOTAL 45/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

UPPER DELAWARE SCENIC AND RECREATIONAL RIVER

2006-08-21T07:50:00.000-04:00

northeastern Pa. , southwestern N.Y. border
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
73 miles of the Delaware River that flows unobstructed from Hancock, N.Y. down to Port Jervis, N.Y.

BEAUTY (7/10)
Dense, forested rolling hills line the banks of the gently rippling Delaware River. The remarkably crystalline water beckons canoers, fly-fishermen, tubers and swimmers alike. Crossing the River near Lackawaxen, N.Y. is Brooklyn Bridge designer John Roebling’s Delaware Aqueduct Bridge, a one-lane, U-shaped wooden construction with high side walls and little resemblance to any automotive bridges. In fact, Roebling’s bridge was built for canal traffic and once filled with water; a watery crossing over water.

Further up the Delaware is the two-block long town of Narrowsburg. The town has a quaint, upscale charm and more bistros, wine stores and art galleries than any hamlet, population 414, should enjoy.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
Excepting the Roebling Bridge, all of the Site’s historic attractions have been ravaged by a recent occurrence: the Delaware River flooding of June and July, 2006. The Delaware and Hudson Canal trails and the Zane Grey House are closed. Yes, America’s iconic millionaire playboy author, Zane Grey, lived and wrote his rollicking westerns, including the Mormon bashing Riders of the Purple Sage, back East, alongside the Delaware.

In July, the first floor of the Zane Grey House was completely underwater. Luckily, Park staff and volunteers rushed all his memorabilia to the house’s top floors just before the water’s came. To many, the Park itself holds culpability for the flooding, which the NY Times estimated did over $1 billion worth of damage. The 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, of which the Upper Delaware is a part, restricts dam building. After three disastrous floods in 21 months, some wonder if the positives of a protective dam would outweigh the loss of breathtaking scenery.

CROWDS (7/10)
Echoes of laughter bounced off the Delaware’s banks, emanated from joyful canoes. Their siren song even beckoned us to wade into the water. Gab needed less persuasion than Michael. Visitors flock to the Upper Delaware and the surrounding Pocono Mountains happy to escape their urban (and suburban) jungles.

Getting away from it all back East, however, is a relative term. Our panorama shot of the Delaware from atop the Roebling Bridge shows over twenty canoes, a few sunbathers and two focused fly-fishermen. But compared to the packed Interstate-84, we had the world to ourselves.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Park’s southern terminus, River Mile Marker 258 is located a few miles north of Interstate 84 at Port Jervis, N.Y., Exit 1 in New York or Exit 53 in Pennsylvania. New York Route 97 parallels the River for the Park’s entire 73 miles, from Port Jervis to Hancock. The Zane Grey House and the Roebling Bridge are near Lackawaxen, Pa., at Mile Marker 278. NPS Headquarters is in Narrowsburg, Mile Marker 290.

Canoe put-ins and private campgrounds scatter the River’s banks until Hancock. There are no public campsites, no NPS hiking trails and no traditional Visitor Center. Besides the (closed) Zane Grey House, the only National Park land is the River itself.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The Upper Delaware SRR Visitor Center bookstore in Narrowsburg, N.Y. carries a small but focused set of titles covering the following categories: Bald Eagles (they’ve returned to the area); historic bridges, canals and aqueducts; and the Lenape Indians. What’s missing? Of course, Zane Grey books. We combed the store but found none. Perhaps they are only stocked at the now closed Grey House. Our interest was piqued after reading Riders of the Purple Sage. We want more!

COSTS (2/5)
Just looking at the River is free. Canoeing and camping is not free. There are no NPS campgrounds to keep the prices down. Private outfitters charge anywhere from $13 to $17 per person! Most have mandatory multi-day stays and some charge extra for parking. While New Yorkers may expect New York prices we are Pennsylvanians and those rates are ridiculous. Canoe rentals run between $30 and $40 a day, which is not too bad.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
An SCA volunteer stationed in a small kiosk in the parking lot and boat put-in at Lackawaxen gave us the 411 on the Zane Gray house and tried to make us feel better by saying it was closed for at least the rest of the season. An equally young Ranger eagerly tried to assist us at the Narrowsburg VC, but since there were no NPS campsites nearby and we had already seen the river, we couldn’t think of anything else we wanted to ask or any reasons to linger longer.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
Being a Scenic and Recreational River, we don’t fault the Upper Delaware for its lack of educational activities. Having the Zane Gray Museum as part of the NPS area is a bonus. Sadly, with Gray’s belongings safely stashed on the second floor and the door of his house firmly shut, there were no opportunities to learn more about the author on this trip.

FUN (5/10)
Wave after wave of hardly working canoers were having lots of fun. The Delaware runs at an easily manageable pace, requires little paddling and few worries. Although we did see one canoe intentionally capsized. Who would capsize a canoe? A boatload of pre-adolescent boys, that’s who; most likely boys from the nearby Ten Mile River Scout Camps, a 12,000-acre facility that must pour hundreds of kids into the Delaware every summer.

Our best chance of seeing Bald Eagles was around the Roebling Bridge. Alas, vultures were the only large birds in our sights.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
Admittedly, the boys were having a lot more fun than us. We neither had the desire to canoe aimlessly through the gorgeous scenery nor hole up in a rainy, flood-prone campground for two-plus days with vacationing New Yorkers and Boy Scouts. We imagine the Delaware Water Gap NRA located south of Port Jervis to be more user-friendly.

The Upper Delaware SRR caters towards those with second homes in the area and/or a history of vacationing nearby. For us, the rewards the River offers were not big enough to warrant the long and necessary examination on how to reap them.

Had the Zane Grey Museum been open, however, his House would have been a nice, short detour from the monotonous I-84 slog.

TOTAL 39/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

STEAMTOWN NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-08-13T10:20:00.000-04:00

Scranton, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Museum, large collection of steam locomotives, working turntable and roundhouse located on an old railroad yard near downtown Scranton, PA and The Mall at Steamtown.

BEAUTY (2/10)
Steamtown NHS’s official brochure includes no present-day pictures of the Site, only skillful pen and ink illustrations. Bad sign. Only the most eccentric trainspotter could find beauty at Steamtown.

Scores of freight cars, passenger cars, and steam locomotives sit on rows of train tracks which border the utilitarian rectangular architecture of The Mall at Steamtown and its parking garage. A long board-walked pedestrian ramp conveniently leads from the Mall’s Food Court to the Park. The Mall Ramp gives you a stellar close-up view of the rolling stock collection.

Perhaps too close. This intimate view fully reveals the cars’ dilapidated state. Generous amounts of rust, frayed wood and sympathy-inducing disrepair are the norm.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (2/10)
The Steamtown NHS’s claim to historical significance is dubious at best: the yard may have been represented in George Inness’s classic American landscape painting “The Lackawanna Valley”.

Ironically, the painting’s juggernaut iron horse and indelible train tracks, themselves a symbol of the coming industrial revolution and unstoppable progress, had to be reintroduced to the Lackawanna Valley in 1985 by a US Congressman. The trains had been living in Vermont.

The Scranton Yard was never a particularly central or important cog in our nation’s railroad network. The Yard has probably seen more attention since becoming a Park Site. Sadly, its notoriety is linked to “pork barrel” politics. The Park is oft-cited as a dastardly example of federal tax dollars pouring into an economically depressed city for pie-in-the-sky urban renewal purposes.

The Site’s lack of tangible historical significance, Canadian engines and proximity to its namesake Mall do not garner a positive national public image.

CROWDS (6/10)
The Site was not empty but also was not as crowded as The Mall at Steamtown. We saw our sentiments of why exactly are we here? echoed on the faces of a model railroading club’s members, here on a team vacation to Pennsylvania railroad sites; their route was listed on the back of their T-shirts, rock concert tour style. Steamtown seemed like their least-fun destination.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Site is located in downtown Scranton, a few miles from Interstate 81. Take Exit 185, the Central Scranton Expressway. Turn left at the first stoplight and follow this road, Lackawanna Avenue, past seven sets of traffic lights to Cliff Avenue. Turn left into the Site’s vast parking lot. There are lots of signs.

After spending the morning looking for the Scranton AAA, we followed the wrong signs: the ones pointing us towards The Mall at Steamtown rather than Steamtown NHS. We parked in the Mall’s garage and perused the shops before traveling down the Mall Ramp to the Park Site.

The Park’s two-story museum is located in a series of roundhouse buildings which circle the working turntable. We got disoriented going up and down various steps of stairs and into buildings and rail cars we were not sure we should have entered.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Plaques, pins, posters and prints commemorating almost all the Mid Atlantic regional railroads in their various ages of mergers and rebirths are for sale here. And if we wanted to begin lives as trainspotters, the Steamtown bookstore offers what appear to be some good primer texts: Trainspotting Hot Spots, 2006 Tourist Trains, a Guide to North American Steam Locomotives and scores of color guides dedicated to the C&O, Lehigh and Hudson, Penn Central and Erie Lackawanna lines.

There is an entire aisle of children’s books and plenty of Thomas the Tank Engine merchandise for little ones. If you were looking for a wooden train whistle, you could pick one up at Steamtown. A nice museum store, but we were a little disappointed at the lack of authentic memorabilia and region-centric selection.

COSTS (2/5)
The Park Museum entry fee is $6 per person, free with the National Parks Pass. A short railroad trip around the Park’s grounds runs $3. Longer excursions to Moscow, Pa. and Tobyhanna, Pa run $21 and $31 respectively.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
A Ranger made a brief appearance in the VC vestibule to orient one of the recently arrived train enthusiast groups. We may have seen another Ranger boarding a train that was preparing to leave for an excursion. If we had questions that delved beyond the static displays, we would have been hard pressed to find someone to ask.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The exhibits were too basic for the train enthusiast but too esoteric, too wordy, too numerous and not interactive enough for the casual visitor. We were simultaneously bored and overwhelmed.

FUN (3/10)
We arrived at Steamtown NHS with peaking levels of cynicism and disdain. Naturally, Michael descended into a rambling self-righteous monologue. How dare the National Park Service sully its name with a pork barrel Site especially when an important railroading place like Golden Spike NHS gets so little Appropriations love?

Mostly though, we were both angry because our Fodor’s Official National Park Guide Book told us that our National Parks Pass would not be honored. But when the ticket collector told us our Pass was good and that we would not have to pay $12 we felt a lot better. Maybe this place is not so bad at all. Let’s give it a chance. And we did.

We even enjoyed ourselves. We hopped on train cars, watched the film, snapped some photos, read some panels and decided to have a great time. Gradually, the incredulity regarding the Park’s existence returned as we learned more about the Site’s history.

What do you mean all the working locomotives are Canadian!!! Really, all the trains were bought from a failing Museum in Vermont and moved to Scranton in the early 80’s AND then failed in Scranton until the feds came in and made it a Park Site. Shocking.

It could be worse, tax paying tsk tskers. Scranton could have had the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania buy it a $400M baseball stadium and then say that it cannot afford to buy new players and then trade Bobby Abreu for four minor leaguers.

Less tangentially, the Steamtown NHS Museum stopped gaining our interest because the exhibits were boring and generic. Only the Park’s infamous history grabbed for our attention. Our fun levels had fittingly come full circle at the Roundhouse-based Site.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
There are too many fun and interesting railroad excursions and/or museums in Pennsylvania to make Steamtown NHS your priority. The East Broad Top Railroad chugs up America’s oldest stretch of narrow gauge track near Mount Union, PA, the elegant Horseshoe Curve amazes near Altoona and the Strasburg Railroad and Museum in Amish Country Lancaster houses an impressive collection of locomotives. You can even hop on a Strasburg train and take the beautiful Journey to Paradise, a much more desirable destination than Moscow, Pa. Just kidding, Aunt Helen.

TOTAL 31/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FORD’S THEATRE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE and PETERSEN HOUSE

2006-08-13T09:59:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Ford’s Theatre is an active theatre infamously remembered as the place where, on April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln during a performance of Our American Cousin. Once shot, Lincoln was carried next door to the Peterson House where he would later die.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Neither Ford’s Theatre nor the Peterson House has a striking exterior. Be thankful for the signs, Rangers and the steady stream of entering tourists to distinguish them from the other bricked buildings on 10th street.

The interiors of both have been carefully reconstructed to their 1865 appearances. Lots of dark colors and velvet-y drapes in the theatre; plenty of uncomfortable looking furniture and narrow hallways at Peterson. We are guessing that little has been done to alter the appearance of the Peterson House since its most famous guest passed away.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
In the Peterson House, a/k/a House Where Lincoln Died, a/k/a HWLD, you can see the Bed Where Lincoln Died (BWLD) in the Room Where Lincoln Died (RWLD) overlooking the Courtyard of the House Where Lincoln Died (COTHWLD).

Did the fateful shot at Ford’s Theatre save Lincoln from being associated with the failures of Reconstruction, or did it steal a great leader away from a nation when it needed him most? Either way, Ford’s Theatre was the backdrop for a tragedy that altered the history of the United States.

A very popular 1860s venue, Ford’s Theatre was closed down by the Federal Government during the investigation and subsequent trial of the conspirators. After that, John Ford was allowed to reopen but was plagued with threats of arson and destruction. The War Department temporarily shut down the Theatre, leased the building from Ford as office space and then finally decided to take it off his hands for $100,000 in 1865. The collection of Lincoln memorabilia was added in 1926 and restoration efforts began in earnest in the 1960s. Today, the Theatre enjoys life as both a National Historic Site and a fully functioning theatre for contemporary American drama.

CROWDS (7/10)
Being a site for public gatherings and stage performances, Ford’s Theatre by its very nature can handle a good deal of people without problems. Exhibits in the basement museum are all encased in clear rectangular columns to allow for optimum viewing by the largest number of people possible.

Enjoy your elbow room at the Theatre because the Peterson House is another story. Crowds, and by crowds we mean any more than 3 people, can easily clog the house’s narrow hall and limit your views of the parlors and famous BWLD. You may want to coordinate your entrance to the number of people you see exit.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
Ford’s Theatre NHS is less than three blocks from all five DC Metro rail lines. The nearest station is Metro Center (blue, orange and red lines), located two blocks to the west. Gallery Place-Chinatown (green, yellow and red lines) is three blocks to the northeast.

Street parking could get tricky but there are plenty of nearby parking garages.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Full shelves carry over a hundred stories about the Civil War, the Assassination and all other aspects of old Abe. There is a much better selection here than at the Lincoln Memorial; more room to move too. Posters, photos and guides of the Capital city round out the bookstore offerings. Be sure to save room in your Passport Book for the FOUR stamps you can get here.

COSTS (5/5)
What’s the best part about Washington, DC? Nearly every museum is free!

Our visits to Ford’s Theatre have always been greeted by impromptu (and free) Ranger tours, programs and talks.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Open the door to Ford’s Theatre and you will see at least three Rangers ready to answer your “how much does it cost” question with a smile and “nothing at all!” We heard the cost inquiry at least a half-dozen times; these Rangers make so many people feel happy every day.

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
Ford’s Theatre remains the same. Plays are still held, the balcony still provides the same views of the stage and American flags are still draped over the President’s box. So it becomes pleasantly disconcerting when you climb the stairs and see a man in period costume recounting, in convincing first-person as the DC Chief of Police, the assassination and the subsequent hunt for conspirators. Waves of tourists blasted the Ranger with an endless and fascinated stream of questions. What a perfect way to learn about the case’s basic facts.

The Ford’s Theatre basement museum is a treat for history buffs and CSI-watchers alike. It must hold the most macabre set of artifacts in all of DC including: Lincoln’s blood stained overcoat; the guns Booth carried and presumably the one he shot Lincoln with; ticket stubs from the April 14, 1865 performance; the hoods worn by Booth’s co-conspirators when they were hung and; the knife with which Booth stabbed Henry Rathbone. Amazingly, they are all originals.

FUN (8/10)
A visit to Ford’s Theatre NHS and the HWLD is low effort, high reward. Two free sites in a one block radius, close to Metro stops and many lunchtime options. It doesn’t get easier than this. Heck, you might not have even meant to come here but found yourself beckoned inside by one of many Rangers as you were walking to an event at the MCI Center or to the newly reopened Portrait Gallery. Go in! Go in! We were highly entertained by the highly biased retelling from the DC Chief of Police and were amazed once again by the vast collection of original items downstairs. The Peterson House is so close by that it is a mandatory stop. You can’t watch just half the plot, can you?

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
You bet. Ford’s Theatre NHS and the Peterson House (HWLD for those in the know) are two of the more interesting DC sites – something actually happened here. You can get your fill of crime, tragedy, intrigue and justice all without leaving the Theatre; the HWLD is a subdued denouement to the action. The shooting of Lincoln and capture of Booth and his colleagues plays out just like a modern day police drama. In his death, the martyred hero loses his faults and becomes larger than life and the bad guys get caught.

TOTAL 62/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR MUSEUM

2006-08-06T09:03:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Museum dedicated to the history of the United States Department of Interior, the Cabinet department responsible for the administration of the National Park Service.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The Museum lives on the first floor of a federal office building, not exactly a good aesthetic sign.

Once inside the automatic glass doors, the Museum is nicely laid out, with a lot of open space and room to move between dioramas and displays, many of which feature maps and kitschy artwork from the museum’s and the Department’s early days.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (6/10)
Completed in 1936, the DOI building was the first building built by the FDR administration. From that point on, every National Parks and Department of Interior decision ostensibly occurred here. This may not be a particularly glamorous history, but the federal bureaucracy is what gets things done. Right?

CROWDS (6/10)
We were the only visitors to the Museum. Most likely a good thing since we vocalized our opinions about nearly every exhibit.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The DOI Museum is located at the corner of 18th and C Streets NW, four blocks to the southwest of the White House or five blocks south of the Farragut West Metro station. Good luck trying to find parking within the restrictive metered mélange of 15-minute parking, diplomat-only parking and reserved for VIP parking. Spaces can be found, but good luck.

Getting into the Museum is a more arduous process than most DC landmarks. We waited for about 10 minutes to sign in at the front desk as an official visitor. After passing through the metal detectors, we had to wear an ID badge and restrict our movement to the bookstore and museum. None of this was unexpected or a problem; federal security restrictions are stringent nowadays.

FYI, if you want the NPS Passport stamp you either need an escort to travel to the 7th floor or (not sure how Gab pulled this off) need to have the 7th floor escort bring the stamp to the DOI entranceway where they will stamp your book. We never traveled up to the 7th floor which, we later read, holds copies of every single National Park Site brochure. Just thinking about that bounty elicits Pavlovian dog levels of drool.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
Not many sites can boast a registered historic landmark as their bookstore. The Indian Craft Store lies just across the hall from the Museum and serves as the Site’s bookstore and showcase for Native American arts and crafts from across the nation. The shop has existed in this location since 1938 and owes its landmark status to wall murals painted by Native American artists Allan Houser and Gerald Nailor.

Its small size is deceiving. The Store’s phenomenal cache of books related to every Native American craft and its graceful Sculpture Garden (all works are for sale) are not immediately apparent. Every possible display space is used yet the Craft Store does not feel cramped.

If you need to take a crash course on artwork indigenous to North America, come here. And bring your wallet. We could not leave without buying at least a magnet.

COSTS (4/5)
Entrance to the Museum and Craft Store are free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
Would you believe us if we told you we saw no Rangers at the Department of Interior? Of course, we didn’t venture up to the Park Headquarters on the 7th floor. Like we said, you need to request a personal escort for that. And we couldn’t decide what we would do once we got up there.

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
Guided tours of the Museum and other parts of the Department of Interior building are available by appointment (202-208-4743). But we found the Museum to be self-explanatory. This museum is dedicated to interpreting how the Department of Interior has interpreted its constantly changing role in the formation of America.

Most of the museum’s ten galleries offer modern presentations of the dated displays which hung in the museum when it opened in the 1930s: these are, essentially, museum exhibits explaining what the museum exhibited.

This blend of 1930’s style dioramas and dated data with changing modern exhibits is familiar to us; we have seen it in many of the NPS Visitors Centers that are in the process of updating their displays. This process is usually long and drawn out since it is dependent upon federal funding. The difference, however, is that once the VCs acquire the needed money, it is understood that the old stuff will probably end up in a closet somewhere, not part of the new exhibit.

Maps of western expansion, projected plans and blueprints for dams and mines and explanations of the evolving U.S. presence in territories like Guam and the Marshall Islands mesmerized us. Do you know into how many places the Department of Interior reaches its fingers? It is no accident it is called the “Mother of all Departments.”

FUN (8/10)
Gab could have spent several more hours in the Museum’s air-conditioned halls, but then again she reads much slower than Michael.

The Museum’s guest book documents the range of responses it elicits from its limited number of visitors: “Fascinating!” “boring!” “A hidden treasure!” “VERY boring.” Looks like not everyone finds it as interesting as we do.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Only if you are captivated by the infrastructure of the federal government or are finishing a two-year journey of 380 National Park Sites under the purview of the Department of the Interior.

TOTAL 47/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

KOREAN WAR VETERANS MEMORIAL and VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL

2006-08-06T08:58:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Korean War MEM Website; Local Korean War MEM Website; NPS Vietnam MEM Website; Local Vietnam MEM Website; NPS National Mall Website; Local National Mall Website

WHAT IS IT?
Two Memorials located on the western edge of the National Mall and Memorial Parks that honor the soldiers who served in two Asian wars fought between 1950 and 1975, Korea and Vietnam.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in undeniably evocative. The simple, diagonally shaped black granite wall etched with the names of the fallen has become the touchstone for modern War Memorial design. The Korean War Veterans Memorial’s copycat black wall confirms this notion.

While they are solemn, thought provoking and poignant neither Memorial is particularly beautiful. We wish, however, that the Korean MEM had further copied Vietnam Memorial’s minimalist simplicity. Instead, its mishmash of 19 haunting statues, diagonal black granite wall, Asian shrubbery, etched troop statistics, inscribed quotes and a shallow pool meant for quiet remembrance feels far too busy.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (7/10)
The 1982 opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial marked a profound shift in American historical commemoration. The National Mall is our country’s avenue of heroes, our tribute to lasting and eternal greatness. Until 1982, all of the Mall’s major memorials had been dedicated to individuals of genius and political impact: Ulysses Grant, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson. Grand soldiers’ memorials had been reserved for the Arlington National Cemetery, located across the Potomac in Virginia.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial changed that line of thinking, reflecting a more populist historical vision. In its wake, America honored Korean War veterans in 1995 and World War II veterans in 2004 with their own tributes on the Mall.

You are not going to learn any specifics about either the Vietnam or the Korean War at their Memorials. The Memorials are both powerful abstractions. In fact, we overheard dozens of parents, some more eloquent than others, struggling to explain the circumstances and events of both Wars to their children.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organization that generated the funds and political weight to create the Memorial in 1982, is currently raising funds to build a museum, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center, underneath the Memorial itself. On August 3, 2006 the National Park Service approved the proposed location. Actual construction is years away.

Perhaps upon the Museum’s completion, the American public and Memorial visitors will be able to achieve a better understanding of the events of America’s longest war.

CROWDS (7/10)
Hundreds of people move slowly along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial’s walls and alongside the life-sized soldiers of the Korean War Memorial. The sustained silence around the Vietnam Memorial is rarely punctuated by any voice louder than a murmur.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial aims for a similar reverence but doesn’t quite get there. Most folks pause briefly for a photo or two before moving on to the next site.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The easiest way to visit is via the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. Your $20.00 per adult all day ticket drops you off in front of the both the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the nearby Lincoln Memorial and every other National Mall-area attraction.

These two Memorials are located on the western edge of the National Mall, just south of a dense conglomeration of federal offices. The more adventurous (or masochistic) tourist could find a metered street parking space among this mess of barricaded one-ways streets, diplomat-only meters and tricky diagonal intersections. We do not recommend it.

The nearest DC Metro stop is Foggy-Bottom-GWU, located three-quarters of a mile to the north at the intersection of 23rd and I Streets. This downhill concrete walk always seems longer than the distance indicates.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
There are no NPS bookstores dedicated to either Memorial; a very limited selection of titles can be found within walking distance at the Lincoln Memorial bookstore.

