Memorial Day in New England

For Memorial Day, Dan and I decided to explore Massachusetts. So we headed up to Lexington and Concord to walk around and enjoy the day.  Given their historical importance to the Revolutionary War, they seemed like nice choices for celebrating the holiday.

Lexington

Lexington was our first stop of the day. We found a little deli to eat at and then walked around the town. It was a beautiful day for exploring and relaxing.

These gentlemen are dressed in Minutemen attire. They were coming from a celebration on the Green that we had just missed.

 

This memorial is to those that died in the Revolution. Lexington was the site of the "shot heard 'round the world" so there are quite a lot of plaques and memorials for Revolutionary soldiers. 

For example, here is another memorial to those who died. Apparently the first killed were buried within the gates of this obelisk.

A Minuteman statue. He looks out onto the town, forever watchful.

Closeup of the pansies just because they were so pretty.

This belltower was destroyed by a storm, but was rebuilt in 1910. It was used to signal to the Minutemen when it was time to fight. It used to be on the Green, but was later relocated to a hill above the town.

On our way up to see the belltower, Dan pointed out a rabbit along the path.

After walking around for an hour or so, we hopped in the car and drove to nearby Concord.

Concord

Right by the parking lot was a beautiful old cemetery. I took a few seconds to take some quick snapshots. 

We missed the festivities in Lexington, but arrived just in time at Concord. They were announcing names of Concord residents who had died in service of their country. Vets stood at attention in front of different war memorials with wreaths in hand. 

A local bagpipe group played a few patriotic tunes.

And then the Concord Minutement saluted the fallen with a gun salute. 

 

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Fire!

 

They were standing in front of a cemetery where many of the actual Minutemen were buried.

Afterwards, the parade continued with all veterans in the community marching through the streets. 

 

 

 

There were some WWII trucks that were pretty cool. I had to take a few photos. 

 

 

America... 

After the parade, we explored some of the antique shops and walked around. Concord is a quaint and cute little town and it was a nice place to spend a relaxing Memorial Day.

Beat LA!

We went out with my Uncle Jon and Aunt Kap to this wonderful Indian restaurant called Tamarind Bay. I'm fantasizing about digging into our leftovers as I write, but Dan refuses to let me serve it up until I can find some naan to go along with it. But on top of being yummy food, it was nice to get to see them again. They recently moved to Massachusetts because my uncle got a new job, but previously they lived in Michigan meaning that we still rarely saw them. It is nice to have some family in town.

I also had a job interview this past Friday. Well, to call it an interview might be overstating it a bit. Basically, I just dressed up to go meet with a lady at a temp agency. I want to work full time hours this summer but obviously once classes start I won't be able to do that. Most positions were looking for a permanent employee, not a newbie who just wanted to work for the summer. So a temp agency seemed the simpliest way to go about getting a job like that in a new city. Starting Monday she'll call me if they have any positions open up and I'll rush off to fill the place of secretaries on maternity leave, receptionists with the flu, and to do mind numbing tasks no one regularly employed at the office will stoop to complete. Fun times!

On a completely different note, I got bored and looked up the history of our building. Meaning I put "98 Strathmore" into Google and browsed what came up. I did manage to find out that our building was originally owned by Abraham Kaplan (who also owned the buildings next door) and that it was built from 1916-1925 in Georgian Revival architecture. I found this cool site with a 1925 map of all the structures in Brighton and Allston (a nearby neighborhood.) You can check it out yourself at this website.
But to save you the time I'll post the section with our building. It is to the far right, pointed out by the lime green arrow.

P.S. There is the possibility that the building was owned by this particular Abraham Kaplan who lived in MA around the right time.