On the Road- October Adventures of a History Nerd

Bunker Hill Monument

October just flew by and I realized that I went the entire month without a blog post. I actually spent 3 out of the past 4 weekends on the road mostly doing teaching and history related things and have finally caught up with things back home.

I got to visit Boston for the first time for a four day workshop for history teachers and it was great to actually see all of the locations that I have been teaching about for years now. Boston is a great town and it was my second recent trip to New England in which I was floored by the hospitality of New Englanders. A few of us wanted to walk the Freedom Trial and one of the group leaders who was a local spent his Sunday afternoon guiding us on the trail and giving us all the little details that only locals would know. We also got to stop by the oldest bar in Boston where Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty used to hang out. 

I loved the Puritan symbols on the 300 year old headstones.

My second favorite president sat in this pew in the Old North Church.

U.S.S. Midway Museum, San Diego

I flew out to San Diego the second weekend of October to attend my grandfather's funeral. This was the only personal trip I took this month but my grandfather's life was full of its own unique history. He was a Chicago firefighter for 30 years and had joined the army at the outbreak of WWII even though he was underage by using the ID of his deceased older brother. At the funeral I also found out another interesting tidbit when I came across a professional looking photo of him in full firefighter gear that I had never seen before. It turns out that the photo was featured in a Playgirl type magazine back in the 50s or 60s. After the funeral I had time to check out some of the ships preserved in San Diego Bay.

Star of India, San Diego Bay

B-52 Park in Orlando

Over the last weekend in October I trekked up to Orlando to present about teaching human rights at the state social studies conference. The near miss of Hurricane Sandy actually resulted in the most pleasant Florida weather I can remember and I was able to take my wife and son to hit Disney after the conference each day. I spotted a B-52 from the highway and insisted that we go explore it much to my wife's dismay. My son had a great time running around it and climbing on the massive wheels.