COSTS (4/5)
There is no entry fee. We missed free Ranger talks at both memorials by a few minutes.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
Several young Rangers were clustered together on the walkways between the two Memorials. More were stationed at the circular information kiosks adjacent to the Site. Rangers are there if you need them; you just need to seek them out.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
What did we learn from our visits to the Memorials? With its prominently chiseled motto, the Korean War Memorial told us that “Freedom Is Not Free.” The engraved numbers adding up those who served, were wounded and died in the Korean War as well as the endless sea of names on the Vietnam War Memorial are a portion of the total bill.

We question whether one Ranger-led tour a day is sufficient given the amount of people who visit these Memorials, especially during the summer months. Perhaps the Memorials are meant to be more introspective than informative.

We asked one Ranger at an NPS kiosk about the proposed Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center museum that would be located underneath the current Vietnam War Memorial (see History). He knew of no such plans, but did direct our attention to the podiums lining the walkway which invited visitors to comment on the Memorial. He told us those papers were collected nightly and were archived with the intention of eventually displaying them. They have volumes.

FUN (5/10)
Reading the names of 58,249 Americans killed in Vietnam is not a fun experience. Neither is reading the engraved stats telling you 36,516 Americans died in the Korean War. Everybody has their own reasons for visiting these Memorials; carefree enjoyment is not one of them.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
Unlike the sites dedicated to Lincoln, Jefferson or Washington, these two Memorials commemorate not only individuals but the collective effort of enlisted men and women performing duties on behalf of their country. The events are so current visitors usually don’t need to go beyond one or two degrees of separation to find someone they know who is memorialized here.

TOTAL 49/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL and GEORGE MASON MEMORIAL

2006-08-06T08:47:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Jefferson MEM Website; Local Jefferson MEM Website; NPS George Mason MEM Website

WHAT IS IT?
Two Memorials located at the south-central edge of the National Mall and Memorial Parks that honor the lives of two distinguished Virginian Founding Fathers.

BEAUTY (5/10)
The Jefferson Memorial is a mishmash of Roman architectural styles meant to recall Jefferson’s own designs. If you are looking for Jeffersonian brilliance, you are better off traveling to Charlottesville. His DC Memorial looks and feels too much like the Lincoln Memorial. Old TJ deserved better. Thankfully, every spring the surrounding Japanese cherry trees bloom and make even this tired neo-classical design look interesting.

The George Mason Memorial offers quiet charm. Its lovely flower beds encircle a path leading to a larger than life rendition of a seated Mr. Mason. George is surrounded by walls of quotes and flanked by personal affects and volumes of Locke and Rousseau.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
This Tidal Basin-bordering, southern portion of West Potomac Park has always been an historic afterthought; its most important historic event being the 1912 planting of the first Japanese cherry trees.

CROWDS (6/10)
In Season Three of The Simpsons, the family travels to Washington DC where Lisa is a finalist for an essay contest. While visiting the Jefferson Memorial, TJ’s statue pleads with Lisa to stay because he is lonely. No one ever visits him. Things haven’t changed much since 1991.

George Mason, on the other hand, probably does not mind the sparse crowds. He looks content lounging in his personal trophy garden, reading the works of Enlightenment philosophers.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The easiest way to visit is via the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. Your $20.00 per adult all day ticket drops you off in front of these two Memorials and every other National Mall-area attraction.

The nearest DC Metro stop is Smithsonian, located nearly one mile to the northeast. The long distance walk to the Jefferson Memorial is one of Michael’s lasting memories of his first trip to Washington, DC as a 10-year old. Which explains a) why the Jefferson MEM was his favorite (because it took some effort to get to) and b) why he never visited it again in the four years he went to school at Georgetown.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
There are two stores underneath the Jefferson Memorial. One carries mostly touristy-type items, such as t-shirts, miniature memorials, ornaments and the like. The other side contains primarily print and audio/visual offerings. Both could use more substance. Like the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial also provides retail room for other DC attractions and monuments. Having been to Monticello, we know there is no lack of material discussing Jefferson, his accomplishments and even his peccadilloes. Why couldn’t we find them here?

George Mason doesn’t get his own bookstore.

COSTS (4/5)
Entrance to both Memorials is 100% free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
We saw no Rangers in the Jefferson-Mason vicinity.

TOURS/CLASSES (4/10)
The superficial representations here of Messrs. Jefferson and Mason are not particularly desirable learning places, especially since both of their plantation homes are terrific tourist destinations and only a hop, skip and a jump from Washington, DC. Jefferson’s Monticello is 115 miles to the southwest in Charlottesville while Mason’s Gunston Hall is only 25 miles to the southwest near Occoquan.

FUN (6/10)
Why oh why did we leave the water bottle in the car? Our fun rating might have been higher had we not realized our thirst at what felt like the farthest distance from a Metro stop or street vendor. Luckily, crowds were not as thick here as at Lincoln’s and there were plenty of places to sit in the shadow of Jefferson’s greatness and cool off.

We spent only a few minutes at the George Mason Memorial but that was enough time to take in the scents of the summer blooms and speculate as to when a character named Mason would join the cast of Lost.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (6/10)
Every spring, the Jefferson Memorial takes center stage on the Mall. It serves as the perpetually stunning backdrop to the beautiful pink cherry blossoms. At all other times its serves as the least visited and most forgotten of the National Mall’s four white pillared compass points. Definitely visit the Jefferson Memorial during cherry blossom time. Visit here during the remainder of the year only if you are a National Mall Monument completist and have already purchased the Tourmobile all-day pass.

We enjoyed the George Mason Memorial but recommend it only to the super-completist. On the other hand, Mr. Mason is definitely enjoying an unexpected renaissance with this 2002-dedicated Memorial and the NCAA Final Four appearance of his namesake University. Who knows, perhaps in the near future Mason’s legacy will enjoy untold interest, patrons will flock to Gunston Hall and this Memorial’s beautifully landscaped flowers will become the subject of every tourist’s travel blog. Stranger things have happened.

TOTAL 42/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL, JOHN PAUL JONES MEMORIAL and DC WAR MEMORIAL

2006-08-01T21:27:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS WWII MEM Website; Local WWII MEM Website; NPS National Mall Website; Local National Mall Website

WHAT IS IT?
Three Memorials to war veterans located in the central portion of the National Mall and Memorial Parks.

BEAUTY (4/10)
It is a bad sign when a memorial’s most glowing praise is “well, it’s not as bad and disruptive as I’d thought it would be.” Such is the fate of the new-kid-on-the-mall National World War II Memorial. After it was opened to the public in April of 2004, architecture magazines and editorial pages lambasted the design with critical glee. Some even stated that the Memorial’s overwrought marble columns and ostentatious pomp better recalled the defeated fascists than any American dream.

The WWII Memorial reminded us of a universally-panned but highly successful blockbuster film. Despite the critics’ strong judgments, the masses love them both and visit in droves. They both cost a lot to make, in the WWII Memorial’s case: $184 Million. They both evoke only visceral reactions and have zero emotional or educational depth. Both leave you with the nagging question of was it really worth all the money spent? But in the end, you accept the mediocrity and enjoy the loudness, the size, the bad script and the astounding special effects.

The John Paul Jones Memorial and the District of Columbia War Memorial are two humble and somewhat hidden remembrances located nearby. Admiral Jones is remembered with a steadfast bronze likeness while DC’s World War I vets are honored with a small Doric temple.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The generation of Americans that helped defeat Nazi Germany deserved a stellar monument and remembrance as well as a place on the National Mall. However, the Congressional decision to place the Memorial between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument certainly ruffled a lot of feathers. People feared for the sightlines and some were angry at the removal of such a large amount of public space.

Is the World War II Memorial worthy of the soldiers who fought and the millions who sacrificed on the home front and armed a nation? Is the Memorial a fitting tribute? Well, it doesn’t disturb the vistas as much as people thought it would. What else can you say? It is there and it is not going away. We were a little bothered by its inelegance, its over-the-top superficiality and its elephantine proportions. Especially because we attach none of those traits to the generation it aims to honor. Could the Memorial have been better? Absolutely, yes, but then again it could have been a lot worse.

CROWDS (8/10)
The crowds’ general excitement was the best part of the Memorial. Everybody wants to see something new. Our favorite guests were the nine ducklings who had congregated nearby the wall of 4080 gold stars’ reflecting pool. We think they enjoyed the attention.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
DC Metro stops are not particularly kind to the Monuments located in West Potomac Park. The nearest station is Smithsonian, almost ¾-mile walk from the WWII Memorial. The pleasant walk is no problem for the average tourist but older visitors and those with physical challenges might find the distance and oppressive DC summer heat to be troublesome.

Since there is no parking, the easiest way to visit is via the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. Your $20.00 per adult all day ticket drops you off in front of the WWII Memorial and every other National Mall-area attraction.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (1/5)
No bookstore.

COSTS (4/5)
100% free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
There are a few Rangers posted in the nearby Park Ranger Station (located south of the Memorial) poised to answer questions.

TOURS/CLASSES (2/10)
There are no exhibits and we saw no educational Ranger talks. The Memorial’s pillars and walls are filled with names of battles, bas relief depictions of the War, triumphant quotes and symbolic stars but no explanations and no contextualization of the pictures and words.

FUN (5/10)
Most visitors entered the site with reverence equal to that required for the Vietnam or Korean War Veterans’ Memorials. Somber moods just couldn’t be sustained as kids searched the Memorial’s pillars to find the one that had their state’s name engraved on it or huddled around the ducklings waiting for the little ones to step into the pool. Folks soon realized that the fountains made for nice foregrounds in their photographs of the Capitol or Lincoln Memorial so there was a lot of posing concentrated in the center of the Memorial. The best part of the visit was soaking in the excitement and anticipation of everyone visiting DC’s newest monument.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (7/10)
If you’re traveling to Washington, DC of course you’re going to come here. A walking circuit that includes the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial and the Washington Monument is compulsory. The WWII Memorial is located smack dab in the middle of that tour. You couldn’t avoid it if you tried.

TOTAL 41/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

LINCOLN MEMORIAL

2006-07-31T05:50:00.001-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The instantly recognizable white Georgia marble neo-Classical monument dedicated to our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln.

BEAUTY (9/10)
At the National Mall western end, the Lincoln Memorial stands, a steadfast Greek Temple that emanates greatness and elicits reflexive, earnest tribute. The ascent up its three flights of stairs builds the anticipation, heightens the spirit and takes you to the most fitting tribute any American President has yet to achieve.

Inside Abraham Lincoln sits. His position recalls an imagined recreation of the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Lincoln’s recreation is no less godlike, but instead of the bombast and tyranny of his mythical counterpart, he sits with the wisdom of Athena. Lincoln’s famed melancholy is no more; he sits with self-assuredness. His gaze is more complicated; it speaks of hope and pride but also shows wariness and fear.

Despite its grand scale and lofty symbolism, the Lincoln Memorial is not triumphalist. It shows a man with flaws and sensitivities. It speaks to a hopeful future accompanied by thought and a humble character. It speaks to what America should be.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
The Lincoln Memorial has seen historic significance rare to most memorials and monuments. Since soon after its dedication, the Memorial has played host to countless concerts, political demonstrations and speeches. Perhaps the only speech to rival the legend of Lincoln’s own Gettysburg Address occurred here: Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. On that August 28, 1963 day, the Lincoln Memorial grounds served as the centerpiece for the one of the most important (and among the largest) political rallies ever to occur, the 1963 March on Washington.

CROWDS (9/10)
There were a lot of people here! The mass of humanity that was milling about, ascending and descending the stairs and waiting patiently to be photographed next to Lincoln’s knees were all in celebratory, dare we say, jubilant moods despite the heat of the day. This classic American landmark’s grand size can handle all comers with ease.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The easiest way to visit is via the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. Your $20.00 per adult all day ticket drops you off in front of the both the Lincoln Memorial, the nearby Vietnam Veterans and Korean Memorials and every other National Mall-area attraction.

The Lincoln Memorial is located on the western edge of the National Mall, just south of a dense conglomeration of federal offices. The more adventurous (or masochistic) tourist could find a metered street parking space among this mess of barricaded one-ways streets, diplomat-only meters and tricky diagonal intersections but we do not recommended it.

The nearest DC Metro stop is Foggy-Bottom-GWU, located three-quarters of a mile to the north at the intersection of 23rd and I Streets. This downhill concrete walk always seems longer than the distance indicates.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
Oddly inadequate. The Lincoln Memorial bookstore is tucked away in the inner right corner of the Memorial’s mezzanine. It is far too small to handle its crowd, especially when a baby stroller is pushed into the mix. Shelf space is divvied up between the Lincoln Memorial and other nearby bookstore-less sites, including the Vietnam Veterans and Korean War Memorials. A few books on civil rights and more recent military involvements are scattered in there for good measure.

We could find no rhyme or reason for the bookstore offerings or why some titles were chosen over others. We couldn’t even find a cool magnet. Those looking for substantial information on our 16th President will do much better at the Ford’s Theater National Historic Site.

COSTS (4/5)
Not a penny to see the front and back of a penny.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
The area in and around the Lincoln Memorial’s circular perimeter appeared to be a Ranger-free zone. We saw security guards, bookstore clerks and construction workers doing Memorial restoration but no Rangers. Even the tiny downstairs Lincoln museum appeared to be un-staffed.

TOURS/CLASSES (4/10)
Park literature states that there are Park Ranger programs every day at all the National Mall Memorials. Somehow, we missed them all. We understand that the DC experience is primarily visceral; it is about being overwhelmed with larger than life statues and legendarily great men.

The Lincoln Memorial needs no elaboration and no educational help. Old Abe sits on his throne and regally looks over the capital city of the country he reunited (and broke apart according to some). His greatest words, the Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address, flank him on either side, in their full glory and in complete context.

That is why the Lincoln Museum, located beneath the Memorial, is disappointing. The Museum consists mostly of granite-etched Lincoln quotes regarding equality, freedom, emancipation and the Union. These quotes are mangled and taken out of context in a misguided attempt to portray Lincoln as a fiery abolitionist. The museum exhibits reveal more about the curators and their opinions about Lincoln than Lincoln himself.

FUN (10/10)
From his perch, Abe Lincoln enjoys the best and most classic view in Washington, DC. He overlooks his own reflecting pool, the new World War II Memorial, the soaring obelisk Washington Monument, the National Mall and finally the U.S. Capitol. The vista is stirring at all times and in all seasons. The views and the history will infuse strong patriotic emotions into even the most cynical of Americans. The Lincoln Memorial is a resolute reminder of the positive strength of both humanity and the self.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (10/10)
The Lincoln Memorial is Michael’s favorite place in Washington DC. Every time he walks up its steps he feels the same rush of expectation and the same flood of emotions. It is a pilgrimage site and a place to give secular thanks and blessings not just to Mr. Lincoln but to Dr. King and the pioneers of the many human rights organizations that have rallied here. The Lincoln Memorial is a quintessential American icon and a must-see destination for all Americans.

TOTAL 61/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL

2006-07-26T21:46:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Sprawling outdoor granite monument complex dedicated to our 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Humongous pink granite stacked walls allegedly separate this ridiculously long memorial into distinctive “rooms”, each of which explain different parts of FDR’s life and the America he shaped. Miniature golf course-worthy waterfalls appear (thematically out of nowhere) in each “room” adding a taunting cruelty to your DC summer visit. What do you mean I can’t stick my head into the waterfall, Mr. Ranger?

In addition to the waterfalls, the “rooms” contain larger-than-life bronze statues of FDR, Eleanor and Fala, bas relief abstract wall art, quotes written in Braille, statues of five guys in a chow line and a statue of a man listening to a radio. The “rooms” adornments are symbolic to the point of absurdity and too numerous and too disjointed to understand as a whole. Maddeningly, there are no pamphlets, no exhibits and no Rangers to explain the artistic minutiae and historic allusions.

Perhaps the Memorial looks better and offers a more pleasant visit in spring when surrounded by blooming cherry blossoms and cooler weather. We can only hope.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
It took almost 50 years to bring the current FDR Memorial to reality. Even when it was dedicated in May 1997, some felt it was incomplete.

The latest addition to the Memorial is perhaps the most controversial. In January 2001, a little more than 10 years after the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a statue of FDR sitting in his wheelchair was added to the Prologue Room. Its $1.65M construction and placement primarily funded by the National Organization on Disability who advocated for a true representation of the President’s polio-inflicted disability.

Those opposed to the addition argued that FDR had gone to great lengths to conceal his disability and never wanted to be seen as someone “disabled.” Would a man who hid his wheelchair, crutches and inability to walk from photographers appreciate that his assistive devices are now carved indelibly in stone? Do FDR’s decisions reflect denial and shame or unusual strength and determination?

We don’t have the answers, but credit the FDR Memorial and its seated statue for returning the issues of full inclusion for individuals with disabilities to the national table.

CROWDS (3/10)
If you thought 7.5 acres, “four rooms”, 300 trees and 4000 granite blocks would offer a place for quiet reflection or even an isolated experience you would be wrong. Despite the Memorial’s profligate use of public space, we found it impossible to enjoy the Site at our own pace. The crowds all move to the same spots and all take the same pictures. We never thought we would be queuing for ten minutes to take a picture of the bronze FDR and Fala. Sure, we could have moved on sans photo, but that’s not the point. We have principles…and a Chinese tourist-less picture of Fala.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
No place in West Potomac Park or the National Mall is further from a DC Metro stop than the FDR Memorial. The Smithsonian, Foggy Bottom and L’Enfant Plaza stop all are more than one mile away! During DC summers, that one mile feels more like five miles.

Since there is no parking, the easiest way to visit is via the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. Your $20.00 per adult all day ticket drops you off in front of the FDR Memorial and every other National Mall-area attraction.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Once he is able to say the book’s title ten times really fast, Michael is going to read David Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize winning, 992-page long Depression-era America tome Freedom from Fear. He swears.

There have been many books written about FDR, WWII, Eleanor and the Depression and this bookstore carries an admirable selection discussing those themes.

COSTS (4/5)
This open-air monstrosity is free although we could think at least one-thousand better places in DC to spend your time.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
Gab claims to have seen two Rangers milling about the various “rooms”. Michael cannot corroborate what he thinks were waterfall-induced mirages.

TOURS/CLASSES (2/10)
During our stay, we fruitlessly hoped that a Ranger talk would materialize. Perhaps then we could have understood what we were looking at. We know the history; we just could not come to grips with what the architects were trying to say or what mood they meant to provoke.

Did the waterfalls somehow suggest FDR’s feverish dam building or were they meant to allude to his Hudson River home? What is being said when FDR’s “I Hate War” quote is emblazoned on a wall and then, in a separate display, seen crushed in granite rubble? We can come up with dozens of interpretations, most of them contradictory, anachronistic and ultimately a misreading of FDR’s history and intentions.

FUN (2/10)
We came to the FDR Memorial with a muted anticipation. We loved our time at Hyde Park and have effusive admiration for our 32nd President.

With every step through the Memorial we grew more confused. “What’s the point of that”, we thought, still confused. Then the sarcasm crept in,“oooh, another waterfall”. We walked with a hope the next pink granite corner would signal the Site’s linear end. But the Memorial kept going.

Then came the 10-minute long (or was it 20) FDR photo incident. Thankfully, only trees and the Tidal Basin greeted us around the next corner.

We left the FDR Memorial with audible appreciation that we now had our lives back.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
Whether apocryphal or not, in 1982 Time Magazine reported that FDR once told Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter that he wanted only a small memorial about the size of his desk. FDR continued, “I want it plain without any ornamentation, with the simple carving, `In memory of . . .’”

FDR’s desired Memorial exists and sits in front of the National Archives building. Why this new FDR Memorial had to be built or, better yet, why $48,500,000 had to be spent on it escapes us. We do know that we will never visit here again but we will return to Hyde Park this July. FDR would probably agree with our decision.

TOTAL 30/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

CONSTITUTION GARDENS and 56 SIGNERS of the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE MEMORIAL

2006-07-20T15:41:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Constitution Gardens is 50 acres of landscaped park created in 1976 for the Bicentennial. The Gardens include a stagnant lake which itself holds a one acre island dedicated to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The memorial to the signers is shaded and understated, consisting only of a semi-circle of granite slabs topped with the engraved names and signatures of the signatories grouped by state. Some of the engravings have faded and the proliferation of geese and other water fowl make a poo-free photograph of the memorial difficult to get.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
Nothing historically significant happened in this space that once hosted temporary office buildings for the U.S. Navy. As an annual tribute to the Constitution of the United States, the Park Service hosts a naturalization ceremony for new citizens here once a year.

CROWDS (7/10)
We shared the island with a few families. While the space around the memorial is small, it is proportional to its number of visitors. The younger family members could be found sticking their hands into the lake (yuck) to measure its depth and chasing disinterested ducks around the outer lawn. The elders generally browsed the slabs then perched on their edges with maps to plot the course to their next destination.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Gardens are located just north of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool between The Vietnam Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (1/5)
There is no bookstore connected with Constitution Gardens or the 56 Signers Memorial. We did not notice any books on these sites at other Monuments’ bookstores either.

COSTS (4/5)
No charge to rest in the shade or run your fingers over John Hancock’s autograph.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
There are no Rangers in or around Constitution Gardens.

TOURS/CLASSES (2/10)
None are offered. What you see is what you get. There are no interpretive panels to further explain the Declaration of Independence or those who signed.

FUN (5/10)
It was refreshing to come across something so unobtrusive celebrating something so grand. We admit we shook our fist at the sight of Thomas Stone’s signature.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
When is green space in a major metropolitan area a bad thing? The mini island and lawn encircling the lake provide a nice place to rest on your trek to and from the other monuments.

TOTAL 35/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

OLD POST OFFICE TOWER and PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-07-20T07:14:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC
NPS Old Post Tower Website; Local Website; NPS Pennsylvania Ave. NHS Website; Local Pennsylvania Ave. NHS Website

WHAT IS IT?
The Sites and sounds associated with one of America’s most famous locales, Pennsylvania Avenue, the street that connects the White House with the U.S. Capitol. Included along this storied route is the Old Post Office Building, once home to the U.S. Postal Service and still one of the tallest structures in Washington, DC.

BEAUTY (7/10)
Pierre L’Enfant’s diagonal-filled, European-inspired urban design of Washington, DC makes perfect sense as you look down the wide expanse of Pennsylvania Avenue and towards the Capitol building. The white dome shimmers in the distance with steadfast majesty attracting all attention. Parades and inaugural processions come alive; this is “America’s Main Street”.

The Old Post Office Building exists anonymously with its uninspiring name and forgettable architecture, Richardson Romanesque. But once you make an effort to notice it, the Building seems ubiquitous, sneaking into photos intended for the Washington Monument or the White House and beckoning you with its shy charm, saying “I may not look imposing but I’m really tall - the city’s largest habitable structure. Really, I am. I think. Give me a chance, I’m super fun!”

The Old Post Office comes alive once you step inside. Narrow arched columns stretch upward for a dozen stories. Light bathes the open interior brightening even the dreariest haze-filled DC summer afternoons. Elevators carry you up to a 270-foot tall observatory tower that affords grand vistas of the District’s myriad monuments and its designed quirkiness. This bird’s eye view reveals flaws in L’Enfant’s plan - isolated traffic jams and the resulting odd building configurations – but it sure looks dramatic, grand and, well, like a capital city.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (7/10)
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is America’s most famous address. Someone mighty important lives there.

The Avenue holds memories of nearly 200 years worth of parades, pomp and protest. Every U.S. President since Thomas Jefferson has paraded down Pennsylvania from the Capitol to the White House post-Oath of Office. The funeral processions of seven of the eight Presidents who died in office also marched down this grand avenue. This street’s history is also marked by countless protest marches and other democratic demonstrations.

Dozens of impossibly important federal government buildings line Pennsylvania Avenue’s shores: the Federal Trade Commission, the Treasury Department, the Department of Commerce, the IRS, the Department of Justice and FBI Headquarters. We prefer its more culturally appealing tenets like the National Gallery of Art, the National Theater, the National Archives and the Old Post Office Tower.

The Old Post Office Tower was completed in 1899 and outdated by 1914; the U.S. Postal Service seemingly was growing uncontrollably. By the 1970’s, the building had lost its luster and was scheduled for demolition. Luckily, the then chairwoman of the National Endowment of the Arts, Nancy Hanks, began a grassroots movement which saved the building for generations to come.

CROWDS (7/10)
Pennsylvania Avenue is eight lanes wide and the lights are quick. If you pause to cross it, you may get stuck in its interior island. The traffic at the Old Post Office’s Observation Tower, however, is delightfully sparse. Especially when compared to the hordes at DC’s other tall structure, the Washington Monument. You will not reach the top of that soaring white obelisk unless you reserve tickets far in advance. At the Old Post Office, you get a similarly spectacular view without the wait, the pre-planning and the hassle. Consider yourself in on one of DC’s most helpful tourism secrets.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
Two DC Metro stations (Metro Center and Archives-Navy Memorial) representing all five train lines (Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow and Green) stop along this stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue. All subway roads lead here. The Old Post Office is a few block south of the aptly named Metro Center station.

Parking might be tricky unless you are willing to spend the big bucks to go into a garage.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
We think there were a few books for sale at the base of the Old Post Office’s glass elevator’s. Hard to say; we were so eager to go up. However, in the Old Post Office’s current incarnation, its bottom two floors contain a food court and a souvenir-heavy shopping mall. It could be the world’s only mall for whom entry is dependent upon you passing through a metal detector and your baggage through an x-ray machine.

COSTS (5/5)
The trip to the top of Washington, DC is free!

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (1/5)
No Rangers at all.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
There are a few unmemorable exhibit panels at the top of the Old Post Office Tower explaining its history. The official bells of the U.S. Congress are located inside the Tower and are viewable via a narrow staircase. Their ongoing functionality defies their shabby appearance.

There is no Pennsylvania Avenue NHS Visitor Center or museum. A Site would be nice but wholly unnecessary given the zillions of educational destinations Washington DC already boasts.

FUN (8/10)
An observation tower is a helpful place to begin a trip to any large city. Our initial plan was to first visit the Washington Monument but the Old Post Office Tower’s proximity to the Metro Center subway stop changed things. Our detour proved serendipitous as the day’s last remaining Washington Monument tour tickets had been handed out at 7:00am. The Monument’s ticket vendor told us this at 9:30am.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
We had a short, sweet and wonderful time at the Old Post Office Tower. The views were spectacular, there was no wait and we satisfied our inner Charlie Bucket ambitions with a perilous glass elevator ride. We also achieved a perfect visual orientation for our day’s plans which were to walk until we dropped. The entire National Mall would be ours to conquer. Tally-ho.

TOTAL 54/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

HARPERS FERRY NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-07-10T07:50:00.000-04:00

Harper’s Ferry, W.Va.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of many American historic events, the most famous of which being wild-haired abolitionist John Brown’s October, 1859 raid of Harpers Ferry’s Federal Armory.

BEAUTY (8/10)
When you cross into West Virginia, things change. Your surroundings feel denser, the hillsides and the forests look bluer and the rivers take charge. The terrain rises to unforeseen heights and dips dramatically causing great gorges and dizzying slopes. Upon this impossible geography stand quirky old towns that embrace the past on their own terms. Traversing their blocks is a roller coaster ride, geographically, mentally and historically.

Harpers Ferry is the most famous of these uniquely West Virginian beauties. But wherever we’ve gone it has been the same: Wheeling, Beckley, Morgantown, Charlestown. At Harpers Ferry, the NPS ably helps the town retain its West Virginia charm. Two blocks of restored Shenandoah Street buildings double as NPS museums and portals into the past.

Harpers Ferry begs you to wander. Crooked stone sidewalks climb upward to historic churches and river vistas. Narrow passageways between buildings lead to enchanting inner courtyards. A footbridge across the Potomac guides one to canal trails and abrupt climbs up sugarloaf hills. The visitor has a plethora of choices: where to go, how to get there and which time period to experience, are all up to you.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (9/10)
The Harpers Ferry NHP aims to educate the visitor about six disparate but interweaving themes: African-American history, the John Brown raid, the natural environment, industry, transportation and the Civil War. Its approach correctly characterizes Harpers Ferry as both a typical American 19th Century industrial town and a place where extraordinary and important things occurred.

Harpers Ferry owes its volatile and eventful history to one thing: guns. In 1799 the federal government established its second United State Arsenal and Amory here because of the town’s choice natural location at the confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. From 1799 until the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, every gun manufactured in the United States came from either Harpers Ferry or Springfield, Mass.

John Brown came here in 1859 because of the guns. He aimed to capture the Arsenal, distribute the guns to the surrounding slave population and start a multi-state armed insurrection. Or at least that is the understood premise. Of course, the raid failed. His 21 compatriots were easily captured and/or killed by the federal troops led by future Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee.

A more practical conclusion is that John Brown knew the Harpers Ferry raid was a fool’s mission. He believed that through his (assured) capture and (inevitable) hanging his martyrdom would achieve an effect far more powerful than a slave revolt; it would begin a civil war. If an affecting martyrdom was his aim, then John Brown’s raid was an overwhelming success.

Brown’s raid put fear in the hearts of Southern plantation, rallied northerners to the abolitionist caused and hurtled the country towards the Civil War.

Multiple battles of the Civil War were fought at Harpers Ferry, the town changing hands many times. The most important of these fights occurred just days after the War’s beginning when Southern troops seized and captured the Arsenal and Armory. The Confederates brought the guns as well as the gun-making apparatuses back to Richmond, ironically arming their rebellion using the same proposed technique as their despised enemy, John Brown.

Post Civil War, John Brown’s Fort and the town of Harpers Ferry became sacrosanct places to Northerners and African-American’s alike. Storer College, one of the first historically black colleges, was founded here in 1867. In 1906, the first meeting of the Niagara Movement occurred on the campus of said college. The Niagara Movement, led by W.E.B. Du Bois called for full civil liberties for African Americans and in 1909 would become the NAACP, one of the most influential and important human right’s organizations of the 20th Century.

CROWDS (8/10)
With a population of only 300 people, the town of Harpers Ferry is nearing ghost town status. Nevertheless, you are bound to see a lot of people at the National Historical Park because during the day, the Lower Town pulsates with life. Day tripping families, meandering retirees, stripped-down Appalachian Trail thru-hikers, bused-in Japanese tourists, locals walking their dogs, costumed reënactors, Boy Scout troops and white-water thrill seekers all flock to the historic buildings and charming streets.

Despite the large crowds, we never felt crowded. The Park’s exhibits are spread throughout dozens of buildings, hiking trails travel in all directions and an open air park near John Brown’s Fort offers ample relaxation space.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
Harpers Ferry, WV is about 20 miles west of Frederick, Md. via U.S. Route 340. Baltimore is 70 miles east via I-70 to U.S. Route 340 and Washington DC is 70 miles southeast via I-270 to U.S. Route 340 making Harpers Ferry a perfect day trip escape for denizens of those fair cities.

When Route 340 starts narrowing and twisting about 18 miles west of Frederick, you are almost there. Through cartographic quirk, you will pass through three states in less than a mile’s span: Maryland, Virginia and finally West Virginia. Once you’ve crossed the Shenandoah River, you are in Harpers Ferry. Turn left into the Visitor Center’s huge parking lot, park your car and take the shuttle bus into the Lower Town.

A Parking Lot exists at the Harpers Ferry Train Station, just blocks from the Lower Town exhibits, but fills very quickly. There is also a steep rocky 2.5 mile trail that leads to the Lower Town. The shuttle is your best choice.

Once in the Lower Town, visitors with physical limitations may find they want to stick to the level Shenandoah Street or equally flat C&O Canal towpath. Which is fine, most of the NPS buildings and exhibits are here.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
The Harpers Ferry NHP Bookstore stocks a ridiculously large amount of titles, including the best selection of African-American related books we have found throughout the National Park Service. Peruse carefully because unlike most NPS stores, a great portion of books here had their prices significantly reduced. Not only is the choice terrific, but you can also find some great deals.

The Harpers Ferry NHP concessionaire experience is also enhanced by the close proximity of independently-run shops and restaurants. Unlike most Park Sites, you do not need to search the ends of the earth to get a bite to eat or shop for the perfect souvenir. The corner of Hog Alley and High Street marks the invisible Park Boundary. Once you cross the street, you’ve left Federal jurisdiction and entered the free market.

COSTS (3/5)
$6 per vehicle or free with the National Parks Pass. Your $6 entrance costs is more of a parking fee than a Park entry fee. The buildings in the Lower Town are all free and do not require an “I Paid” sticker for admission; however, all parking costs money.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
Rangers are few and far between at Harpers Ferry. We experienced most of our Park interactions and historical questions via volunteers (period costumed and otherwise). We thought the Ranger scarcity was odd, especially because we visited during the Independence Celebration. No bother, the exhibits were sufficiently self-guided and we had a great time.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
The Site delves into many different but interweaving educational topics. If you aim to learn everything in one visit, it could get confusing. In addition, some of the buildings offer self-guided exhibits that are newly refurbished and/or well-done while others showcase old and puzzling displays in cramped quarters.

We enjoyed the new John Brown exhibit building and the African-American history areas but were bewildered by the Civil War recounting. Somewhere between General McClellan finding the Confederate battle plans and the subsequent Union defeat (no, really) we shut off our in-depth learning switch and approached the Site on an ooh, that’s really cool level.

FUN (8/10)
We arrived early before the sun formed a haze and the shuttles started working overtime. We spent the morning taking pictures and climbing around stone steps up to Jefferson’s Rock and into narrow alley ways. In the afternoon, we took advantage of the many air conditioned exhibits in the town’s buildings and halls.

Practically every door we opened led to a new discovery – either a refurbished general store, a short movie about the messianic John Brown or an in-depth explanation of a burgeoning social movement. The variety of topics and things and people to see kept us entertained all day. Spots special to Lewis and Clark and the C&O Canal reminded us of many previously visited park sites. How cool when history converges on one site!

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
Harpers Ferry NHP provides one of the best immersive historical experiences in the United States. The depth and diversity of learning opportunities could keep you entertained for days. But the key to the wonder of Harpers Ferry is a great time is not dependent on an historical interest. You could spend the day hiking and soaking in the stunning river views or you could approach the river from a more intimate vantage and rent an inner tube. Harpers Ferry makes for a terrific destination; it doesn’t matter what you choose to do once you are there.

TOTAL 61/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FORT McHENRY NATIONAL MONUMENT and HISTORIC SHRINE

2006-06-30T07:18:00.000-04:00

Baltimore, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of the September 13-14, 1814 Battle of Baltimore. This War of 1812 fight and American victory was immortalized forever by onlooker Francis Scott Key in his epic poem “The Star-Spangled Banner” which, when set to music, became our National Anthem.

BEAUTY (8/10)
Fort McHenry’s red-brick pentagon-shaped fortifications sit on a peninsula that juts into the industrial but beautiful Baltimore Harbor. Grass-topped earthworks serve as a visual buffer between the Fort and the water. The green expanses please the eye, offer sunbathing opportunities and give kids a place to run around. A sidewalk borders the harbor allowing for picturesque walks.

Fittingly, the Site’s most striking aspect is its flag, a giant 15-star banner just like the one that inspired Francis Scott Key. The flag rises from the Fort’s interior parade ground to frame every picture, every vista and every thought.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
Who doesn’t know this Site’s history? Carl Lewis, Robert Goulet, Leslie Neilsen’s character in The Naked Gun, Roseanne Barr and, by all accounts, the translators who worked on the controversial Nuestro Himno. Of course, the history of the Site is thoroughly detailed in the images and storyline of our National Anthem.

You know it, we know it and, while it may be hard to sing, it is unceasingly ubiquitous. We have memorized the words so thoroughly that it is easy to forget that the Anthem is a story, the story of the Battle of Baltimore and the successful defense of Fort McHenry.

The American victory meant important immediate consequence for the citizens of Baltimore: the British were not going to burn their city like they had Washington DC that April. Whether or not the victory changed the course of the War of 1812 is debatable. Fort McHenry’s historic significance and power comes through the indelible mark its story has ingrained into the American psyche via Key’s poem. We are stalwart defenders, our flag prevails, we are brave, we are free.

CROWDS (8/10)
Swarms of same-aged kids clustered by camp T-shirt colors dashed in and out of rooms. Costumed volunteers readied themselves under canvas tents and around cannons. Casual visitors strolled through the grounds and admired the Harbor views. Fort McHenry was abuzz with happy activity this fine morning.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
The Fort is located a few miles from Baltimore’s Inner Harbor tourist district. If you are driving, take I-95, Exit 55 and follow signs. If you make a wrong turn, there are signs pointing you towards Fort McHenry on every street corner within 5 miles of the Park. The Site’s Entrance stands at the eastern terminus of East Fort Road. There is plenty of free on site parking.

About three pedestrian miles separates Fort McHenry from Baltimore’s other famous attractions: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the National Aquarium, and the shops at Inner Harbor. Walking to Fort McHenry from these places is not recommended. The path passes an industrial zone which appears to be in the process of gentrification.

Frequent Water Taxis take passengers from the Inner Harbor to the Fort, or anyplace else around the Harbor. An all day pass costs $8 per adult, $4 per child. If you are staying in the Inner Harbor area (or do not wish to move your car) the Water Taxi could prove an adventurous, helpful and fun option.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The Site’s bookstore specializes in the typical chintzy souvenir realm: shot glasses, coffee mugs, snow globes, T-shirts, magnets, etc... Everything in the shop is emblazoned with either the circa 1814 15-star American flag or an overhead view of the Fort’s pentagon shape. If you collect any of these tourist trap items, you are in luck. We left with a terrific magnet.

If you are looking for any books, War of 1812, Francis Scott Key or even Baltimore-themed, then you are out of luck. The store’s book choices are manageable but lean more towards the younger reader than the grown-up looking to learn.

COSTS (2/5)
Entry is $5 per person 15 years and older. The youngsters get in free. All fees are waived when you flash your National Parks Pass. Add that to the Water Taxi price and things could get expensive.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
A young Ranger sporting a buzz cut greeted us at the VC and gave us a quick overview of the Site. He also explained the colonies of costumed interpreters – this weekend was a reunion for Fort McHenry NHS volunteers. There may have been other Rangers on site but it was hard to tell; there were more than enough knowledgeable folks wandering through the Fort.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
An elderly Dr. William Beanes serves as narrator for the Site’s film. When he is not stuffing his pipe, tidying his papers or helping himself to a shot of brandy, Dr. Beanes recounts the British occupation of Baltimore and the events leading up to the Battle which served as inspiration to the famous song. The film is entertaining; the theatre is comfortable and air conditioned. Certainly worth a few minutes of your time.

At the Fort proper, almost every room is open for exploration, many filled with exhibits on the War of 1812, the daily lives of soldiers and 19th century Baltimoreans and, huzzah! An electric map!

A small cadre of soldiers paced the interior of the Fort, more intent on preening than participating in conversation. When they all marched towards the cannons, dislodged one from its settings and pulled it to a clearing outside the Fort, a group of observant visitors wondered aloud if we would be treated to a firing. No such luck. From what we could tell, a new set of recruits were learning and this was just a practice run. That explains their shyness, too.

FUN (9/10)
Dear readers, you know we love forts. Fort McHenry NHS is no exception. Gab and Michael have both been to Inner Harbor many, many times. Both have fond memories. But can you believe this is Gab’s first up close look at Fort McHenry? No longer the mysterious site talked about on the ½-hour Baltimore Harbor cruises, the mystical place where a young lawyer realized his poetic yearnings and churned out a tribute to a young nation.

No! Today Fort McHenry was real. We touched the cannons. We surveyed the Harbor. We took scores of photos of that Star-Spangled Banner waving o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor is a perfect day trip from almost anywhere in the Mid-Atlantic region. Fort McHenry NHS provides an accessible historic compliment to your crab cakes and afternoon at the Aquarium. Or, in our case, day at Camden Yards. Don’t settle for seeing the Fort on the distant horizon from your harbor boat ride. Take a water taxi or a short drive to Fort McHenry to get a different view of the Harbor and some breathing room. Bring a picnic lunch and spread out on the Fort’s grassy lawn, or just relax and enjoy the one place in Baltimore that has free parking.

TOTAL 63/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

HAMPTON NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-06-25T19:33:00.000-04:00

Baltimore, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Sprawling plantation residence that includes a Georgian mansion that was, upon completion in 1790, the largest house in the United States. The Site chronicles seven generations of Maryland life; from Governors to indentured servants to skilled craftsmen to slaves to farmers.

BEAUTY (5/10)
The acreage of the Ridgely Plantation has been seriously diminished over the past 200 years. Even though suburban homes have replaced the endless farmlands, the land still seems isolated and a far cry from Baltimore’s port-town industry.

The elegant three-story Georgian mansion sparkles with its pastel yellow exterior, its symmetry and its graceful cupola. Sure, the paint is chipping off a bit and the vultures have made a home of the flat roof but we do not care. The bottom-of-the-hill farmhouse lacks grandeur but aces the livability test. At least one generation of Ridgelys even decided to live here instead of the mansion. For heating bills sake, we are guessing.

The farm area includes lots of white picket fences, old stone buildings and warehouse, and well-maintained (mowed) grassy spaces. Michael blathered endlessly about how idyllic the grounds were to both Gab and the Ranger. He must have said “it’s so beautiful here” a dozen times. Sure, the Site is pretty, but Michael must have taken some sort of happy pill.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Hampton NHS was the first National Park Unit established for historical rather than historic reasons. Meaning, nothing particularly eventful ever occurred here. Instead, Hampton NHS history is representative of an era and sheds an illuminating perspective on generations of Maryland life.

The Site surely captures a feudal feel. The large house sits on the hill. Its former resident(s) owned all the surrounding land, employed, enslaved or indentured all the area’s people. Industry of all sorts occurred on the plantation – iron production, tobacco farming, horse breeding – all of which were largely autonomous. The Park literature quotes a historian who states that the “plantation was probably the most self-sufficient large economic unit in America.”

CROWDS (5/10)
We were the only people there despite the charms of a mild Spring Saturday morning. Our Ranger’s effusive hospitality felt so desperate; would we be his only visitors? The draw of Hampton NHS is surely its Georgian mansion. The mansion is currently closed due to large-scale interior renovations. Perhaps the closure which will last “until further notice” is keeping people away.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
The Park Entrance is less than a mile from I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway) Exit 27-B. Plenty of signs point you off the ramp, down Hampton Road, through a pleasant neighborhood and to the Site. The Beltway forms the Park’s and the estate’s current southern boundary. What was once a stately country mansion with an Italianate garden and elegant grounds is now serenaded all day, every day by the din of 18-wheelers, commuting sedans and motorcycles.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The bookstore is tucked in a small side room in the old farmhouse. The room’s brick and wooden walls are exposed, presumably for archeological reasons. An industrial carpet covers the floor while a dehumidifier and its plug block the path to a teetering bookshelf. Upon first glance, these two shelves fail to impress, what with unopened boxes of merchandise cluttering its space.

Further inspection reveals an admirable selection of books examining the Maryland slave trade and coffee table tomes looking at Maryland history. Also for sale are Hampton NHS Christmas Tree ornaments and a box containing an 1840’s-era children’s game called Jack Straws (not to be confused with Britain’s one-time Foreign Secretary).

COSTS (4/5)
It was free, but then again, the mansion interior is inaccessible. Perhaps when its refurbishing is completed there will be a charge.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
The one Ranger on duty showered (some might say smothered) us, the only visitors, with attention. We were appreciative but wanted our freedom. It’s not you Mr. Ranger, it’s us. We’re just not ready for that level of commitment.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
That being said, a private hour-long tour of the farm’s grounds and its various buildings was nothing to sneeze at. Our intrepid Ranger was lots of fun despite tending towards rambling non sequiturs and outlandish conclusions. We barraged him with countless questions which he handled with answers; not necessarily answers to our specific questions but answers nonetheless.

After our private tour, we sat down to watch the dated introduction film. To our surprise, we had already learned the facts glowing from the Soviet Union-style (and era) VCR-TV combo screen. Our Ranger had done an excellent job teaching us about this sprawling Plantation. So we left the room as the video droned on and made our way southward to the Inner Harbor and a Yankees-Orioles game.

FUN (5/10)
Hampton NHS was just one of our day’s destinations (see above referenced Yankees-Orioles game) so we were already quite cheerful. The Site’s easy accessibility and hospitable Ranger kept us smiling. After we had our fill of farm buildings, we took his advice and made the short drive across the street to the mansion proper. Its innards were beyond our reach but we could still wander the terraced garden and get a closer look at its oversized cupola. We imagined what this massive mansion was like bustling with the amount of servants and/or slaves it must have taken to keep it functioning.

Before you leave Hampton NHS, seek out the large estate map that shares the farmhouse room with the introductory video. It illustrated the reach of the Plantation’s previous borders in a way that the Ranger could not. While you are in that room, have a look at an example of the real estate brochures that one of the last Ridgely owners distributed as he began to parcel off his ancestors’ land as suburban lots. Those heating bills must have been something.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
What makes mansion tours and plantation visits such attractions in the Old South (like Natchez NHP and the plantation trail in Louisiana) but an afterthought in the Baltimore suburbs? Perhaps the fact that the Hampton NHS’s mansion tour is not currently happening. Other than that, the two cannot be that much different.

Once the Ridgely home (known to 19th century locals as Ridgely’s Folly) opens again to traffic, we suspect there will be quite a lot to see. You easterners have an excuse not to travel the whole way to southern Mississippi to get your dose of gardens and grandeur.

TOTAL 46/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FORT NECESSITY NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD

2006-06-22T08:36:00.000-04:00

Farmington, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of the July 3, 1754 battle between British Colonial troops, led by a young George Washington, and a cunning band of Frenchmen led by a revenge seeking Captain whose brother had been killed by the British in a May 1754 skirmish known as the Jumonville Affair.

The Battle at Fort Necessity was the first battle in the Seven Years War, of whose North American theater is commonly known as the French and Indian War. The chronologically challenged War was fought from 1754-1763, involved all the major European powers, took place on four continents and was, in practice, the first world war.

The Site also commemorates the 1804-1818 construction of The National Road, the first terrestrial highway in the United States built with federal funds. The Road was our first Interstate. Today, US Route 40 follows a nearly identical route.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The Fort sits in a clearing among typical Western PA forested foothills, the same foothills that host 2 Frank Lloyd Wright homes and perennial white water rafters’ favorite, the Youghiogheny (yuck-kah-GEY-nee) River. Woodlands encroach the Fort less now than in Washington’s time. Well-placed signs indicate to the visitor where the original Fort’s manicured lawn used to end.

The Fort itself is reconstructed and smaller than we imagined. Spiked wooden stakes form a perfect circle around a small cabin inside. Not much room to maneuver to stave off the French and American Indians which France temporarily befriended.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
In 1914, the Archduke Frank Ferdinand was famously murdered in the streets of Sarajevo, thus igniting the powder keg of Europe and plunging the world into The Great War.

One hundred sixty years earlier, a similarly fateful spark lit in the woods of southwestern Pennsylvania where an expeditionary force of British troops clashed with French troops, beginning the Seven Years War. When fighting ended in 1763, France ceded control of its North American colonies and the subcontinent of India to Great Britain.

In 1754, the lands around Fort Necessity marked a territorial overlap claimed by Great Britain, France and tribes allied with the Iroquois nation. The first battle came in May, when a chance firefight ended in the death of French commander, Joseph de Coulon Jumonville. No one knows exactly what happened.

The French claimed that Jumonville had been insidiously murdered after being taken prisoner by British commander George Washington. The British insisted that the Battle had been fought honorably and no such “assassinations” occurred. Tensions mounted and a large-scale battle was inevitable.

The ensuing July 3, 1754 fight proved anticlimactic. George Washington built Fort Necessity too close to the surrounding forest and on the tactically poor low land. The Fort was quickly overwhelmed by the French and Washington was forced to surrender.

The terms of surrender proved more interesting than the fight itself. The document, written in French, included an admission of Jumonville’s “assassination”. Washington, who could not read French, signed the document without an understanding of its terms. This was not a shining moment in George’s career. The Jumonville incident, the fight and the surrender terms quickly became sensational international news, giving a concrete reason for these rival nations to begin the Seven Years’ War.

CROWDS (7/10)
A brand new Visitor Center (opened October 2005) easily handles the hundreds of school kids that pass through its doors each year. The building was designed to facilitate heavy traffic with minimal impact on other visitors, something we appreciate. As do the Rangers, who rolled their eyes and shuddered at the thought of the claustrophobic former VC. It seems like we came at a good time.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Fort Necessity is located along U.S. Route 40, the National Road, about 10 miles southeast of Uniontown, Pa. Modern-day Interstates, I-68, I-70, I-76 and I-79 all pass within 50 miles of the Site. I-68 is the closest, passing 15 miles to the south. If your trip involves connecting two of these roads then a rural detour to Fort Necessity could make a nice respite from the 18-wheeler convoys that characterize those highways.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Fort Necessity NB’s bookstore was pretty good. Center bins were filled with inexpensive stuffs that school kids and Gab tend towards – tin whistles, puzzles with twisted iron pieces and those cuddly George Washington dolls. Michael found titles on regional tourism, the War of 1812 and probably the best selection of George Washington books we have seen. A Ranger was kind enough to recommend a few titles which gave a more global perspective on the Battle at Fort Necessity and the rest of the American skirmishes which fueled the fire of the Seven Years War.

We also caught our first glimpse of the garishly enormous Explorer Edition of the National Parks Passport Book, which is, in effect, a binder not a book. Ooof. We can’t imagine hauling that around.

COSTS (2/5)
A $5 entrance fee is good for 7 days. Entrance fees are waived for large groups on educational visits. We were relieved that although the VC, exhibits and film are all new, that Fort Necessity NB is not going the way of other national battlefields and charging “user fees.” Your National Parks Pass will work here.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Rangers manned the front desk alongside Eastern National employees, guided the school groups and prepared themselves for a special costumed tour for an individual with medical issues while we were there. Two young seasonal Rangers in training shadowed the volunteer who gave the 2 pm Tavern tour. There were Rangers everywhere!

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
We were probably among the last visitors to view the illustrated-slides-transferred-to-DVD version of the Battle at Fort Necessity. While the film wasn’t bad, it wasn’t nearly as animated as the 10-minute “visit Laurel Highlands” promo that followed it. We missed the debut of the new Battle at Fort Necessity video, filmed the previous year entirely on location, by half a day.

We don’t know what the former exhibits looked like, but the new ones are excellent. Bright, easy to read timelines and maps cover the walls and explain a multi-faceted global event in digestible segments without ever dumbing down the content. We appreciated that the Site tried to give a context for the events at the Great Meadow and explored consequences beyond the North American continent.

Short film clips, timelines and memorabilia illustrate the construction of, and then cycles of heydeys, neglect and revivals of the National Road. Exhibits at Fort Necessity NB present the National Road as a physical manifestation of the state vs. federal responsibility and rights debate and offer a window into a young nation’s growing pains.

The 2 pm tour of Mount Washington Tavern didn’t add much to what we had already learned at the VC. The tour guide began by saying that the Tavern really had nothing to do with the Site and had no real historical relevance other than its position along the National Road. It didn’t take us long to slip away to take a self-guided tour of the Meadow and reconstructed Fort.

FUN (8/10)
A very pleasant afternoon was had at Fort Necessity NB. We chatted with Rangers, dodged school kids, watched reënactors set up for their weekend programs, wandered the grounds and strolled through the still new smelling VC. We don’t know what a visit to Fort Necessity pre-October 2005 was like; they seem to have spent their money wisely.

Had we planned a little better, we could have chosen a course to the Site that would have taken us through the Ohiopyle SP and past at least one of the Frank Lloyd Wright homes. But our drive was scenic nonetheless.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (7/10)
While Fort Necessity is a recommended destination in its own right, it also benefits from its location in Fayette County and the Laurel Highlands region. Wright’s Kentuck Knob and Fallingwater and camping and rafting at the Ohiopyle State Park are all within short drives from the Site. Friendship Hill NHS is about an hour away. Historic sites, architectural landmarks and nature - there should be something there to suit all your traveling companions’ needs.

TOTAL 56/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FRIENDSHIP HILL NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-06-19T07:30:00.000-04:00

New Geneva, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Longtime home of founding father Albert Gallatin, a Swiss émigré who, along with his rival Alexander Hamilton, helped to create, design and oversee the federal monetary system and economic philosophy of the young United States of America.

BEAUTY (4/10)
Albert Gallatin never actually spent much time at his western PA home. His numerous vocations, politician, economist, diplomat and Treasury Secretary, kept him away. In 1823, the House underwent a large scale remodeling overseen by Gallatin’s son with Old Albert giving instructions from Paris. Upon his return and the remodeling completion, Albert declared the House too ugly for words and vowed never to live in it again.

The House was sold a few months later. Who are we to argue with Mr. Gallatin’s aesthetic tastes? Friendship Hill’s grounds do afford pleasant views of the northward-flowing Monongahela River and the tree-lined dirt/gravel entryway adds a stately air to your trip. And the house, while no stunner, is not a completely revolting architectural nightmare.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Little occurred at Friendship Hill or New Geneva, the town Gallatin built around it; they serve as conduits to reintroduce a nearly forgotten man. Unlike Thomas Stone, Gallatin did more than share the air with famous men; he advised them, guided them, influenced their thinking and ultimately gave up his dream home and vision of an industrial town in Fayette County to join them in constructing a new nation.

Albert Gallatin served almost thirteen years as Secretary of the Treasury, the longest tenure for that office. As a Cabinet member under Jefferson and Madison, Gallatin financed the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition and reduced the national debt, only to see his savings consumed by the War of 1812 and the construction of the outdated-before-they-were-opened series of coastal defense forts.

Before rising in the national political sphere, Gallatin gained respect as a mediator, attempting to moderate the disagreement between local farmers and the federal government which culminated in the Whiskey Rebellion; He sided with his neighbors.

CROWDS (6/10)
A few other southwestern Pennsylvania wanderers found their way to Friendship Hill. We doubt the crowds could ever reach a level here that would make you feel crowded.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
Friendship Hill NHS is located in the nether regions of southwestern Pennsylvania. Two hours from Pittsburgh, an hour plus from the Pennsylvania Turnpike and at least 30 twisting miles north of Morgantown, WV and Interstate 68.

Here are the multiple directions from the Park’s website. The NPS has thankfully posted incredibly helpful brown signs at every conceivable intersection on the way to Friendship Hill. The signs tell you which way to go while they taunt you with the miles-to-go info. It is no wonder that society lady Mrs. Gallatin felt Friendship Hill was too rural and interminably delayed her returns here from New York City, Paris and London.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
Friendship Hill NHS’s book selection is paltry at best. Sure, there hasn’t been much written about good old Gallatin but the Site only stocked one book revolving around its honoree, the strangely titled To Live and Die in the Monongahela Hills. And that book was published by Eastern National, the outsourced company that runs most of the National Park Sites east of the Mississippi. Gallatin’s involvement in so many other historical and oft-written about events calls for a more substantial selection than what is here.

COSTS (4/5)
Entry is free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
One lone Ranger welcomed us to the Site but was unable to answer many of our questions about Gallatin. No fault of hers, she is actually a Ranger at Fort Necessity filling in for the regular staff. She was lovely to talk to, eager to turn on the film and happy to pull out whatever resources she could find to answer our questions that she could not.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
The Site boasts two unorthodox but effective exhibits. The first is a bizarre introductory video. In it Gallatin’s severed head tells viewers his life story, Swiss accent and all. The video used to be stranger. Mr. Gallatin was once a full bodied hologram projected onto the Visitor Center floor a la Princess Leia (Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi you’re my only hope) in “Star Wars”. If you look closely at his DVD head, you can still see a radiant sheen.

The Site’s other teaching tool is a tiny typed timeline of Gallatin’s life glued on multiple poster boards and scattered throughout the house. The timeline looks more like a middle school science project than a polished National Park Site display. But like Gallatin’s hologram, the pastiche timeline does a successful job of explaining their complex and influential subject.

We read every timeline entry and hung on every one of the disemboweled Gallatin’s words. We knew nothing of the man before coming to Friendship Hill and left with admiration, understanding and a desire to learn more.

FUN (6/10)
Fort Necessity Rangers were pretty sure that we would have time to see both sites in the same day and recommended that we spend the bulk of our time with them at the Fort. That left us to believe there was not much to see at Friendship Hill. Minimal expectations gave way to pleasant strolls around the grounds, relaxed conversations with the Ranger and undivided attention to all that the Site had to offer.

We did have time to see both Sites in one day, but our time at Friendship Hill was much more fulfilling than anticipated. Wonderful weather and a clearly marked drive to the Site added to our good moods. But along that drive we did have a shocking revelation.

Friendship Hill is in Pennsylvania and the surrounding houses fly West Virginia University flags! That is blasphemy to us Penn State diehards. University of Pittsburgh, we understand, but not West Virginia!

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
A trip to Friendship Hill? Probably not. Only if you happen to be en route to a WVU Mountaineer’s football game. Mrs. Gallatin’s protestations about being in the middle of nowhere weren’t without merit.

However, Albert Gallatin is certainly a man worth knowing more about. Given the absence of biographies and History Channel mentions, an American history scholar is left with no choice but to come to Friendship Hill to hear about Gallatin’s contributions to the development, exploration and expansion of the United States.

TOTAL 43/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

ANTIETAM NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD

2006-06-15T09:14:00.000-04:00

Sharpsburg, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of a September 17, 1862 Civil War Battle; the bloodiest single day battle in United States history. The North referred to the battle as Antietam, the creek that runs through the grounds, while the South referred to the fight as Sharpsburg, the nearest town.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Gab insists that the hazy, anonymous, rolling farmland terrain of Maryland is her least favorite genre of American scenery. Amid the panoramic nothingness, Antietam NB does have it hidden charms.

The land sinks into unexpected gullies and rises to form deceptively steep hills. These shifts are unseen from the wide angle where everything looks flat. The terrain’s disguised whimsy defined the battle’s shape. The fight most famed locale’s name, the Sunken Road, attests to this mystery.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
The Battle of Antietam is a tragic American story. Over 20,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured here in the course of a few hours. The slaughtering grounds of the Sunken Road, the Cornfield and the Burnside Bridge remain. Our Ranger talk told us that the Battle was a draw. No gains and no progress made towards the War’s end. Just tens of thousands of tortured souls.

History tells us that the Union won a slight tactical victory here, their first of the war. Nevertheless, Abraham Lincoln’s two sweeping Antietam inspired actions trumped any importance achieved by the quickly gained and quickly abandoned Maryland farmland.

These two actions were: 1) the removal of the incompetent George McClellan from command of the Union Army and 2) movement towards issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. Antietam brought the Decision 1 because McClellan’s ridiculous insubordination to Lincoln and cowardly slow command reached an apex at Sharpsburg. Had McClellan been even the slightest bit aggressive, the War might have ended that September.

Decision 2’s relevance to Antietam is slightly more specious even though the Emancipation Proclamation was issued just five days after the battle. History will forever speculate on Lincoln’s motivations and reasoning. But Antietam revealed to Lincoln that he had to do something. His Army could not rout the enemy’s and end the War, even with more men and countless other advantages.

Sharpsburg’s stalemate had delayed a rumored British entry into the war on the Confederate side. But John Bull’s pro-South leanings were real. The only way to sway their leaders against the Southern cause would be to issue the Proclamation. Antietam was a major Civil War turning point, its importance more intangible and speculative than most battles despite the massive carnage.

CROWDS (6/10)
Not to say that the place wasn’t crowded, but we expected a lot more people – Gettysburg-type numbers. There were no reënactors and to our snooping ears, it sounded like the crowds were a lot less Civil War-savvy that the average battlefield visitors.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
Antietam NB is located about 80 miles west of Baltimore, Md. or 80 miles northwest of Washington, DC. Interstate 70 and Hagerstown, Md. are located 10 miles north of the Park.

The easiest way to the Park is from the north via I-70, Exit 29A, and then south on Maryland Route 65. The Park entrance will be on your left, bordering Route 65. If you wish to weave your way from Frederick (the east) or Martinsburg, WV (the west) to Antietam via backcountry roads just make sure you have a map.

The Battlefield itself is enclosed and separate from exterior traffic. You will only be driving with other Civil War enthusiasts. The one-ways could get confusing but no one is going to get mad at you for driving at a snail’s pace.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Antietam NB’s book selection was stellar but not up to par with most Civil War Battlefields. The souvenir selection ranged from the standard coffee mugs, T-shirts, maps and DVD’s to the downright macabre chintzy plastic toy soldier recreations of the Dunker Church and Burnside Bridge. Wave upon wave of Union soldiers died from sniper fire while trying to cross that fateful bridge. Let’s play again!

COSTS (3/5)
$4 per person, $6 per family, free with the National Parks Pass.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
A good number of Rangers wandered the Visitor Center halls and were ready to answer questions.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
We were lucky enough to arrive at the Park just as a Ranger was beginning her talk. Problem was, she was speeding through her discussion at an alarming rate, presumably so that she could finish before the intro film started. She should have slowed down, not just because slowness makes for better learning, but also because the film is not very good.

The tiny museum is big on artifacts, including George McClellan’s presentation sword (hardly unique) but small on information and historical explanations. We left the Visitor Center knowing less and feeling more confused than when we started. Regrettably, we failed to heed our on advice: Always bring a companion Civil War book when you travel to a battlefield. We really missed our Battle Cry of Freedom.

We skipped the newly opened Pry House Field Hospital Museum for fear that we would go queasy and pass out because that is what nearly happened at the Chimborazo Medical Museum in Richmond, Va. The Pry Field Hospital Museum is sponsored by and affiliated with the National Museum of Civil War Medicine located in nearby Frederick, Md.

FUN (3/10)
If we had to choose one word to describe our Antietam experience, it is Disappointing. All day, we had geared up for the big Park Experience we were expecting. We feared we wouldn’t have enough time to see and experience everything. We wondered if we should skip Antietam and dedicate an entire day just to this Site.

When it was all said and done, we spent a little more than an hour and a half here. That’s with the Ranger talk, the movie, a thorough review of the museum, the driving tour and a few short hikes, all less impressive than they should have been. We admit we left the movie early; there are only so many scenes of cannons firing, reënactors charging and dropping that we can take.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
If you asked the average Joe to name at least two Civil War battles, Gettysburg and Antietam are probably the two that come to mind. The carnage that occurred at Antietam is legendary, its significance hard to dispute. Why then, did we walk away feeling none of that?

A trip to Gettysburg is almost overwhelming and that’s even before the additions of the renovated cyclorama and multi-million dollar Visitor Center. We were shocked when we realized Antietam’s museum extended no further than the four walls we were already viewing and had NO ELECTRIC MAP. Sad Michael.

What you do gain in your trip to Antietam is a better understanding of how the seemingly mundane terrain put the troops in such disarray. A few wrong turns gone right and the ending could have been different. We are not fans of speculation, but one can only imagine how moving Antietam could be if it were given the proper Park Service presentation.

TOTAL 42/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

CHESAPEAKE & OHIO NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK

2006-06-13T07:52:00.000-04:00

Cumberland, Md. to Williamsport, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The well-restored towpath and waterway of the 19th Century C&O Canal which parallels the Potomac River for 185 miles from Georgetown, DC to Cumberland, Md. Given the Park’s sprawling nature, this review covers the section of the Canal that stretches from its terminus in Cumberland, Md. to the Canal’s halfway point located near Hagerstown, Md. This includes three Visitors Centers: Cumberland, Hancock and Williamsport.

BEAUTY (5/10)
Cumberland, once a thriving canal and railroad boomtown, retains both a bustling city feel and a small town artsy appeal. The Visitor Center is housed in the imposing red brick 1913 Western Railway Station. A short boardwalk leads from the VC, past a newly built Canal overlook commercial street and to the towpath’s terminus (Mile 185). The boardwalk and towpath views are forgettable. Instead walk to the charming shops and restaurants of the town’s red brick pedestrian-only Baltimore Street.

Or better yet, drive southward into the dense high country eastern woodland forest that borders the towpath until Hancock. At Mile Post 155 is the area’s top attraction, the Paw Paw Tunnel. The 3,118-foot long Paw Paw cuts through the hillside and plunges the visitor into supernatural eeriness. The increasingly narrow towpath skirts the canal’s side with uncertain footing. A foggy sheen hovers over the canal water. The lights at the end of the tunnel never appear to move.

The terrain from Hancock to Williamsport is much less dramatic. The towpath here bears resemblance to the canal section nearby Washington, DC. The red brick Cushwa Warehouse that houses the Williamsport VC harkens back to a busier time.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The Canal was nearly obsolete before it was even completed. In fact, the C&O Canal and the famed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (the Canal’s competition) broke initial ground on the same day in 1810. Railroads quickly developed and provided faster and easier transportation but boats still came and went on the Canal for almost 75 years.

In the 1950s, there was talk of turning the C&O Canal into a paved Parkway. A Supreme Court Justice and DC resident strongly disagreed. Justice William O. Douglas persuaded the editors of the Washington Post to hike the full length of the Canal with him to experience first hand the scenery they were advocating to alter. Dozens of conservationists and citizens joined Douglas for portions of the hike and the publicity it garnered generated sufficient support to save the Canal as a National Park Site, which is dedicated to the judge.

The C&O NHP is better appreciated if you think of it as a National Park or National Recreation Area. Seen in that light, its shaded towpaths and opportunities for hiking, biking and camping are more enjoyable. If you are looking for historical significance, you might want to venture further south to Antietam or down into the District of Columbia.

CROWDS (6/10)
There were few visitors at any of the Visitor Centers. Several parking areas for the towpath were nearly full, but our visit was not affected in any way by others enjoying the Canal.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
These towns’ distances northwest of Washington, DC are indicated by their Canal milepost, 185 (Cumberland), 125 (Hancock) and 100 (Williamsport). Cumberland is the approximate halfway point between DC and Pittsburgh, Pa.

All three Visitors Centers in this section of the C&O Canal NHP are located short hops off Interstates. Three different Interstates, in fact – I-68 (Exit 43, Cumberland), I-70 (Exit 1, Hancock) and I-81 (Exit 2, Williamsport).

Once we got off the Interstates and into these quaint towns, we had problems. The signage is inadequate and confusing. One way streets and metered parking frustrated us in Cumberland, MD, we drove clear past the camouflaged VC in Hancock and, um, we actually found our way to Williamsport’s VC quite well.

We had our best experience at this Park once we got of the Interstates and traveled the narrow and winding Maryland Route 51 which parallels the Canal from Cumberland to Paw Paw. Every cross street to Route 51 seems to lead to a Canal NHP campsite or a secluded hiking trail; it felt like we were traveling in a National Park.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
Choices at the C&O Canal bookstores are consistent with what one might find at any Mid Atlantic outfitter or outdoors store: lots of hiking guides, bird books, regional overviews. While practical, the selections seemed sub par for an NPS site.

COSTS (4/5)
It’s all free, we think. The Cumberland VC even has parking tokens to allay the meters’ costs.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
No less than four Rangers loitered around the front desk at the Cumberland VC looking for a visitor to assist. Every VC along this portion of the Canal was fully staffed, from the quiet shed-like structure in Hancock, MD to the converted Cushwa Warehouse in Williamsport. But most of the time, we were the only visitors.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
Pick up a copy of The Canaller to see what seasonal activities and special events are planned along the Canal. Most of the activities in June were geared towards folks under the age of 12. Fishing contests in stocked sections of the Canal, scavenger hunts and bug and bird walks all sounded cool until we realized we weren’t invited.

More locals than tourists take advantage of this section of the Canal, so educational opportunities are less abundant here than in the southern locks of the Canal. The Cumberland VC housed in the historic Western Maryland Railway Station provides the most in terms of exhibits and displays. Try your hand at “caulking” a canal boat or securing it with ropes or just admire the model lock or life-sized mule. When it comes down to it, there is not really much to say about the limited existence of the C&O Canal.

FUN (7/10)
The two-mile Tunnel Overlook Trail at the Paw Paw Tunnel gives a good reason to stop and stretch at mile 155. While the trail is steep, almost every step is shaded. Butterflies and frogs share the path so be careful where you step. We ended our loop by walking straight through the nearly mile-long Paw Paw Tunnel. The Ranger is not joking when s/he tells you to take a flashlight. Soothing at first, the cool darkness of the tunnel is a little overwhelming once you realize it is much longer than initially thought.

We were surprised at the amount of campsites located all along the Canal. If you are looking for a nice long, relatively flat through hike, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding some place to pitch your tent. Try not to remember that the campgrounds in and around this part of the C&O Canal NHP provided the twitchy handy-cam setting for The Blair Witch Project.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
While we had a pleasant day driving along the Canal in West Virginia and Maryland, the visitor centers and Site stops in the quaint canal towns of Cumberland and Hancock were tricky to navigate and scenery grew repetitive by the end of the afternoon. The standardization and uniformity that makes for a good mode of transport doesn’t necessarily excite and amaze.

Choose the northern half of the Canal if you are looking for peaceful strolls or lunch in an old downtown; stick south of the Great Falls if you prefer a mule-pulled boat ride or stunning views to define your visit to the C&O Canal.

TOTAL 46/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

CHESAPEAKE & OHIO NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK (DC Area) and OLD STONE HOUSE

2006-06-08T08:29:00.000-04:00

Georgetown, DC and Potomac, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The well-restored towpath and waterway of the 19th Century C&O Canal which parallels the Potomac River for 185 miles from Georgetown, DC to Cumberland, Md. Given the Park’s sprawling nature, this review covers the section of the Canal that stretches from its beginning in Georgetown to Mile Post 15 near the Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center.

Also included in our review is perhaps the oldest building in Washington DC, the Old Stone House. The House is administratively part of Rock Creek Park, but geographically only one short block from Georgetown’s C&O Canal NHP Visitor Center.

BEAUTY (8/10)
Veer off the towpath at Great Falls, Maryland, follow the wooden boardwalk a short distance and you are now amid bedrock terrace forest. An abundance of green and a constant rush of cascading water softens the harshness of the imposing gray stones beneath.

Continue on the boardwalk to the Falls Overlook to what might be one of the most stunning views in the DC area. Daunting to canal surveyors we are sure, but beautiful to behold, the Great Falls earn their name. Experienced kayakers and great blue herons braved the surf – one for sport, the other for sustenance – as we looked on.

Georgetown offers a more urban, but no less charming setting for the Canal. Here one can take a ride on a mule-pulled canal boat to see the District’s former thoroughfares. The Canal runs between red brick buildings and warehouses, under bridges and parallel M Street, Georgetown’s current thoroughfare and location of the Old Stone House.

Perhaps one of Georgetown’s most recognizable landmarks, the Old Stone House is not an imposing structure; its stature is quite demure. This humble dwelling made of blue fieldstone stands out among its modern neighbors and hosts an English style garden. The garden, abloom with spring blossoms during our visit, is so comfortable that it is hard to believe it was once a used car lot.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
The Old Stone House is the only pre-Revolutionary building in Washington DC. Rumors of it serving as George Washington’s Headquarters, true or not, helped preserve the building as commercial development exploded around it.

George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant did stay at a Tavern owned by the father of a clockmaker who operated a shop in the Old Stone House in the 1800s. That connection was close enough to keep the structure intact.

The Canal was nearly obsolete before it was even completed. In fact, the C&O Canal and the famed Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (the Canal’s competition) broke intital ground on the same day in 1810. Railroads quickly developed and provided faster and easier transportation but boats still came and went on the Canal for almost 75 years.

In the 1950s, there was talk of turning the C&O Canal into a paved Parkway. A Supreme Court Justice and DC resident strongly disagreed. Justice William O. Douglas persuaded the editors of the Washington Post to hike the full length of the Canal with him to experience first hand the scenery they were advocating to alter. Dozens of conservationists and citizens joined Douglas for portions of the hike and the publicity it garnered generated sufficient support to save the Canal as a National Park Site, which is dedicated to the judge.

CROWDS (9/10)
Every Site included in this review was abuzz with visitors, both out-of-town (and country) and local. Bicyclists, walkers, joggers, commuters, sightseers and strollers take full advantage of the Canal’s flat path as an alternative route through Georgetown and out into the Maryland suburbs.

Does anyone take a visit to DC and not go to Georgetown? This section of the route was understandable much more crowded than the rest. Although the towpath is a high traffic area here, we never felt cramped. In fact, walking along the Canal provides shaded and relaxing respite from Georgetown’s constant commerce, as does the garden of the Old Stone House.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Georgetown C&O Canal NHP Visitor Center is located just a block south of the bustling commercial Washington DC area of M Street between 30th and 31st Street. The Old Stone House is located on the northern side of M Street. The House is easy to spot; it’s the building that’s neither a restaurant nor a clothing store.

Georgetown’s parking dearth sparks many angry tales, but Michael has never had difficulty finding metered street parking east of Wisconsin Avenue and north of M. If two hours just are not enough, there are plenty of pay parking lots on K Street under the Whitehurst Freeway.

Famously, the DC Metro does not serve Georgetown. The official word is that earth is too unstable to support a tunnel; urban legend says the hoity-toity Georgetown residents want their part of town to maintain a modicum of exclusivity. The nearest Metro stops are Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom.

The Georgetown VC and ticket office for Canal boat rides is temporarily placed in a small trailer while its former address receives restorative TLC. Just follow the multitude of brown signs strategically placed throughout Georgetown to find it.

The Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center is located just off MacArthur Boulevard, a few miles west of the DC Beltway (I-495). Take Beltway Exit 41 (Clara Barton Parkway) away from Washington DC. There are signs. Exits 40 (Cabin John Parkway) and 39 (River Road) could also work. Use a map, however, because further written directions would only confuse.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
Stop at the Old Stone House to find unique titles on historic preservation, coffee table books on DC and most temptingly, a wide array of glassware from the Jamestown glassworks, pewter cups and bowls, redware pottery and all kinds of handmade Colonial items: soaps, candles, wooden toys. If you have any upcoming birthdays or anniversaries in your family, this is a great place to begin your shopping.

Great Falls Tavern contains a bookstore with a few titles about the history of the Canal and a few camping and hiking guides but no pewter or Jamestown glass delights. Save your pennies for Georgetown.

COSTS (1/5)
Entrance to Great Falls Park is $5 a car, good for 3 days and both the Maryland and Virginia sides of the Falls. There is no charge to visit the Old Stone House or to use any portion of the Canal’s towpath. If f you want to take a boat ride, however, it will set you back $8 a person ($6 for seniors, $5 for kids).

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
Rangers invited us into Great Falls Tavern in Maryland and tried to persuade us to jump on the last canal boat tour of the day in Georgetown. No less than 4 costumed interpreters managed the canal locks and mules necessary to move the boat. We didn’t encounter any Rangers at the Old Stone House.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
Who better to introduce a charming American destination than Charles Kuralt? An 8-minute “On the Road” segment plays by request at all of the C&O Canal VCs, including the Great Falls Tavern. Somehow, he can make George Washington’s disappointment and the demise of the Canal’s commercial ventures sound not so bad. With Mr. Kuralt’s soothing voice still in our heads, we headed out into the sunshine and the Great Falls. There are some exhibits and a historically furnished room in the Great Falls Tavern, but not enough to keep you indoors.

The Georgetown VC is temporarily displaced, but visitors still flock to the Canal. We lingered as interpreters filled the canal lock and readied the boat to move slowly down the canal. Rangers discussed the history of the Canal while the workers showed us firsthand the manpower (and mule power) needed to use the Canal.

Boat tours last one hour and run Wednesday through Sunday at 11 am and 3 pm. Special tours can be arranged for groups and if there are any extra spaces on those boats, Rangers will open ticket sales to the public.

FUN (9/10)
We had a glorious day at the C&O Canal Sites and the Old Stone House.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
Washington DC in late Spring becomes a joyous place. The days are warm, the sun is bright, the flowers are blooming and the humidity has yet to descend. From Georgetown to the Great Falls Tavern, up and down the Potomac, suntanned joggers and cyclists, couples in love and the occasional dog walker enjoy the smooth towpath terrain. The garden of the Old Stone House attracts anyone and everyone looking for a little shade and cool grass to set down their shopping bags. The Canal recaptures the activity and animation it briefly enjoyed in the past. We honestly couldn’t think of a nicer way to spend the day.

TOTAL 61/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

GREAT FALLS PARK (Part of George Washington Memorial Parkway)

2006-06-06T06:43:00.000-04:00

McLean, Va.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
The Virginia side of the Great Falls of the Potomac River and Mather Gorge.

BEAUTY (8/10)
The Great Falls are as stunning as any waterfall west of the Mississippi; as stunning as any set of churning cascades. There is something overwhelmingly beautiful about a piece of nature that man could not surmount.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
It was George Washington’s dream, yes, the George Washington, to create a water highway connecting the cities of Washington DC and Pittsburgh, PA. He and his surveyors, however, were stymied by the power the Great Falls of the Potomac.

Great Falls Park contains remnants of the Pawtomack Canal, the first successful attempt to bypass the Potomac’s swift current. The Pawtomack Canal opened in 1801, two years after Washington’s death; financial difficulties closed it shortly thereafter.

In 1836, old George’s DC to PA waterway-dream would finally be realized with the opening of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The C&O Canal ran along on the eastern shoreline of the Potomac and now constitutes the C&O Canal National Historic Park.

CROWDS (7/10)
A warm but not too humid afternoon brought plenty of casual visitors to the Park. Many, us included, , stopped to gaze at the Falls and take a short stroll before continuing along the Parkway. Several fishermen were taking advantage of the Fisherman’s Eddy, a short distance south of the Falls.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
Great Falls Park is located an easy four miles from DC Beltway Exit 44, the Georgetown Pike Exit. Take the Georgetown Pike (Maryland Route 193) west for three miles until you get to Old Dominion Drive. Follow the NPS sign and turn right. Follow the road until its terminus: Great Falls Park.

Two of the three overlooks are short walks from the parking lot. Overlooks 2 and 3 have been recently reconstructed and are now handicap accessible.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
Titles skew towards helpful outdoors guides aimed at enjoying the DC surroundings. Michael should have bought one of these titles while he lived here. There is a kiosk serving food on the interior courtyard facing the first story of the Visitor Center.

COSTS (3/5)
$5 will get a car full of your family and/or friends access to either side of the Great Falls Park for 3 days. If you enter the Park by any other means (bike, foot, horse), the cost is $3 a person. Your annual National Parks Pass is valid here.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
Gab was snubbed when she asked the Ranger at the VC a question about Wolf Trap, another NPS site a few minutes south of Great Falls. His dismissal (and wrong information) didn’t make us eager to engage him any further. We caught sight of another Ranger climbing around the Falls Overlooks. We thought for a second we might be able to join an unannounced Ranger talk or walk, but nothing materialized.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The nice way to categorize the Museum is sparsely populated. We were slightly intrigued by the ancient canoe/kayak hanging on the wall. Intrigued enough to take a picture, but not interested enough to read the explanatory panel.

FUN (7/10)
It is easy to forget that one is less than 30 miles from Washington DC as the roar of the Falls drowns out other sounds, even the white noise of the Beltway. We were mesmerized by the beauty and power of the Falls and took dozens of Great Blue Heron photos.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (7/10)
The Great Falls of the Potomac are visible from two National Park Sites, the Great Falls Park in Virginia and the C&O Canal NHP in Maryland. For the Great Blue Heron, the two Parks’ overlooks are separated by less than 1/10th of a mile. For the terrestrial-dependent visitor, however, the trip around the Falls and over the I-495 bridge from Va. Park to Md. Park is about 10 miles.

Which side is better?

View-wise, it is debatable. Michael liked the Virginia vista, Gab preferred Maryland.

Both of us, however, preferred the hikes, the towpath, the museum and the charm offered by the C&O Canal NHP in Maryland. But remember, in Maryland, the walk to see the Falls is considerably longer and steeper than the hop out of your car and the Falls are right there choice offered by Great Falls Park. If a mile-long hike through the sticky humidity of a DC summer sounds unappealing, then make the drive to Virginia.

TOTAL 49/80

PISCATAWAY PARK and NATIONAL COLONIAL FARM

2006-05-31T20:12:00.000-04:00

Accokeek, Md.
NPS Website; Local Piscataway Park Website; National Colonial Farm Website

WHAT IS IT?
Six miles of prime Potomac River bordering real estate that became a National Park in 1961 in order to provide pristine, 18th Century-worthy views from George Washington’s plantation home, Mount Vernon, located directly across the water. The Park includes the privately run National Colonial Farm, a living history museum that depicts a circa 1770 middle class Virginia family’s tobacco farm.

BEAUTY (5/10)
At Piscataway Park, the wide Potomac’s banks stretch for miles, untamed by most industrial and residential intrusions. An L-shaped pier gingerly enters the waters providing ample fishing opportunities to patient anglers. A rogue pier stanchion hosts an osprey nest. Its resident raptor provides an exciting show, hovering, swooping and capturing an unsuspecting fish.

Stately Mount Vernon demands attention and we obliged. Our binoculars revealed hundreds of tourists meandering around its grounds. Maybe we won’t visit today after all.

The National Colonial Farm feels very museum-ish. Its buildings are beautifully preserved, its lawns are impeccably mowed and its fences are in perfect condition. Its carefully selected Heritage Breed Animals also look quite content. This Colonial Farm does not have the lived-in appearance earned by northern Virginia's Claude Moore Colonial Farm.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
While the National Park Service was thinking about a project to protect the views of Mount Vernon, the Accoceek Foundation rose to the occasion and began purchasing the land to do so. The Foundation formed for the sole purpose of preserving this stretch of the Potomac riverbank and in doing so, became one of the nation’s first land trusts.

The Accoceek Foundation’s stewardship of the National Colonial Farm in Piscataway Park, including its organic gardens and heritage breed livestock contributes to the knowledge base and gene pools necessary for ecologically sound farming today. Their living history presentations portray middle-class existence before the American Revolution, the day-to-day life of a new and growing part of New World society.

CROWDS (7/10)
Clusters of school children were being shepherded through the National Colonial Farm by able volunteers. The groups were scattered sufficiently so we could eavesdrop when the conversations sounded interesting but our progress through the farm was never impeded by them. Plus, the presence of buses full of kids guaranteed that the seasonal gift store (and home of NPS passport stamps) would eventually be open.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The Piscataway Park and National Colonial Farm are located approximately 15 miles from the DC Beltway (I-495, 95). From either Exit 2A or 3A take the Indian Head Highway (Maryland Route 210) south for about ten miles.

The ultra specific Accokeek Foundation directions then read as follows: “After you pass Farmington Road, you will take a right at the next stop light onto Livingston Road (look for B&J Carryout). Drive one block and turn right on Biddle Road. At the stop sign, turn left on Bryan Point Road and follow 3.5 miles to the end. Make a right into the visitors parking lot.” We would be hard pressed to get more specific.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
We would have been pretty disappointed if the door had remained locked and our only view of the Museum Gift Shop was through a thick window. Even from that vantage, the goods looked inviting. Once the store opened, Gab predictably made a beeline for the Sale table but was sidetracked by the numerous displays and items celebrating the “item of the month” which happened to be natural herbs.

Tea sets, pottery, and all sorts of things about organic gardening fill the tables and shelves. Teas, candles, soaps and of course, herbs scent the air. Although there are children’s books and items here, the Shop slants towards the mature customer. Not a lot of field-trip friendly doodads and trinkets here, so not a lot of pint-sized visitors. Probably a good move since the teacup display looked pretty precariously placed.

COSTS (3/5)
Admission into Piscataway Park is free. If you want to enter the National Colonial Farm, it is $2 per person.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
We didn’t encounter our first NPS Ranger until we knocked on his Office door. Interpretive duties at the National Colonial Farm are left in the hands of its founders, the Accoceek Foundation.

The walk from the Park Office back through the Colonial Farm exposed more familiar brown shirts, even more costumed interpreters from the Foundation, and ended at the wonderful and now-staffed museum shop.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
The best thing about the National Colonial Farm is its contrast to its wealthy neighbors at Mount Vernon and its poorer peers at Claude Moore National Historic Site. National Colonial Farm paints a vivid picture of what a middle-class; somewhat upwardly mobile plantation farm would have looked like over 230 years ago. We drew on our previous day’s experience at Claude Moore to talk about the various social classes and conditions with an interpreter we met as we were leaving the Farm.

Unlike our hosts at Claude Moore, this interpreter felt free to shift in and out of character, which we truly appreciated. We had spent the morning marveling at the sprawl that was Winthrop and we wanted a local’s (modern) point of view. She also clarified some of our questions from Claude Moore’s which came across as anachronistic when we asked our resolute farmers.

FUN (8/10)
Baby lambs! We saw two baby lambs. As in, just been born baby lambs! A volunteer was explaining to a group of wide-eyed kids, us included, one of the lamb’s present predicament. The little guy had managed to get himself on the side of the fence opposite his mom, who was already taking a stronger liking to his sibling. If he couldn’t find his way back to his mom and back in her good graces, he could starve before the week was through. Come on baby lamb! You can do it!

The drama, the suspense! You know it had to be good to keep a dozen 4th graders rapt in silent attention. When we weren’t gawking at sheep or chatting away with living history presenters about the population and landscape of Northern Virginia – both 18th and 21st century – we hung out with a disinterested burro and some exotic turkeys.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
Piscataway Park and National Colonial Farm would be a fine compliment to any visit to Mount Vernon. The Site allows its visitors to take a break from the crowds and enjoy different perspectives, scenic and social, of Mr. Washington’s estate and the 18th century Maryland/Northern Virginia countryside. Its affordable admission ensures that you can extend your excursion without overextending your vacation budget.

TOTAL 52/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

OXON COVE PARK and OXON HILL FARM

2006-05-29T20:29:00.000-04:00

Oxon Hill, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
An NPS-operated working farm replete with red barns, silos, John Deere tractors, cattle, hogs and draught horses. The farm’s most remarkable characteristic is its location, a narrow swath in-between Interstate 295 and the DC Beltway in an otherwise decidedly urban setting.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Some people find beauty in plowed fields and fenced plots filled with chickens, winding paths leading up to boxy, porched farmhouses. For someone who has never seen a farm, we admit Oxon Hill could hold a certain kind of charm. But is the idea of farmland really such a fading memory as Oxon Hill implies?

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
In 1891, the United States Government purchased this land as a farm for the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. It was given to the National Park Service in the 1960s and since 1967, Oxon Hill Farm has served as a functional farm, where city folk can come and experience the joys, or toils, depending on your inclination, of farm life for an afternoon. Its primary purpose today is to serve as an accessible window into a more rural way of life.

We learned nothing about St. Elizabeth’s during our visit from either Park displays or the Site materials provided. Further research taught us that the preeminent mental health reformer Dorothea Dix founded St. Elizabeth’s in 1855 as the Government Hospital for the Insane. It was the first and only federal mental facility with a national scope.

Because of our current line of work, the history of St. Elizabeth’s is much more interesting than the farm that formerly served as “therapy” and sustenance for its patients.

CROWDS (6/10)
We arrived after the last wagon ride of the day. We were the only visitors to the Farm, although some local workers were enjoying an afternoon beer at the Site’s shady picnic area.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Oxon Hill Farm is located alongside the Potomac, directly across the River from Alexandria, Va. via the DC Beltway’s (I-95, I-495) always crowded Woodrow Wilson Memorial (Draw) Bridge. To get to the farm’s parking lot, take exit 3A and bear right onto Oxon Hill Road. Keep your eyes open, you will need to make a quick right turn through orange cones into what seems like a construction zone.

There is no DC Metro access to the Site. The D14 Bus, which departs from the Southern Avenue Metro Station could drop you off on the Indian Head Highway; from there it would be a 1/4-mile walk to the entrance through heavy traffic, dust clouds and back-hoes. Driving is wildly preferred to the mass transit option.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The Visitor Barn and Bookshop bears a striking resemblance to Michael’s mom’s old kindergarten classroom. Learning stations, exhibits, reading and video watching areas fill the barn. The bookstore selection is definitely geared toward school groups and roaming students with pockets full of allowances. Nick knacks to remember one’s day at the farm and children’s books abound.

COSTS (5/5)
Park entry is free as, presumably, are the daily (1:30pm) wagon rides that circle the grounds.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
We luckily ran into the one Ranger on duty just as he was hopping into his pick-up truck. He unlocked the Visitor Barn for us and lingered, a little impatiently, as we took a look around. Given its claim as a working farm that represents a time “when horsepower still came from horses,” we are guessing that Rangers at Oxon Hill Farm spend more time tending to the animals than visitors.

TOURS/CLASSES (6/10)
To read the Park’s pamphlet, one gets the impression that Oxon Hill Farm is abuzz with activity from dawn to daybreak and that visitors could roll up their sleeves, jump right in and help the Rangers with their many, many farm duties. Life on the farm is hard work! That’s the message that Oxon Hill seems eager to impart.

Here’s the thing: we are having a very hard time believing that DC residents have never seen a farm and are completely ignorant of life beyond the Beltway. Oxon Hill positions itself as a foreign experience and this premise feels condescending.

To top it off, there was a whole lot of nothing happening during our afternoon visit. Things might be very, very different when a school group is let loose on the grounds. But on the day of our visit, construction crews on I-295 were the locus of action, not anything on the farm.

Gab is also disappointed that there is no mention of Oxon Hill Farm’s earlier existence as an adjunct part of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in any of its materials. The history of mental institutions and the progress of the treatment of mental illness are fascinating topics. Discussion of this would have added depth and a bit more significance to the Farm as a NPS site

The founder of the American Red Cross, Clara Barton, has her own National Park Site, why doesn’t our country’s most prominent mental health advocate and reformer, Dorothea Dix, enjoy the same remembrance?

FUN (5/10)
This isn’t to say we had a bad time at the Site. We were just unclear what we were supposed to be taking away from our visit. Oxon Hill Farm provided a quiet setting for a midday walk and all the animals were out. We spent our hour at the Site courting the ducks, getting the pigs and horses to look our way for photo opps and talking with the pregnant cow who looked like she was ready to burst at any second. Poor thing! The surroundings were quaint and we appreciated the momentary respite from traffic.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (3/10)
Oxon Hill Farm seems ready and able to handle large amounts of middle-schoolers, the presumed audience for the exhibits inside the Visitor Barn. We are guessing that this Site is a very popular field trip destination. There are plenty of learning opportunities at the Farm, just none geared towards anyone that can get into a PG-13 movie without an adult.

TOTAL 42/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

MONOCACY NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD

2006-05-24T07:04:00.000-04:00

Frederick, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of the July 9, 1864 Civil War fight which the Park claims to be the “Battle that Saved Washington”.

BEAUTY (4/10)
The 1/2-mile loop Gambrill Mill Trail was the highlight of our visit. Variations of green shimmered in every direction. Purple wildflowers framed a rippling creek crossed by old stone bridges. Newborn Canada Geese streamlined through a murky pond eager to learn from their proud parents. We remained unclear as to this area’s historical relevance but we enjoyed this typical Eastern early springtime setting.

The remainder of the Battlefield sprawls around fields of private farmland and wooded fields. The land is bisected by both Interstate 270 and the increasingly busy Maryland Route 355 (The Georgetown Pike).

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The Site repeats its stage name, the “Battle that Saved Washington”, so many times that all but the most skeptical visitors are liable to accept the Park’s claim that the fight was “one of the most important of the War” as fact.

That claim goes something like this:

1) 15,000 rabid Confederates led by the irascible Jubal Early make their way from the Shenendoahs poised to attack defenseless Washington, DC. 2) By the grace of our founding fathers’ ghosts, Union General Lew Wallace trudges 5,800 tired troops to Frederick, Md. to intercept the irresistible Rebel force. 3) The Confederates rout the Bluecoats troops but are stalled long enough to allow Washington DC to reinforce its defenses. 4) Early cannot attack DC, the Union is preserved, and we all live happily ever after...until reconstruction.

We tend to get suspicious as the what if? qualifiers pile up. In Monocacy’s case, the Site accepts Early’s future victory as an incontrovertible fact. In addition, there is an underlying belief that the assumed sacking of Washington, DC would have mattered. At the time of the battle, the South was on their last legs. Sherman was closing in on Atlanta, Richmond had fallen and Lee’s Army had been backed into a siege in Petersburg, Va. The Rebels food, ammunition, land control, troop count and morale all had dwindled to alarmingly low rates.

At best, a last ditch seizing of the nearly deserted Washington DC would only have delayed the South’s inevitable defeat. Despite the Park’s assertion, the Battle of Monocacy ranks near the bottom in the importance scale of NPS Civil War sites.

CROWDS (3/10)
The Confederate and Union forces met at this location primarily because it was a crossroads on the way to Washington DC. 142 years has not altered the integral location. The speed and density of traffic, however, has increased considerably.

Two of the four stops on the Park’s Auto Tour are located along the Georgetown Pike. No one obeys the Pike’s 35-mph speed limit and everyone tailgates. A speeding car with an oblivious driver nearly rear-ended the proud Altima while we tried to make a difficult left-hand turn into an Auto Tour stop’s parking lot. The Pike is too crowded for an Auto Tour; we wonder how many Civil War tourists have been in accidents at Monocacy NB.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Gambrill Mill Visitor Center is located on the Georgetown Pike about halfway between I-270 Exits 31 and 26. Frederick, Md.’s southeastern sprawl is threatening to overcome the Battlefield’s land. The Washington, DC Beltway is just 30 miles to the southeast via I-270; The Baltimore, Md. Beltway is 45 miles to the east via I-70.

Monocacy NB’s closeness to urban centers hinders its accessibility. The roads around the Battlefield are just too crowded, even during our midday Sunday visit. We saw the Battlefield and its monuments but never felt we could get close to them because of speeding cars, tiny parking lots, bumpy dirt/gravel roads and ambiguous trails.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
The worst Civil War bookstore we have seen; and there is only two more to go!

COSTS (4/5)
Entry into Monocacy NB is unquestionably free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
The two Rangers at the Visitor Center were both isolated by two older gentlemen telling their personal World War II yarns. We had Civil War questions but the stories kept going. So we left.

TOURS/CLASSES (2/10)
On March 24, 2006, the NPS broke ground on a new Visitor Center. In the meantime, the Gambrill Mill Visitor Center has seen its share of neglect. The exhibits are outdated, there is no introductory film, a poor bookstore and no glossy explanatory Park brochure.

We left the Park confused, unsure of what we saw and doubtful of the Battle’s big picture worth. While we were there, we did not know where to go, we were frazzled by the traffic and nearly had our car totaled. A little bit of Park Service guidance would have helped.

FUN (2/10)
Our only enjoyment came from our Gambrill Mill Trail stroll. We could not wait to leave.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
Because Monocacy NB is close to Harrisburg, PA and on the road to DC we will probably stop back once the Visitor Center is finished. Until then, we suggest avoiding Monocacy NB like the plague found at the Natural Bridges NM campground.

TOTAL 28/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

FORT WASHINGTON PARK and FORT FOOTE PARK

2006-05-22T06:49:00.000-04:00

Fort Washington, Md.
NPS Fort Washington Website; NPS Fort Foote Website; Local Fort Washington Website

WHAT IS IT?
Two long-defunct Potomac River-facing forts whose purpose was to protect Washington DC from waterborne invaders. Neither fort ever faced an enemy’s military attack.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Fort Washington offers stunning views of the wide Potomac River from its hilltop sentry. It is too bad the Fort itself is such a deteriorating mess. Fort Washington’s red brick interior is currently undergoing an intensive facelift; the resulting situation is a loud, fenced-off, permanent construction zone. There are few places to go and even fewer things to see.

Fort Foote, well, we drove there and parked. From the parking lot, there was an indeterminately lengthed walk to the Fort. We skipped the hike and left. Documentation states that Fort Foote is the best-preserved Civil War fort in the area but NPS’ Fort Foote website has no pictures and an Internet search yields only one shot of a 15-inch Rodman gun. We do not think we missed much because there is no Fort Foote Visitor Center and no Rangers on staff.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
What if they built a fort and no battles came? That is not such a bad thing, we guess, but it happened at both of these Sites. Fort Washington’s unfortunate history, however, is far more interesting.

The US began construction on Fort Washington in 1809 in order to protect Washington, DC from Potomac-River bound invaders. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the British eluded the Fort’s guns by sailing up the Patuxent River on their way to sacking and burning our nation’s Capitol. During the British retreat down the Potomac, Fort Washington was destroyed; not by the British but from its own soldiers’ misfired explosives.

The Fort was quickly rebuilt and remained an active base for over 120 year until its closure shortly after World War II, but never again faced attack (enemy or otherwise).

CROWDS (5/10)
Lots of people but no actual other tourists viewing Fort Washington. A busload of schoolchildren spent our entire stay (one hour) in the parking lot picnicking and playing football on the asphalt. Had they ever entered the Fort? Who knows?

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Both forts are located along the eastern shore of the Potomac River just south of Washington, DC and sit a short jaunt westward from Maryland Route 210 (the Indian Head Highway). To get onto Route 210, take the DC Beltway (I-495, 95) Exit 2 and go south. Both forts are less than 10 miles away.

Neither the George Washington Parkway NPS brochure nor the National Capital Parks-East NPS packet show any roads linking Route 210 to either Fort. An absence of roads raised a few flags in the Altima, but we pressed on. Well-placed brown NPS signs pointed us off Route 210 and to the Fort Washington VC parking lot. If you are traveling on 210 from the south: take Old Fort Road; from the north: take Fort Washington Road.

The walk from the lot to the VC and adjacent fort was longer and steeper than expected. You have been warned. The route to Fort Foote was trickier, as it weaves through residential neighborhoods. Luckily, there are helpful driving instructions on hand at the Fort Washington VC. As mentioned, the Fort Foote parking lot is not adjacent to the Fort itself; you have to walk through the woods to get there. How long? We don’t know; we didn’t leave the car. The walk could be 100 yards; it could be one mile.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
There were a few sparsely shelved racks at the Fort Washington VC that scratched the surface of defense fort and assorted local history.

COSTS (2/5)
A $5 per car fee is posted both online and at Fort Washington’s front gate. We saw no Rangers collecting fees. The $5 cost may be suspended during construction; how can you charge when there is nothing to do? Had there been a Fee Station, our National Parks Pass would presumably have covered it.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
When we first arrived at Fort Washington, there was a sign on the Visitor Center reading: CLOSED. “How could this be?” we thought while we decided to walk into the Fort. Gab simmered while adding, “If we drove all this way and don’t get any stamps I’m going to be angry.” “Going to be, as in the future?” Michael asked.

Luckily, for all involved, the Ranger staffing the Fort was just out on lunch break. She returned, let us in on the bounty of stamps and answered a few questions.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
The charming yellow Fort Washington VC includes three full rooms of new-ish exhibits. Admittedly, we were less than vigilant in our learning duties. Our quick perusal revealed that much of their info was similar to stuff we learned at other American Coastal Defense System forts; we have been to dozens. Fort Washington would make for a nice initial lesson in multi-generational military history but you must go elsewhere to see a fort that saw fighting.

FUN (4/10)
Could we have spent a more worthwhile two hours of our lives? Sure, but the Fort Washington VC has four different National Parks Passport stamps AND a snazzy lighthouse stamp. Multiple stamp sites always make us happy. A five-stamp site makes us ecstatic. The Fort and its history, however, were nothing special.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
We have documented our love of forts countless times, or in approximately 40 Site Reviews. But even we cannot recommend a trip down to Fort Washington or Fort Foote. Regardless of how much they spruce the place up, there is still nothing to see.

If its eastern shore Potomac River views you want, go down the road to Piscataway Park where the walk to the water is considerably shorter and there is no charge. Fort Washington’s most appealing draw may be its summer-long, once a month, first week of Sunday Artillery Demonstrations. They promise to be more successful than the misfiring cannons of 1814.

TOTAL 35/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

US MARINE CORPS MEMORIAL and NETHERLANDS CARILLON (Part of George Washington Memorial Parkway)

2006-05-19T08:03:00.000-04:00

Arlington, Va.
NPS GWMP Website; Local GWMP Website; Local USMC MEM Website; Local Netherlands Carillon Website

WHAT IS IT?
Two adjacent and imposing structures located in Arlington, Va. along the George Washington MEM PKWY and overlooking Washington, DC. The US Marine Corps MEM is better known as the Iwo Jima Memorial because it recreates the famous World War II photograph of five Marines raising an American Flag atop Mount Suribachi.

The Netherlands Carillon is a 135-foot bell tower donated to the US by the Dutch. The tower and its 50 handcrafted bells represent thanks for American intervention in World War II.

BEAUTY (7/10)
The Carillon and the Marine MEM seem like strange neighbors. The steel Carillon tower guarded by a pair of regal stone lions is sleek, rectangular, modern and abstract; the bronze Memorial is a traditional sculpture so intent on realism, sculptor Felix W. de Weldon asked the three surviving flag raisers to pose for the statue. Just what do they have in common?

The contrasting designs are both huge and awe-inspiring; one just gets more attention. Tourists slowly circle the 78’ tall Marine Memorial, staring up at the larger than life Marines, quietly ticking off the names of battles that wrap around the base. Few visitors seem to take the extra steps to the Carillon tower, where a 360-degree panorama featuring our nation’s capital, the Arlington Cemetery and the mighty Potomac reward those that make the climb.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Although a moment captured by photographer Joe Rosenthal during the Pacific campaign of World War II inspired the sculpture, the Marine Corps Memorial stands as a tribute to all Marines who have given their lives to the United States. Its huge granite base lists every principal Marine engagement since the founding of the Marine Corps in 1775.

Michael and Gab were both surprised to learn that the Memorial was erected and officially dedicated in the fall of 1954. We hadn’t realized the tribute materialized so quickly after the 1945 event.

By 1954, the 49 bells for the Carillon were completed and sent from the Netherlands to Washington DC where they were placed in a temporary tower in West Potomac Park. The idea for this rather large gift was borne a few years prior and met with the approval of both the people of the Netherlands and their Queen Juliana. In 1952, Queen Juliana presented President Truman with a small bell as a token of the tower to come.

The Carillon was completed in 1960 and on May 5, 1960, the fifteenth anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands from the Nazis, the Carillon was officially dedicated.
The Carillon now contains 50 bells – 49 were among the first to be cast in the Netherlands after WWII – each representing a group within Dutch society. The 50th bell was added on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.

So what is so symbolic about bells? We didn’t know either. But we do now. More on that later.

CROWDS (6/10)
A steady stream of tour buses circle the Marine Corps MEM, pause, emit their passengers, idle for 10 minutes, regroup then exit. No one group overlapped the next in this perfectly timed procession.

Fewer folks took the walk across the field to the Carillon. We shared the Site’s stairs with a group of young girls who appeared to be picnicking nearby and a few stray sightseers probably drawn to the structure, like we were, by the pealing bells.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The Sites border the Arlington National Cemetery on the shore of the Potomac River at the sinewy intertwining of what must be every single road in northern Virginia. If you have Mario Andretti-level reflexes and a supernatural understanding of which side (left or right) the next exit is on, you should have no problems getting here.

We were not trying to travel here. In fact, it was our third choice behind the LBJ Memorial Grove and the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. The incorrect exit we took to those places led us here. We were not going to argue with fate. Most people travel here via bus tour, bicycle or Metro Stop (Rosslyn). If you intend to drive, be prepared to get lost and make many U-turns.

There is no elevator at the Netherlands Carillon. Your trip to the top follows hundreds of narrow steps which spiral as you near the top. The walk up could be difficult aerobically and acrophobic-ally. If a vision of Kim Novak appears while you are under the chiming bells, you might have a problem.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (1/5)
There are no bookstores or concessions at either site, although the Ranger at the Carillon was armed with a large water cooler and paper cups at the base of the stairs.

COSTS (4/5)
Both the US Marine Corps MEM and the Netherlands Carillon are free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
We saw no NPS employees in the high traffic area of the Marine MEM. One Ranger, one volunteer and one exuberant carillonneur showed us the ropes (and levers and pedals) at the Carrilon.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
As we said, there is not much to do at the U.S.M.C. Memorial other than look at the sculpture. Sidewalks and areas around the sculpture are currently under construction, so winding your way through the maze of temporary orange fences will also occupy a few minutes of your time.

We highly recommend wandering over to the Netherlands Carillon, a less visited, but much more interactive experience. The Ranger below warned us that the bells were quite loud during the ascent but got better once you reached the platform housing the carillonneur (the guy that plays the bells). She was right. A very friendly volunteer greeted us with a smile and a few words we couldn’t hear when we reached the top. Once the carillonneur finished his waltz, we quickly started asking questions before the beautiful ringing resumed.

Does the Carillon ring every day? It chimes hourly. There are 18 bells set to a computer to play some standard ditties daily, but our visit just so happened to be on the first day of a week-long concert series celebrating the liberation of the gift givers, the Dutch.

So, why bells? Our volunteer maintained that it was to celebrate being freed from the Nazis and the role that the US played in that. We understood the gratitude, but not the shape of the gift. The carillonneur heard us talking and came over to elaborate.

Bells, it seems, were a very important aspect of daily life in the Netherlands. Each city had a bell tower, originally used to alert residents to rising water. Over time, cities began to add bells and step up from peals to simple melodies. Bells and bell towers eventually became points of civic pride, each city vying to outdo the next. Very good that Rotterdam has 15 bells, but Amsterdam had 20…you get the gist. As a symbolic gesture, Nazis destroyed the bells and the bell towers as they made their way through the Netherlands. The bells that ring in the Carillon today are some of the first that were cast as the Netherlands began to rebuild their country.

FUN (8/10)
At the end of our 2-day DC visit, Gab proclaimed the Carillon to be her favorite part of our whirlwind tour. Why? It was unexpected. The Carillon elevated us up from the somber tribute of the U.S.M.C. Memorial and bustle of Arlington in rush hour and into a space filled with the echoes of bells looking out across the city we have only begun to explore.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
The U.S.M.C. Memorial and Netherlands Carillon were not our anticipated destination on this drive, but we found ourselves in Arlington in front of an open parking space so we allowed serendipity to dictate. It is fairly easy to find oneself in front of these Sites and we really can’t think of any reason why one wouldn’t stop. The U.S.M.C. Memorial is so familiar, but so much more imposing in real life. The Carillon provides a fantastic view of places you have either just been or are about to go.

TOTAL 52/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

THOMAS STONE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-05-17T07:23:00.000-04:00

Port Tobacco, Md.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
1000+ acre plantation home of Thomas Stone, who, the Park admits, was the least exciting of Maryland’s Declaration of Independence signers.

BEAUTY (3/10)
Haberdeventure, the centerpiece of the Stone farm, consists of a reconstructed main red brick Colonial home with East and West wings that arc into a semi-circle. The house itself in nondescript; very few original artifacts remain inside. A small family cemetery is tucked away in a corner of the Site. Some original barns and outbuildings dot the landscape.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
Not only is Haberdaventure not pretty, it is not even the original house. The Park Service acquired the house and the land after a fire in 1977 completely gutted the home. It is not as if this Site provides a window into the lifestyle of some of the signers of the Declaration; even the parlor paneling was sold off by the Stone family to the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Why did NPS choose to purchase and rebuild an unattractive home of an unexciting person who just happened to be in the right place at the right time? Well, the 8-minute film tells us that it is to show that not every signer of the Declaration of Independence was 100% sold on the idea of America as an independent nation; that moderation and thoughtfulness are often overlooked. Thomas Stone is portrayed as an ordinary man in extraordinary times overwhelmed by the revolutionary ideas that might possibly have disrupted his quiet country home.

CROWDS (5/10)
We were the only visitors to the Site. Perhaps if there were another visitor, we might have learned of a reason to be interested.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
A Park Ranger indicated that Thomas Stone NHS became a Park Site because of its proximity to Washington DC. Well, the Site is close to DC only in the sense that it is no closer to anything else. The DC Beltway (I-495, 95) Exit 7 is a circuitous two-lane, stop-and-go 30 miles to the north via Maryland Route 5, US Route 310 and Maryland Route 6.

Rand McNally designates the places along the way, Waldorf, White Plains and La Plata, with the small print of baby towns. Perhaps that will change after the 2010 census. These towns are booming with families fleeing Washington DC. Every imaginable chain restaurant litters Route 310. The area has grown faster than its roads. As a result, your journey to Thomas Stone NHS will take much longer that the reasonable mileage distance would indicate.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (2/5)
Children’s books aside, the Site’s selection struggles to break the double-digit barrier but it is not as if there are volumes dedicated to the Park’s honoree. Indeed, only one book, Thomas Stone – Elusive Maryland Signer, has ever been written about the man and it’s for sale here. The bookstore did not have to work hard to find the book; its authors live adjacent to the Park. Seriously.

COSTS (4/5)
The Site is free.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
Two Rangers; two of us. Why the low rating? It seems that we were invisible. The Rangers were more intent on unfolding their newspapers and settling down to a quiet day of no visitors than helping us gain any insight to Mr. Stone and his predicament. We felt like we totally disrupted their morning routine. Sorry.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
Visitors enter the home via the West Wing, which houses a large fireplace (not the original), informational panels and a small TV for the introductory film. The film and new educational panels ably explain who Thomas Stone was and what his political beliefs were: a wealthy lawyer turned plantation owner and moderate to the point of passivity, respectively. The video admits that Stone contributed little to the Continental Congress, tended towards silence and was very cautious. (At this point in the video, we both laughed out loud).

The Site’s primary lesson is that not every Founding Father was passionate, pro-revolution, bursting with political philosophies and compelling. Is this a helpful lesson? We say no, our History PhD. candidate friend says yes. Nonetheless, we both agreed that that lesson is not worth the vexing drive to one of Maryland’s sprawling peninsulas let alone the millions of dollars the NPS spent restoring Stone’s uninspiring mansion.

FUN (2/10)
We were more than a little surly when we realized our morning navigating parkways and rush hour traffic dropped us here. At least we found an Einstein Bagels and some cheaper gas (compared to DC) along the way.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (1/10)
Thomas Stone was so dispassionate about our young nation that in 1787, after being chosen to represent Maryland at the Constitutional Convention, he declined in favor of tending to his sick wife. Stone had an opportunity to construct the future of our country, an opportunity to participate in one of the defining moments of the world’s political history. Instead, he chose to stay home.

You should do the same. Do not come here.

Stone chose to remove himself from history and the birth of the United States. There is no reason to honor his memory. His inclusion in the federally run and taxpayer supported National Park System is far more egregious than the incorporation of Sites honoring defiant scoundrels like George Rogers Clark and Charles Pinckney. At least they did something. Stone’s past is even worse. He never cared, he never talked, he was silently pragmatic, revolutionary only because it was the only choice and pro-actively aloof regarding America’s future.

TOTAL 29/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

CLAUDE MOORE COLONIAL FARM (Part of George Washington Memorial Parkway)

2006-05-15T07:04:00.000-04:00

McLean, Va.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
A living history museum that sends the visitor back in time to 1771. Permanently in-character costumed interpreters staff the one family, lower-class Virginia tobacco farm, till the fields and tend the turkeys, pigs and cattle.

BEAUTY (6/10)
A Park sign beckons you to “Step Back in Time” and “Follow this path to the year 1771”. Your imagination does not have to work that hard. The Colonial Farm is completely isolated from the outside world. Thick trees capture exterior mechanical noises and block sight lines in all directions. The costumed interpreters NEVER break character. We felt unnatural taking pictures. It is all just a little disconcerting.

The stellar building reproductions, wood fences and livestock pens enjoy a terribly realistic feel. The lifestyle was difficult and work intensive. We felt real-life empathy towards the family of 1771 tobacco farmers even after reminding ourselves that they are actors who return home at night and do not sleep in the ramshackle loft six-person-wide for warmth purposes.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (8/10)
The Claude Moore Farm examines the difficult life of a poor, single-family tobacco farm. This perspective is a welcome departure from the numerous 18th Century living history filthy rich plantation homes scattered throughout Virginia. The Commonwealth’s most popular historical attractions, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg and Stratford Hall, leave the visitor to assume that the State consisted only of wealthy landowners who gained success through the feudal-era system of slave labor.

But this was not the case, either here or throughout the South. The hardscrabble, non-slave holding farmer was the overwhelming demographic rule rather than the exception. A visit to the Claude Moore Farm, while not glamorous or romantic, offers a more populist and typical glimpse into early American history than any high ceiling antebellum mansion.

CROWDS (7/10)
We arrived at the Farm late Thursday afternoon after the crowds had left; Spring Thursdays bring large groups of schoolchildren.

During our stay, not only were we the only tourists but we were the only people not in colonial costumes. Our isolation enhanced the time travel experience but made us feel creepy and overtly voyeuristic.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The route to the Claude Moore Colonial Farm elicits more than a few “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” moments even though the Site is very close to major thruways. Go east off Exit 13 of the DC Beltway (I-495) and onto the Georgetown Pike. In just 2½ miles, make a left turn onto Colonial Farm road.

The confusion sets in because Colonial Farm Road is also the entrance road to the George Bush Center for Intelligence a/k/a CIA Headquarters. The CIA land actually forms the Park’s heavily guarded eastern border. The Farm Visitor Center is a non-descript and poorly marked mobile classroom unit. A flimsy red and white homemade sign labeled Colonial Farm should point you into the gravel parking lot. (We missed the sign and continued to an indomitable CIA entrance a few hundred yards down the road where we turned around)

Your trip back in time and through the Park totals about one mile round trip. The gravel and dirt paths follow up and down a few gentle hills. The Site closes in the winter months, from late December through April 1 and opens during the remainder of the year only from Wednesday through Sunday. The Farm is also inaccessible via public transit.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
Exteriors can be deceiving. The Site’s mobile home Visitor Center is not much to look at, but it’s GateHouse Shop contains a wealth of unique museum reproductions, foodstuffs, games, candles, dishware and jewelry. The selection is reminiscent of the gorgeous items for sale at Colonial Williamsburg’s shops. The only difference is the GateHouse Shop’s price tags, which seem to slash Williamsburg’s prices by at least a third.

COSTS (3/5)
Admission is $3 per adult, $2 per child. Entry is free with the National Parks Pass. Most privately run affiliated NPS Sites do not honor the Pass. Thank you Claude Moore Colonial Farm! Upon entry, we also received a free six-person admission to the 18th Century Market Fair held May 20 and 21. You can download your own free pass here.

The Fair sounds fun: period crafts, food, games, dancing and goods. We might just travel back to DC, either next weekend or in July or October.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
Two of us and two Claude Moore family members, a brother and a sister. The rest of the clan was presumably running Colonial-era errands in Old Town Alexandria. Because the Park is an NPS affiliate site, there are no Rangers on staff. We would have enjoyed the intensive modern day historical perspective that NPS Park Rangers often provide.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
Imagine traveling back in time to 1771. What would you have to say to a low income Virginia tobacco farmer? How would you relate? Well, we had nothing to talk about and very little in common. Our questions were answered with awkward non-sequiturs, pregnant pauses and worlds of difference.

Our probing felt condescending and forced. “Er, so, um, this tobacco farming is, um, really hard work, isn’t it...Well, um, thanks showing us your, um, nice (hovel) place, we’re going to (leave this crazy person and) look at your livestock. Have a nice day, er, (tirelessly) working your (unworkable) fields.”

Which is probably how it would have been. Life was a lot different 230 years ago. Unnerving, transportive immersion has its own educational advantages, the most powerful of which are the removal of nostalgia and the cruel understanding of how most 18th Century Americans lived.

FUN (7/10)
Our interaction with the aforementioned tobacco farmer’s 1771 sister was more productive and fun, but no less frustrating. Michael helped herd in her chickens while Gab remarked on her dried herbs and home’s glistening siding. We learned about the predatory foxes that stalk her poultry and the cold winter temperatures the family faces.

Michael next logical question was “How cold does it get?” Her response was:”As cold as it gets outside.” “No, what’s the temperature?” “What do you mean? It gets as cold in her as it does outside. We all have to sleep together to conserve warmth.” “No, what’s the temperature? How cold does it get?” “What do you mean? It gets as cold in her as it does outside,” she repeated with a probing look of wonderment.

Evidently, this family did not have had any understanding of measurable heat despite the thermometer’s invention in 1714. Most of our visit had this Abbott and Costello-routine feel. We had a much better time once we comprehended that the interpreters were NEVER breaking character. The day was beautiful, the wildflowers were blooming, the pigs were slopping around and we had happened onto a time-travel machine.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (6/10)
We would hold a much more effusive recommendation for the Claude Moore Farm if it were located anywhere else in the United States. It is cheap, fascinating, easy to get to, well staffed and profoundly revealing. But Washington DC offers the tourist so many free and wonderful museums, monuments and attractions, most of which are located either within walking distance of each other or near a subway stop.

The Farm is an obscure gem that is bound to be loved and appreciated by Northern Virginia residents and the most ardent of Colonial historians.

TOTAL 57/80

CLARA BARTON NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE and GLEN ECHO PARK (Part of George Washington MEM PKWY)

2006-05-10T00:05:00.000-04:00

Glen Echo, Md.
NPS Clara Barton NHS Website; NPS Glen Echo Park Website; Local Clara Barton NHS Website; Local Glen Echo Park Website; Glen Echo Park Classes Website; Discovery Creek Website

WHAT IS IT?
The longtime home of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross constitutes this Park Site’s primary historical draw. The Barton home sits adjacent to Glen Echo Park, a failed late 19th Century Chautauqua community that transformed into an art-deco styled amusement park. The NPS took control of Glen Echo Park in 1971, three years after the amusement park’s collapse. A restoration that aims to bring the Park back to its 1920’s halcyon-days appearance is underway.

BEAUTY (5/10)
The Clara Barton mansion is an odd mélange of the decorative and the utilitarian. Blooming trees frame the home’s beautiful Queen Anne front and, thankfully, hide its long corridors and warehouse siding.

Clara, never the aesthete, had her mansion designed to resemble a mobile warehouse that the Red Cross used during the Johnstown Flood disaster. She ran the Red Cross from here, stored supplies here and generally housed 8-10 people at any given time. The building’s practical nature speaks volumes on Ms. Barton’s determined work ethic.

Glen Echo’s Amusement Park area has seen better days; weeds have overcome the Crystal Pool entrance, the art deco buildings linger in various states of disrepair. A feeling of stickiness permeates the air, maniacally accompanying the macabre chimes of the well-restored 1921 carousel. Michael thinks the Park would be a terrific setting for a clown-centric horror film or a cop movie culmination and tense shootout.

Gab’s opinion was much different: The Glen Echo Park feels as if it has turned the proverbial corner. Workers sand away at the gorgeous art deco façades, the Dentzel Carousel sounds enchanting music that beckons excited kids and parents alike. It will not be long before Glen Echo recaptures much of its heyday charm but, in the meantime, the Park still transports you into a magical world of fun.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
Did you know that Clara Barton was NOT a nurse; she was an infrastructure specialist who could procure supplies, move them and get them where needed. She began her public service career by moving medical supplies and tending to the wounded in the many Civil War battles fought in the Washington DC area.

Barton spent the post-Civil War years of 1865-68 searching for missing soldiers throughout the US and most famously at the infamous Andersonville Prison. After suffering a nervous breakdown in 1868, she traveled to Europe to rest. Rest never came. The Franco-Prussian War had begun and Ms. Barton had to help. It was there that she became acquainted with the International Red Cross and determined that she would continue her humanitarian services in the U.S. under this worldwide auspice.

Barton’s American Red Cross first came to prominence due to their important role aiding the Johnstown Flood cleanup in 1889. Clara’s fame was so great that in 1891 a startup Chautauqua society in Glen Echo agreed to build her a mansion in the hopes that it would draw students and visitors to their community. Clara ran the American Red Cross from that home from 1891 until her resignation in 1904. She was a remarkable woman.

CROWDS (8/10)
A manic German tourist joined our House Tour shortly after it began. His pointed questions and administrative perspective led us to believe he was involved in the medical industry, was in DC on business and was told by a colleague to go the Clara Barton House. Why else would a foreign traveler choose this DC attraction over the myriad others?

Our experience tells us that the Clara Barton NHS draws a probing audience that must have some connection to the medical field. Our German friend had so many questions (as did we) that the brochure-advertised 20-minute tour lasted more than an hour and a half. We learned so much and had a great time.

The Glen Echo Park crowd was nowhere near as sparse but equally as enjoyable. Swarms of elementary school aged children excitedly rode the Carousel, picnicked with mom and frolicked on their field trip to the Park’s Discovery Creek, the Children’s Museum of Washington. It was a stunning sunny Friday afternoon where smiles and laughter reigned.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The Sites are located along McArthur Boulevard, in Maryland, a few miles northwest of the DC city limits and about 3 miles southeast of the Capital Beltway (I-495) exits 40 and 41. There are plenty of brown signs, but they are small; if you blink, you will miss them. It is best to work with a map.

Unlike most DC sites, there is ample parking space, so if you have a car, things are looking good. Glen Echo also differs from most Metro area sites in that mass transit access is spotty. Only the Montgomery Ride-On Route 29 Bus travels to the Park. The 12-minute ride from the Friendship Heights Metro Stop to Glen Echo leaves every half hour.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The bookstore selection of Clara Barton books is sparse, but an Amazon.com search shows that little has been written about the Angel of the Battlefield. Still, a few titles are missing. Other books explore Victorian customs, natural disasters that Barton’s Red Cross addressed and the restoration of the Glen Echo Carousel.

COSTS (5/5)
The Clara Barton House and Glen Echo Park both charge no entrance fee. Free House Tours begin on the hour, every hour. Carousel rides run a cheap $1 per.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Three people to one Ranger is a good ratio, especially when there is a tour every hour.

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
Our tour guide knew her stuff. She answered ours (and a German tourist’s) endless stream of questions with an admirable aplomb, a vastness of knowledge and a noticeable neutrality. We were not prepared to learn this much.

The educational opportunities at Glen Echo Park and Discovery Creek are much more varied and geared towards Metro Area residents. If it is artistic or environmental related, you can learn about it here (all for a fee). We mean EVERYTHING! including: how to Lindy Hop; writing like Van Gogh (huh?); young people’s basic photography; intermediate glassblowing; and storytelling with puppets. These resources are not NPS administered but they do occur on site.

FUN (7/10)
We loved the House Tour and learning about Ms. Barton. However, as questions kept compounding we got awfully antsy. Yes, we were asking most of the questions but that does not matter because we can’t help ourselves. We also wanted to be outside, at the amusement park, enjoying the spectacular day. Be forewarned, as the tour climbs up to the third floor, the House gets very hot and stuffy. No air conditioning means trouble in DC’s sweltering summers.

Eventually, we made it back to Glen Echo Park but resisted a Carousel ride in favor of photography. Maybe next time.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
There is almost too much to do in Washington DC. Should you go to the Clara Barton House? Yes. Should you go here before the Smithsonian, the National Mall and its Monuments, Mount Vernon, etc...? No. But if you have a special interest in nursing, the Red Cross, art deco architecture or even historic amusement parks you will not be disappointed.

TOTAL 55/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

ARLINGTON HOUSE, THE ROBERT E. LEE MEMORIALand the ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

2006-04-19T07:21:00.000-04:00

Arlington, Va.
NPS Website; Local Website; Arlington National Cemetery Website

WHAT IS IT?
Plantation home of Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate armies during the Civil War. In 1883, after extensive legal wrangling with Lee’s descendents, the U.S. Congress bought the property (for a song) and turned the prized acreage into the Arlington National Cemetery.

This rating covers both the Arlington House and the National Cemetery. History, geography, tradition and custom have irrevocably entwined the two.

BEAUTY (7/10)
The Arlington House sits atop the area’s highest point, looking over the nation’s capitol. Finished in 1818, the House is among the largest and most garish American residences of the early 18th Century. From the hilltop, the Lee and Custis family witnessed the building of the Washington DC, its streets, the U.S. Capitol and the White House.

George Washington Parke Custis, Arlington House’s builder and Robert E. Lee’s future father-in-law, perversely intended his Greek-temple modeled home to be the geographic focal point for the new Capital City. His showy intentions explain the House’s neoclassical entranceway and its six exaggeratedly large faux marble/sandstone Doric columns.

Custis could never have imagined how out of place and irrelevant his House would look. Despite its imposing size, the Arlington House is an afterthought to the hundreds of thousands of simple white tombstones that surround it.

The National Cemetery does have its own notable outsized white marble memorials, like the Memorial Amphitheater, the Women in Military Service for America Memorial and a few of the tombs dedicated to the most self-important Generals. But these too are overshadowed by the understated and ceaselessly watched Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, John F. Kennedy’s Eternal Flame, and the tiny white cross and nearly unmarked grave of his brother, Robert.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (10/10)
The historical achievements of those buried here are the historical achievements of our nation. Untold veterans from every War America has fought, two Presidents, three Supreme Court Chief Justices, the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time, baseball’s purported inventor, Washington DC’s designer, the third man to walk on the moon, six of our nation’s 11 five-star admirals and generals, the first man to float the Grand Canyon, the first man to the North Pole, the founder of the National Geographic Society... The list never ends.

One man who is not buried here is Robert E. Lee. He lies in Lexington, Va. on the grounds of Washington and Lee University. After taking command of the Army of the Confederacy in 1861, he never retuned to his beloved family home. Arlington House was built by George Washington’s adopted grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, and was intended to by an eternal living memorial to our first president. Custis’ only child, Mary, married Robert E. Lee in 1831.

CROWDS (8/10)
A sign leading into the National Cemetery’s Visitor Center reads “Welcome to Our Nation’s Most Sacred Shrine...Please Conduct Yourselves with Dignity and Respect at All Times...These Are Hallowed Grounds”. There is no more powerful memorial in the United States.

An air of quiet and respect emanates throughout the Cemetery. The numerous visitors come dressed up. They walk softly in deep thought and with earnest thanks.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The entrance to the National Cemetery is just off the George Washington Parkway in northern Virginia, across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial. Sounds easy, right?

Michael lived in Washington DC for four years. On every trip he made via automobile to northern Virginia he got lost...in dozens of different ways. This time, however, we had a map and Gab on navigation. Of course, we missed the exit, passed the Pentagon and got the whole way to Crystal City before reversing course.

We should have just taken the Metro.

The National Cemetery, itself, is a large, hilly place and could prove to be a workout to people not in tiptop shape. Get a cemetery plat map and plan your route ahead of time. Or just spend the $6 and let the Tourmobile® chauffeur you around.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
The book choices at the Arlington NCEM Visitor Center and the Arlington House bookstore are both excellent. However, the selection at the Women’s Memorial is nothing short of astounding. Their store sells what must be over 1,000 books about women in military service. It would surely be impossible to find a more comprehensive collection anywhere except the Library of Congress.

COSTS (3/5)
Entry into the Arlington NCEM and the Arlington House is free. Parking is not.

The Parking rates are $1.25 per hour for the first three hours, $2.00 per hour thereafter. The DC Metro blue line subway runs to the National Cemetery; the stop is aptly named “Arlington Cemetery”. Subway fare to Arlington from downtown DC is $1.35 per person.

A more stress-free tourist option is the Tourmobile® Sightseeing buses. The venerable red, white and blue shuttles have transported vacationers on a circuit to and from our Capitol City’s famous attractions since 1970, delighting scores with their canned narration and monument and museum-step deliveries. An all-day ticket runs $20.00 per adult.

At $6.50 per person, an all-day Metrorail (Subway) Pass is cheaper than the Tourmobile®, but nowhere near as convenient or entertaining.
Tourmobile® runs a separate bus through the sprawling Arlington NCEM that runs $6.00 per adult, or is included with the $20.00 all day tour.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
The NPS portion of the Site, the Arlington House, was staffed with two Rangers answering questions and recounting stories about the mansion to the many tourists on hand.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
On March 23, 2005, a temporary exhibit called the Faces of the Fallen began its run at the Women’s Memorial. The Faces of the Fallen consists of identically sized portraits of the 1,300+ American soldiers killed to-date in the Iraq War.

The exhibit’s website quotes General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff comments: “To say that this exhibition is moving would be an understatement...The artists have succeeded where our words have failed.”

The end date for this display has been extended numerous times and currently is set to finish on May 31, 2006. If you visit DC before Memorial Day, go to the Arlington NCEM and witness this incredible exhibit.

Arlington House’s Robert E. Lee Memorial Museum and House Tour feels neglected and half-hearted. This part of Virginia no longer revolves around proud Confederate General and the Park Service understands its rightful place.

FUN (8/10)
Arlington National Cemetery provides a peaceful atmosphere to reflect on the lives and deaths that helped shape our nation. It is a fitting memorial to individuals who have served their country, both as soldiers and as citizens.

These graves do not belong only to “old white men.” the Women’s Memorial stands regally as one of the largest structures in the Site. Grave markers and the Faces of the Fallen exhibit reflect the diverse origins of our soldiers throughout our history as a country.

The Faces exhibit was unexpected and incredibly powerful. If the images of the soldiers were not enough, ad hoc memorials, handwritten notes and personal effects that have sprung around most of them remind visitors of their sacrifice and their families’ loss and grief. The kitschy-ness of the Arlington House lightened our moods but didn’t erase the emotions that the temporary exhibit evoked.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (9/10)
The Arlington NCEM is a Must See American icon, a 10 out of 10 in this category. The Arlington House, well, if you have the time it makes for a nice stop between the walk from the John F. Kennedy Gravesite to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

TOTAL 64/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

GETTYSBURG NATIONAL MILITARY PARK

2006-04-13T07:38:00.000-04:00

Gettysburg, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site of the most famous battle fought on United States soil. The dramatic Civil War fight occurred from July 1-3, 1863 and took more than 50,000 casualties.

BEAUTY (6/10)
Over the last fifteen years, groups like the Friends of the National Park at Gettysburg in accordance with the NPS have slowly but surely worked to bring the battlefield back to its 1863 appearance and feel. The most famous two removals were the Stuckey’s Restaurant that once sat in the middle of Pickett’s Charge’s route and the 307-foot monstrosity known as the Gettysburg National Tower that disturbed horizons in all directions.

Currently, there is nothing to upset the views of the beautiful Pennsylvania countryside other than 1,300 granite monuments and 400+ cannons. The biggest and the best Civil War memorials are here at Gettysburg. Do not let the Chickamauga or Vicksburg people tell you otherwise. The best of the best is, of course, the towering ivory white Pennsylvania Memorial, which sort of looks like the arc de triomphe topped with a dome upon which stands Nike, the winged goddess of victory.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (10/10)
Throughout his schooling, Michael never understood the oft-quoted metaphor of Gettysburg being the high tide of the Confederacy. His teachers would point to the ground where Pickett’s charge ended and say, “Look, right here is the high tide.” He gets it now, sees the powerful imagery but only grudgingly agrees with this eastern-theater centric-vision of the Civil War.

The historical strength of Gettysburg lies in metaphor and symbolic imagery. The ebbs and flows of the battle itself encapsulate the tidal patterns of the war as a whole. The battle was fought over three scorching hot days and saw the most casualties of any fight in American history. Once battle ended, the skies emptied and it rained a deluge. It was July 4th, the day of American Independence.

Four months later, on November 19, Abraham Lincoln came to the former battleground to dedicate the National Cemetery. His speech, the Gettysburg Address, is known to all Americans and memorized by most middle school students.

CROWDS (3/10)
An early April Sunday morning, 9:30am to be exact. We thought we would elude the crowds. No siree Bob. Busload after busload of people were being dropped off and parking spaces around the Visitor Center were hard to find. What summer must bring!

The battlefield auto tour was thick with bumper-to-bumper traffic. We should have walked.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
The current Gettysburg NMP Visitor Center is located just south of downtown Gettysburg along PA Route 134 (Taneytown Road), a few miles from U.S. Route 15. If you do not have a map, the easiest entry is from the south. The PA Route 134 exit will take you directly north for about 2 miles. The VC is on your left.

Gettysburg, Pa. is located along U.S. Route 15, a pleasant 90 minute drive north of our nation’s capital, Washington, DC. The nearest beautiful metropolis is Harrisburg, a quick 40 mile jaunt to the northeast. So if your coming to Gettysburg, also make the trip to Harrisburg. Give us a call and we will show you the ins and outs of our fair city.

The Gettysburg Battlefield is comparatively easy to maneuver. The fighting took place over three days, but much of it was isolated within a three-mile radius. You will not be driving to the ends of the earth like at Fredericksburg, Richmond and Petersburg.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (4/5)
What if they built a bookstore, stocked it with every imaginable Civil War book and frequently brought in authors to sign and discuss their works. Doesn’t that sound great? Now, what if they stuffed said bookstore with triple the room’s capacity making it impossible to walk around the store and browse the collection. Well, that is Gettysburg.

Existentially, do the books even exist if you can’t get to them?

COSTS (2/5)
The website boasts that entry into the Gettysburg NMP is “free of charge”. True, but the electric map costs $4 per person. The Gettysburg NMP is the only battlefield in the NPS that charges for its electric map presentation, which is easily the worst electric map we have ever seen. Couldn’t they have replaced the burnt-out bulbs?

“Licensed Battlefield Guide” tours run anywhere from $45-$135 depending on the number of people in your party. We did not begin to research this option. There are no free guided Ranger tours at Gettysburg. Guided auto-tour cassette tapes cost between $10 and $15. If you intend to learn anything at the Park, it could get expensive.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (2/5)
The day after our visit, April 9, 2006, the local newspaper, the Gettysburg Times, wrote that Federal budget cuts to the National Park Service would mean probable job losses for at least three Park Rangers. In the past ten years, federal budget cuts have forced Gettysburg NMP to fire 12 full-time staff members and 24 part-timers. In those same ten years, the Park has seen nearly 20M visitors. The visitation rate has not declined. These stories regarding Gettysburg NMP has become so commonplace that the Harrisburg paper does not cover them any longer.

While Federal NPS jobs are being cut, a much needed new $100M Museum and Visitor Center is being built less than a half-mile from the current location. “How could this be?” we wondered. Like Mount Rushmore NMEM’s new VC construction, the building is being built entirely through private funds. Private funding, private building initiatives and self-guided learning are the future of the National Park Service. Educational Park Rangers are a thing of the past.

Luckily, we did find one Ranger lurking among the help desk with dozens of volunteers. He answered a few of our questions about the new Museum before having to stop because of a barrage of other tourists’ questions. They all wanted to know where they could get something to eat.

Admittedly, one person per every group touring the Battlefield carries himself like an expert. Hands pointing, pompous posture and a know-it-all gleam. It is almost like being at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. So if you do have a Civil War question, just cozy on up to the tourists next to you and ask them. There is a high probability that one of them is dressed as a Civil War soldier. We are sure they would be pleased to answer your question.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The best part about the tours/classes at Gettysburg NMP is that a new Museum will be opening up in the near future.

In the mean time, buy one of the 18 million books written about July 1-3, 1863.

FUN (6/10)
The great thing about Gettysburg NMP is that it is possible to walk much of the battlefield in one day’s time. About three years ago, we walked down the third day Union line, across the field where Pickett’s charge occurred, down the Confederate line, through the Peach Orchard, Devils Den and the Wheatfield, up Big Round Top and Little Round Top and back to the Visitor Center. That is everything right there.

This year we drove the same area; felt rushed, crowded and did not enjoy our trip nearly as much. If you have the time and the stamina, we suggest walking. You won’t shed the crowds physically but you may be able to separate yourself from them mentally. Your concentration can focus on the battle, the troop movements and the historical impact rather than worrying about finding a parking space and the slow driver in front of you.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (8/10)
The Gettysburg NMP is an iconic American destination and the crowds are commensurately large. Sadly, the current infrastructure matches neither the area’s historical prominence nor its 2M people per year tourist influx. The new $100M VC set to open in 2007-08 should fix the situation. We say wait until then to come.

Right now, the museum is bad, the cyclorama is closed for renovations, the crowds are thick and the Ranger help is small. And who knows, perhaps by 2008 there will have been a decision made regarding the proposed Gettysburg casino. Video poker, slot machines, old town Gettysburg, Abe Lincoln, brother fighting brother and the turning point in the Civil War = fun for all.

TOTAL 48/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

EISENHOWER NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-04-11T07:41:00.000-04:00

Gettysburg, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Longtime home and Black Angus cattle farm of the 34th President of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower.

BEAUTY (6/10)
Dwight Eisenhower found the endless fields of rolling Pennsylvania farmland to be eminently peaceful. In fact, so much of Ike’s life seems to center around finding a sense of inner tranquility. Ike’s two most noted calming methods, golf and watercolor painting, are on full display here.

A putting green sits in the front yard of the three-story white sided home, in full view of a Gettysburg NMP observation tower. In fact, the Eisenhower’s land’s entire eastern border is the Battlefield. Inside the house, Ike’s watercolors hang everywhere; they are the walls’ primary decorations. The painting Ike was working on prior to his death still sits on the easel in the family’s sunroom.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The Eisenhowers purchased this Gettysburg farm home in 1950, aiming to retire and relax in the pastoral Pennsylvania countryside. It was the first home that World War II’s Supreme Commander of Allied Forces had ever purchased.

The quiet life eluded Dwight and Mamie, however, when, in 1951, Harry Truman appointed Ike head of NATO. A year later, the Eisenhowers moved to Washington DC when Ike was elected President of the United States. During his tenure as President, Dwight often entertained foreign dignitaries at his Gettysburg home.

When Dwight left the Presidency in 1961, he and Mamie finally got to enjoy retirement in Gettysburg. There are few historical displays on exhibit at the Site; instead, the farm opens a window into the personal life of one of the 20th Century’s most beloved and accomplished world leaders.

CROWDS (6/10)
The amount of people you tour the Eisenhower Home with is the same number that can fit on the shuttle bus. Our living room tour would have been unbearably “stuffy” (to borrow Ike’s word) had the Boy Scout troop not decided to wander off elsewhere. As it were, we had ample room to eye up Mamie’s knick-knacks.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (2/5)
The Eisenhower NHS is inaccessible to foot and drive-in traffic. You must purchase a ticket for the Site at the Gettysburg NMP Visitor Center and take a short bus ride into the Eisenhower farm grounds. Buses leave once every hour during most of the year. The heavy summer season sees buses depart once every half hour. The second floor of the Eisenhower house is not handicap accessible nor is the steadily inclining woodchip path to Ike’s Show Barn.

The current Gettysburg NMP Visitor Center is located just south of downtown Gettysburg along PA Route 134 (Taneytown Road), a few miles from U.S. Route 15. If you do not have a map, the easiest entry is from the south. The PA Route 134 exit will take you directly north for about 2 miles. The VC is on your left.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
We were prepared to be disappointed after seeing the Gettysburg NMP’s miniscule selection of Ike and WWII books; the two parks must have the same book purchaser, right? Wrong. The Eisenhower NHS stocks an impressive array of Ike bios (nearly 30), WWII tomes and 1950’s retrospectives.

Even the children’s titles, Escape to West Berlin; Cameras on the Battlefield and The Orphans of Normandy spark interest and feel unique. The aforementioned Boy Scout troop did not purchase any books. They were too busy flinging their bookstore-bought Lancaster R.A.F. Power Prop paper airplane Bombers at each another. One plane even smacked headlong into Michael’s chest.

Perhaps the most tempting gift on sale was a replica of Eisenhower’s golf towel emblazoned with Ike, a golf bag and the words: fore, birdie, quiet and par. It is delightfully retro. Remember, Ike is still the only President to have hit a hole-in-one.

COSTS (2/5)
The Site costs $5.50 per adult. The National Parks Pass is not valid here.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
One Ranger greets you at the shuttle bus drop off point, tells charming Ike stories, answers questions and takes you to the Eisenhower home’s front door. A different Ranger is posted in the Living Room. Our guide pointed out the interesting gifts of state and showered us with Central PA hospitality.

It is so difficult to find a Ranger at Gettysburg NMP, that it might be a good idea to save your Civil War questions for the NPS staff at Eisenhower NHS.

TOURS/CLASSES (5/10)
We appreciate it when Ranger talks and interaction are the educational priority, especially when they are engaging and accompanied by a smile. Still, a little more about Ike’s immense role in 20th Century history would have been nice. Our shuttle bus driver kept us in stitches with Ike stories on the drive back to the Gettysburg NMP. The Rangers’ anecdotal teaching style would have been enhanced by more anecdotes.

The Eisenhower home gives you enough of a taste of Ike’s life to make you want to here more. The Park’s emphasis on personal life is similar to nearly all of the NPS’ Presidential homes and birthplace sites. The problem here is that Ike’s home is one of the few not accompanied by a Presidential Library located in the same state.

For the three preceding Presidents, Hoover, FDR, and Truman, the Library is less than a mile from their longtime home. But if you want to learn about Ike’s storied past, you must make the long trip to Abilene, Kansas.

FUN (6/10)
Dwight Eisenhower is never someone we associated with Central Pennsylvania history until our visit. Ike’s familiar landscape was our familiar; his happy place was our happy place. His prized Black Angus cattle won their ribbons at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the same Farm Show building located less than five miles from where we grew up. The Eisenhower’s bathroom tiling is exactly the same as our bathroom tiling. It was almost too much to take.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (6/10)
We had never before visited the Eisenhower home despite the multiple times (it is pushing 40) that we have visited the Gettysburg Battlefield. Heck, Michael’s sister went to Gettysburg College (where Ike kept an office) and she never went to the Eisenhower house.

Would our lives have been empty had we not made this visit? Probably not, but a trip to the Farm home is definitely a welcome respite from the manic Battlefield crowds and an effective way to travel back in time to the 1950’s, a much more pleasant atmosphere than the 1860’s evoked by the town’s innumerable Civil War reënactors.

TOTAL 47/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

ALLEGHENY PORTAGE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

2006-04-06T07:47:00.000-04:00

Cresson, Pa.
NPS Website; Horseshoe Curve Website

WHAT IS IT?
The site of a short-lived, 1834-54, series of incline planes that pulled canal boats up and down the Allegheny Mountains.

BEAUTY (3/10)
The Allegheny Portage NHS sits along the Allegheny Mountain ridgeline. Strangely enough, its location does not equate to panoramic vistas of the surrounding countryside. Trees block one’s views in all directions. A nearby road and a distant aluminum-sided warehouse are the only things visible from the Site.

The incline plane rails are, of course, no more. About one hundred yards of re-laid rails travel into a reconstructed engine room in one direction and into grassy nothingness in the other. The Lemon House, a stone masonry tavern and inn built in 1832, is the only remnant of the past still standing. The Lemon House looks just like thousands of other constructions of its era that remain throughout Pennsylvania.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (5/10)
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania began construction on the Allegheny Portage in 1831 in order to connect Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via canal. Our fine state had been losing its commercial traffic to the completed canals to the north (the Erie Canal) and the south (the C&O Canal). A stench of desperation hangs over this historical situation.

The far-flung engineering solution for the canal’s completion was a set of 10 incline planes designed to pull the boats for nearly 50 miles up and down the steep Allegheny Mountains. The vertical ascent from the east reached a staggering 1,400 feet. The incline planes worked well but were fraught with numerous fatal accidents and never surpassed the Erie Canal’s traffic workload.

After just twenty years in existence, the incline planes were scrapped, making room for the far more successful railroad, and its own engineering marvel, the Horseshoe Curve. The Curve is still in use and remains a world famous destination spot for train enthusiasts.

CROWDS (6/10)
Few people braved the cold April weather. Summer, however, brings heavy traffic to the Horseshoe Curve site; we are sure that some of those visitors must also filter here.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
Two Pennsylvania Turnpike Exits (110 and 146) service the Altoona-Johnstown area. The Allegheny Portage NHS is about 50 miles from both exits, located on U.S. Route 22, near Cresson, along the ridgeline of the Alleghenies.

Temperatures are much colder here than the surrounding areas below. We prepared for a nice early spring day and arrived to 40 degrees, windy and cold.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
The Portage NHS has more than a few interesting and unique titles, like The Alcoholic Republic, which examines America’s gargantuan drinking appetite in the early 19th Century, and Killing Time: Leisure and Culture in Southwestern Pennsylvania 1800-1850.

But what are books about Admiral Robert Peary’s trip to the North Pole doing here? Well, the daring explorer was born right here in Cresson, Pennsylvania. Who knew?

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $4 per person, free with the National Parks Pass. Your admission also covers entry into three nearby NPS sites: the Johnstown Flood NMEM, Fort Necessity NB and Friendship Hill NHS.

Entry to the see the nearby, but unaffiliated, Horseshoe Curve and Railroaders Memorial Museum is $7.50.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
Two Rangers were posted in two different buildings. They were both very helpful.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
We were won over by the Site’s charming film told from the perspective of a nostalgic 19th Century jack-of-all-trades. The film put us in a good mood, taught us the basics about the local history and prepped us for exploration.

The newly remodeled Visitor Center is gorgeous and encases a number of interesting exhibits, many with a focus on moving parts. We especially enjoyed the dioramic representation of the incline planes made whole by a turning engine room and climbing canal boats.

More exhibits awaited us in both the Engine Room and in the Lemon House. The Engine Room exhibits detail the technical aspects of the Portage, while the Lemon House recounts the social history.

FUN (6/10)
We had a fun time once we steeled our short-sleeve wearing selves and acclimated to the much colder than expected weather. You are not going to see the incline planes (progress took them away over 100 years ago) but you will see a reconstruction of the impressively large steam engine that provided the awesome power of the past. We really enjoyed the hands-on displays located in the engine house exhibit building.

We also had a great time with the 19th Century children’s toys housed on a windowsill in the Lemon House. The games, while simple, are not easy. We toiled for at least ten minutes with a cast iron disentanglement toy and had more fun than allowed with the ball-tied-to-a-cup toy.

The Site gave us reassurance that high priced large-scale transportation projects financed by the taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that contribute dubious public gain are not just a modern-day phenomenon. Sure, that link was unfair, but aptly ironic since a plaque at the Allegheny Portage NHS thanks Mr. Murtha for the funding that made its new Visitor Center possible.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (5/10)
The Allegheny Portage NHS possesses none of the romance, historic significance or attraction enjoyed by its working iron neighbor. Altoona’s minor league baseball team is nicknamed the Curve and not the Portages, you know. But if you are an itinerate train spotter, you should accompany your visit to the Curve to see its less famous ancestor, the canal portage. This Site will put into perspective American transportation and commercial history with interesting hands-on exhibits and smaller crowds.

TOTAL 45/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

JOHNSTOWN FLOOD NATIONAL MEMORIAL

2006-04-03T08:26:00.000-04:00

Saint Michael, Pa.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Site memorializing the victims of the May 31, 1889 flood that killed over 2,000 Johnstown, Pa. residents.

BEAUTY (3/10)
The Park Site vistas overlook what was once Lake Conemaugh and is now (again, post-broken dam), just the Conemaugh River. The former South Fork Dam remains, its center remains torn through, powerful visceral evidence of that fateful 1889 day.

The whole panorama still screams of tragedy, aided by the Site’s horror-filled style of education. The western Pennsylvania hillsides, bared by strip-mines and deforestation do not make the situation cheerier. But it is only when you drive the 10-mile steady downhill slope towards center city Johnstown that the sickening ambiance of the flood’s menace fully seeps in.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
For years, residents fear a poorly built water control system, so much so that the city’s possible destruction by flood becomes a running joke. Destruction of the environment is so wide spread that the land’s natural protections are gone. During the rainy season, floods are so common that the citizenry becomes lackadaisical about the waters’ power. In said year of heavy rain, mild floods occur but the people refuse to believe that the shoddily constructed dam will break.

10 inches of rain fall in one 24-hour period and the dam does break. Thousands die in apocalypse-level destruction while the rich are spared because they live on the high ground. Post-flood examinations reveal that the wealthy knew of the impending dangers, were warned numerous times of the eventual danger and did nothing. Sound familiar? Well, this “natural disaster” occurred in Johnstown, Pa. in May of 1889.

The broken dam had held back Lake Conemaugh, a recreational lake used solely by the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, whose members included the Gilded Age luminaries Henry Frick, Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. Did the Johnstown Flood affect any change in national opinion or policy change towards this era of unabashed ecological damage and lawless capitalism? Nope.

Capitalist Reform would soon come, but the Great Flood was not a causal factor; it was just a horrible disaster that claimed too many lives.

CROWDS (5/10)
The good-sized crowds touring the Park were all a little shell-shocked from the dour heaviness of the Site’s message. Ashen faces, no eye contact and a funereal-esque pall.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (3/5)
The Memorial is located about 12 miles east of downtown Johnstown, near the town of South Fork and just off U.S. Route 219. Clear signage from U.S. 219 will point you towards the Site.

From the west, the Site is about 30 miles north of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Exit 110 (Somerset) straight up U.S. Route 219. From the east, and Turnpike Exit 146 (Bedford) the Site is a more circuitous 45 miles via I-99 to Pa. Route 52 to U.S. Route 99.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (3/5)
A modest selection of books, including about a dozen specific to the flood itself.

COSTS (3/5)
Entry is $4 per person, free with the National Parks Pass. Your admission also covers entry into three nearby NPS sites: the Allegheny Portage NHS, Fort Necessity NB and Friendship Hill NHS.

Entry to the see the unaffiliated Johnstown Flood Museum, located in downtown Johnstown, runs $6 per person.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
We spent a nice time with a volunteer eager to point out all the relevant Great Flood-event locations on the horizons. Our numerous questions to the on-duty Ranger, however, were met with lackadaisical disdain. So we just moved on.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The door into the Site’s theater warns that some of the film’s images may be unsuitable to children. They are not kidding.

The 35-minute Black Friday is a disconcerting black-and-white film, categorized better as a horror film than an educational historic documentary. The film begins with still shots of unmarked gravestones and ends with an image of a maniacal grim reaper and the audible reading (by the death-obsessed narrator, no less) of the list of the victims and the horrific way in which their bodies were found.

What is in between are non-stop grainy pseudo footage of floodwaters, screaming children, collapsing houses, burning buildings and lots of tombstones. It is all a little much.

We were hoping for more background on the natural destruction that caused the flood, something about the effect the flood had on our country as a whole, and just a tad bit of commentary on the cleanup effort and rebuilding of the town; no such luck with either the film or the exhibits. We later learned, through independent reading, that Clara Barton’s efforts during the Flood’s cleanup were the touchstone event that brought the American Red Cross into our national consciousness.

Perhaps the independently run Johnstown Flood Museum with its 1989 Academy Award winning film for Short Form Documentary does a better job. However, after Black Friday, we were in no mood to continue our learning. At the NPS Site, the education is entirely visceral.

FUN (2/10)
Victim-based museums do not have to be death-obsessed orgies. They can be celebrations of lives well led (like the Oklahoma City NMEM), explanations of regrettable historical circumstances enhanced by the triumphant stories of its victims (Manzanar NHS) or just honorable remembrances (like the nearby Flight 93 NMEM). The Johnstown Flood NMEM is none of those things; instead, it chooses to focus only on the flood’s 45 minutes of annihilation, its immediate pain, madness and devastation.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (2/10)
Not unless you are a lustful masochist, eager to find superficial pleasure in an over-the-top rendering of extreme violence and destruction...and happen to be traveling near Johnstown, Pa.

TOTAL 31/80

www.usa-c2c.com
© 2004-06

BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY

2006-03-30T07:45:00.000-05:00

stretches from Shenandoah NP, Va. to Great Smoky NP, Tenn.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
469 miles of two-lane road that follows the Appalachian Mountain ridgeline, each mile more breathtaking than the last.

BEAUTY (10/10)
The Parkway rides the long, bumpy spine of the Appalachians, roller-coastering its way above the fray and the madness below. Its humble two-lane, 45-mph speed limited road is free from billboards, litter, cross traffic and tractor-trailers. The Parkway is almost 500 miles of panoramas, sweeping vistas and majestic overlooks.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (4/10)
The Blue Ridge Parkway bisects the mountainous areas of Virginia and North Carolina known as southern Appalachia, where coal and logging industries introduced a diverse group of workers to the region previously inhabited (and probably named) by Native Americans.

Appalachian history is highlighted in many of the Parkway’s roadside stops, exhibits and remnants of farms and mills. Appalachian culture is alive in the folk art centers and music center that lie within NPS boundaries.

CROWDS (8/10)
Every Visitors Center was full. Pullouts were packed. An unseasonably warm day brought sunbathers from (we are assuming) Appalachian State College to the lawns around Moses Cone Manor. We were part of a sea of people moving along the previously inaccessible Blue Ridge in either direction.

The accessibility of the Parkway guarantees at least 20 million visitors a year. 20 million people driving just to drive, drawn by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. We felt a connection with our fellow travelers. The Blue Ridge Parkway is an essential American experience.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (4/5)
Nine out of twelve months this rating would be a five, but icy conditions intensify at the higher altitude passes in the winter and late fall. Plan on a few road closures and detours if you visit the Parkway between the end of October and spring thaw. We encountered two.

The rest of the year, the Parkway is the easiest way to explore the Appalachian hills and ridges. The Parkway stretches from Rockfish Gap, Va. to the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina. Mile markers increase in number from North to South. Should you find yourself missing life in the fast lane, Interstate 81 parallels the east side of the Blue Ridge and the Parkway.

The Parkway did not connect from end to end until less than 20 years ago. 461.5 of its miles were ready by 1967, but a 7.5-mile boulder-filled course over Grandfather Mountain in North Carolina was impassable until the construction of the Linn Cove Viaduct in September of 1987. Site literature calls the Viaduct, the most complicated concrete bridge ever built.

Asheville, N.C. and Roanoke, Va. are the largest cities close to the Parkway; the smaller towns of Lexington and Lynchburg are also easily reached. We know because we spent nights in each of them.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
There are not one but two opportunities to lose yourself among the rich crafts of the Southern Highland Craft Guild along the Parkway. The Parkway Craft Center is housed inside the stately Moses Cone Manor at milepost 294. The Allanstand Craft Shop, the Guild’s flagship and oldest continuously operating craft shop in the nation, occupies the first floor of the Blue Ridge Parkway’s Folk Art Center at milepost 382, east of Asheville, NC.

So if you are kicking yourself for not picking up that piece of glassware, patchwork quilt or hand-carved puzzle box when you first saw it, odds are you can find something similar further along in your journey. The Moses Cone Manor should be awakening any day now from its winter dormancy. The Allanstand is open and active with events and demonstrations year round.

COSTS (4/5)
There is no toll for the East’s most famous drive but we dare you not to buy souvenirs at the Park’s extraordinary folk art centers.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (4/5)
Rangers were on hand at every Visitor Center, but most were occupied with rerouting visitors around the two road closures on the Parkway. As we lined up to let the Ranger highlight our map and tell us how to get back on course, we wondered how many times she had gone through this routine already today and if perhaps there were a better way to disseminate this information.

TOURS/CLASSES (8/10)
The works of the Southern Highland Craft Guild rival any museum of American folk art that we have seen. The Folk Art Center at milepost 382 gives credence to our statement with its second floor gallery, showcasing both current artisans and works from the past while it explains the raw materials and process by which each object was made.

The brand new Blue Ridge Music Center at milepost 213 is filled with sunshine, smells of freshly hammered timber and gold records acquired by some of the forefathers (and mothers) of bluegrass and the blues. The bright and spacious main building tells of Appalachia’s contributions to American music and hosts concerts and open jam sessions in spring, summer and fall.

Mount Mitchell State Park, just off the Parkway’s milepost 355 offers more educational opportunities and exhibits, but its concrete observation deck with panoramic views of the surrounding mountains is why we strayed from the Parkway. Mount Mitchell is the highest point in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

FUN (10/10)
One would think that after being in the car together for almost two years, we would not seek out roads that necessitate low speeds and prolong our drive time. We enjoyed every minute of our time on and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Every time Gab started to fidget, a sign for the next Visitor Center appeared or a stunning overlook emerged from around a bend. Perfect timing.

We chose the trails around Linville Falls (milepost 316) as one of the sites to stretch our legs, as did everyone else it seemed. Trails were crowded but well kept. The 45-mph Parkway speed limit must have rubbed off on us. We were so relaxed and unhurried that we didn’t really mind waiting as a family scooted their throng of little ones up steps and closer to the falls. Driving the Parkway is all about going with the flow.

We were nervous about hitting the Parkway at such a peak time of year, but we can’t say our visit was affected by people. The biggest challenge was finding a high perch for sunset but still making off the Parkway and down the ridge before dark. The only disappointment was the early winter closing of some of the smaller Visitor Centers.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (10/10)
We kept reminding ourselves as we cruised along that these mountaintops were once totally out of reach to most of the American public. The Parkway serves as a memorial to the vision of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the ingenuity of the American people to make it real.

Although it took over 52 years to complete the Parkway, today’s visitors need only get in the car and go. This unforgettable drive requires low effort and yields high rewards. Since it is closed to commercial vehicles, one can take those curves as slowly as one would like, allowing for plenty of time to take in the mountain air and enjoy the peacefulness of the drive.

The only way one could not fully enjoy a trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway is to see it as a route between two National Parks and not a destination in its own right.

TOTAL 67/80

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK

2006-03-16T07:12:00.000-05:00

near Gatlinburg, Tenn.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Wonderfully vast and diverse Appalachian mountain park that boasts over 500,000 acres and more plant species than the continent of Europe. This wilderness playground is home to many superlatives including our most visited National Park and our most polluted.

BEAUTY (10/10)
Newfound Gap Road, the two-lane highway that bisects the Park, gets our vote for one of the most scenic roads in the United States. Even though Great Smoky Mountains NP has hundreds of thousands of acres which can only be explored by trail, the casual visitor can get an astounding sensory snapshot of what the Park has to offer and hardly has to leave his or her vehicle.

Appalachian cottages are clustered near the north and south entrances of the Park. In between, the Newfound Gap Road travels aside the Oconanluftee River, winds through five distinct forest types and climbs up to meet the highest point of the Appalachian Trail. Changes in elevation guarantee that the landscape, fauna and flora will vary from start to finish. Waterfalls, stone bridges and small animals appear when you least expect them. We found it impossible to drive farther than a few miles at a time without stopping to admire the scenery around us.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (6/10)
Great Smoky Mountain NP is designated both as an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site, meaning it is recognized as a core area that preserves and protects both biological and cultural resources.

The cultural resources protected by the Park include Appalachian homes, mills and artifacts from the 19th and 20th centuries left behind as the Park was assembled through the acquisition of private lands.

Great Smoky Mountain NP is one of the first National Parks east of the Mississippi as well as one of the first patch-worked together from private lands.

Although not without opposition, activists in the 1930s convinced the states of Tennessee and North Carolina to protect the Smokies from commercial logging, purchase the land and donate it to the federal government. What is amazing is the amount of land the National Park Service has been able to manage and preserve. ½ million acres?! To set aside that amount of land on the East Coast and protect it from urban and commercial development unfortunately seems like an unattainable dream today.

CROWDS (4/10)
The Great Smoky Mountains NP is perpetually packed, as in no room to walk or even breath packed. In 2005, 9.2 million people visited the Great Smokies. In the same year, 10.5 million combined people visited Grand Canyon NP, Yellowstone NP AND Yosemite NP!

We approached the Park from its southeastern entrance at Cherokee where the crowds were modest but steady. Once we crossed the Blue Ridge and entered Tennessee, there were cars and people everywhere.

The Clingman’s Dome overlook parking lot overflowed while no less than 100 professional photographer types (sturdy tripods, high-end Canons, bulging camera bags, multiple light filters, old press passes hanging from their necks and cigarettes dangling from their mouths) lined the parking lot’s ridge at sundown prepared to get the perfect sunset photo.

The descent towards Gatlinburg means more and more people and constant traffic lines along the Park’s narrow, tortuous two-lane roads. Luckily, there are ample places to pull over and take in the ethereal scenery.

We avoided the Park’s signature drive (we’re blushing in shame) the Cades Cove Loop Road. Evidently, the 11-mile loop takes between 2 and 4 hours to traverse because a) all the cars and b) bear jams. Black bears hang out on the road, people take pictures and traffic stops. Makes sense to us. The Cades Cove Loop is “the most heavily visited destination within the most heavily visited national park in the U.S.”

Despite the swarms of people, the Park feels like a place where, if you wander of the beaten path, you will be rewarded with tremendous scenery and some peace and quiet. Nearly the entire Park is wilderness and inaccessible by car; there cannot be people in these places, can there?

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (5/5)
The Park’s only accessibility downsides are the large crowd deterrence and twisty roads. But heck, this is what an appreciated National Park looks like: lots of people and smoggy sunsets.

Unlike Yellowstone, Yosemite, Zion and the Grand Canyon, megalithic-sized tourist towns have sprung up around Great Smoky NP. If you cannot find a cheap hotel room here, you are not looking hard enough.

Gatlinburg is a quaint, Swiss-chalet-ish town with narrow streets, kitschy cute shops and a Dukes of Hazzard-tribute restaurant owned by the actor who played Cooter. Pigeon Forge is eight lanes of traffic (Route 441) sided by go-cart tracks, bungee jumping towers, motels and themed restaurants. Route 441 is numbered with mile-markers as if it were a beach town. Pigeon Forge’s most famous denizen is Dolly Parton and her amusement park, Dollywood.

If Dollywood isn’t your speed, the Park is within 40 miles of both Knoxville, Tenn. (to the west) and Asheville, N.C. (to the east). These two quirky, growing college towns both boast prominent literary sons (James Agee and Thomas Wolfe) and desirable downtowns.

If you want to stay in the Park, there are over 1,000 campsites in 10 campgrounds. 500+ of these sites can be reserved ahead of time. Backcountry permits are free and probably the preferable way to get away from it all.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
On sale are hundreds of books raging in topic from local history to Cherokee heritage to mountain ghost stories. The store is also generous with the stuffed animals; we were partial to the Plush Turkey Vulture. We think those soaring omnivores are super cuddly and endearingly clumsy. The bookstore hands out an eight-page glossy flier called “Smokies Gift Ideas” which can be very helpful amid the overwhelming selection.

COSTS (5/5)
The Great Smoky Mountains proudly stands in the pantheon of American National Parks and remarkably charges no entrance fee. Perhaps that is why it is our most crowded and most visited National Park.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (5/5)
Great Smoky Mountains NP gets mad props for manning each Visitors Center with a throng of Rangers and volunteers to direct, recommend, and manage its seemingly unmanageable number of guests.

TOURS/CLASSES (7/10)
How do you deal with 9.2 million people coming through your Park every year?

A.) offer a high-definition introductory movie in a large theatre playing on what seems like a continuous loop at Sugarlands, the most popular VC; B.) Showcase your cultural exhibits outside in historic villages like Cades Cove and living history museums like Mountain Farm; and C.) Publish an excellent array of supplemental booklets and brochures that visitors can purchase for a nominal fee at self-serve stations at every VC.

Usually we wince at having to pay extra for trail maps or guides to scenic drives. That was before we peeked inside these wonderful, thick-papered pullouts produced by the Great Smoky Mountain Association. These single subject supplements to the official park brochure and the park newspaper are filled with detailed information on everything from birding to backpack loops, to favorite long and short hikes. Scenic drives, wildlife, waterfalls and wild flowers also get their own specialized treatment. Priced from 50 cents to a dollar, we found these to be well worth the cost. We emptied our pockets of change and left with several.

It is hard being so well-liked. The Park’s film, newspaper, and pretty much all of its official materials highlight the challenges created by the steady stream of people and cars through the protected lands. More than an explanation or an excuse, the publications invite the public to join in the stewardship of the Park. That gets another thumbs up.

Not officially part of the Park, the newly renovated Museum of the Cherokee Indian just south of the Oconaluftee VC highlights the Trail of Tears and ten thousand years of Cherokee history.

Just before the north entrance of the Park, the Southern Highland Craft Guild operates one of their Craft Shops. As beautiful as any gallery or art museum, the Shop warrants a stop, if only to browse and admire.

FUN (10/10)
A road closure on the Blue Mountain Parkway and its mandatory detour gave us a later start in the Park than we had hoped for. We still managed to traverse Newfound Gap Road before dark, stopping frequently to climb down into creek beds, gaze up at foliage, stretch our legs and just stare.

We even took a non-mandatory but highly recommended detour up to Clingman’s Dome. Because of the altitude, we have a feeling this road leads to a winter wonderland almost any time of the year. We happened to drive up it before the road closed for the winter but after an early winter snow storm which left everything in a coat of white sticky snow.

Can you picture how gorgeous this is with the late afternoon sun streaming through the pines? If you can’t hundreds of photographers were there to capture the moment on film.

Because of our late morning start and meandering drive, we experienced the blinding glitter and glam of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge at night. The unending commerce of Pigeon Forge makes the protected peace of Great Smoky Mountains NP all the more appreciated and quite frankly, unbelievable. We found a place to rest our heads and returned to the Park the next day to do it all again.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (10/10)
Absolutely, emphatically, yes. There is a reason, in fact many reasons, why 9 million+ people make the pilgrimage here every year.

TOTAL 67/80

BIG SOUTH FORK NATIONAL RIVER AND RECREATION AREA

2006-03-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

near Oneida, Tenn. and Stearns, Kent.
NPS Website; Local Website

WHAT IS IT?
Over 125,000 acres of Cumberland Plateau coal country. The Park is largely a reclamation of lands completely stripped by large-scale mining that are now blossoming with new trees, recovering waters and oodles of outdoor recreational opportunities.

BEAUTY (4/10)
We were disappointed by our drive to the East Rim Overlook. We expected sweeping vistas, a deep gorge, stunning colors and a raging river confluence. Instead, it looked a lot like what we had been driving next to the entire day. Perhaps the Site gets prettier once you make your way into the interior or maybe we just hit the wrong overlook.

The Coal mining Railroad Depot of Stearns looks rather decrepit in the evening light of an early winter’s night. The NPS Visitor Center’s mustard yellow siding does not work as well for it as it did for Michelle Williams’ 2006 Oscar dress, especially when contrasted with the lime green siding of the building it faces.

HISTORICAL INTEREST (3/10)
The area’s transformation from wilderness to ravaged landscape and back to protected National Park land is interesting enough. The outdoor Blue Heron Coal Mining Community is located near the Blue Heron campground in Kentucky and is at the end of the line for the Big South Fork Scenic Railway.

CROWDS (5/10)
We were here in the off-season but it certainly feels like a place that could get crowded. Campsites number in the hundreds, on-site horse stables teem with pack animals, and there is a scenic railway and a public pool. NPS visitation stats quote about 800,000 people here per year. That number is higher than it sounds because a) Big South Fork has no casual (passerby visitors) and b) there so few places in it to go to and congregate.

The Park was nearly empty during our visit. That did not prevent us from being stuck behind a 25mph driver on the Park’s only road. Normally, we would have been patient, but this time it was nearing 5:00pm and we needed to get to the VC before it closed to get our National Parks Passport Stamp... and we succeeded.

EASE OF USE/ACCESS (1/5)
The Park is not located far from the U.S. Interstate system. I-75, Exit 11 passes by 26 miles to the east of the Stearns, Kent. Visitor Center and Oneida, Tenn. is about 25 miles northwest of I-75, Exit 144. Nevertheless, only one paved road travels through the Park, the Leatherwood Ford Road in Tennessee, making a majority of the Site accessible to only the most adventurous.

CONCESSIONS/BOOKSTORE (5/5)
Whoa, nelly! Located next to the horse stables is the Bandy Creek Bookstore. It is so large that it could probably house a few equines itself. Just when you think you have seen everything, you enter another room. Here are a few of the things it sells that we never expected to see in a National Parks Bookstore: votive candles, formal floral greeting cards, old-fashioned lye soap and a Tennessee Volunteers quilt. How come the Wildcats can’t get any love?

COSTS (3/5)
Park entry is free. Camping runs between $15 and $20 per night, advance reservation can be made. There are many campsites at Big South Fork. Standard charges apply for a few of the Park’s activities, including $2 for use of the Bandy Creek Pool, $5 for backcountry camping, and $15 for a ride on the Big South Fork Scenic Railway.

RANGER/GUIDE TO TOURIST RATIO (3/5)
There were a few milling about the Bandy Creek buildings. None seemed that eager to engage us in conversation.

TOURS/CLASSES (3/10)
The small Bandy Creek Museum took a back seat to the bookstore space it shared. The Blue Heron Coal Mining Community Museum might be worth a trip. It is a coal mining ghost town. We did not go so we have no recommendation either way.

FUN (4/10)
We were a little overwhelmed by the Park’s size and unclear as to what we could do. The day was ending and there were no viable hotel choices within a 50 mile radius. We were rushed, the air was nippy and the Site just was not that exciting. If we had come in summer, the situation might have been different. However, we might be a little leery of the 100 Bandy Creek campsite pre-hooked up with electric and water. This place could be a motor home Mecca.

WOULD WE RECOMMEND? (4/10)
Our planned excursion from Knoxville was a trip to the Obed NSR, then to Big South Fork NRRA and then a night at the Cumberland Gap. We expected two identical parks with limited things to do. Well, we were right about the limited things to do in the off-season part, but wrong about the Park’s being similar.

The Obed NSR has few facilitates, even fewer visitors and feels constricted by the surrounding private lands. The Big South Fork NRRA is a monster destination with campgrounds, horses, bookstores, museums, trains and untold acres of sprawling space. We would only travel again to both River Parks if we lived nearby. The opportunities offered here are just not spectacular enough to warrant a vacation to this remote location.

TOTAL 35/80