Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for July, 2024
A Presidential Church in Rhode Island
By Linda Tancs
St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church is the first Catholic church in Rhode Island, but it’s perhaps better known as the venue where Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was married to then-Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy (later the 35th president of the United States). The Newport church is now open to the public Monday through Friday, year-round, in addition to regularly scheduled Mass times. Tourists flock there to see the site of the famous wedding along with the kneelers used during their nuptials. When in town, the couple sat in pew #10. Arguably one of the most stunning churches in New England, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Share this:
A Bewitching Place in Massachusetts
By Linda Tancs
Salem, Massachusetts, is famous for its witch trials in 1692, during which many locals were executed for allegedly practicing witchcraft. The Salem Witch Museum explores those unfortunate events and chronicles the history of witchcraft through the ages. In nearby Danvers the Witchcraft Victims’ Memorial is the first such memorial to honor all of the witchcraft victims and is located across the street from the site of the original Salem Village Meeting House where many of the witch examinations took place.
Share this:
A Presidential Homestead in Vermont
By Linda Tancs
It’s not everyday that a U.S. president gets to take the oath of office in his childhood home. Yet when President Warren G. Harding died, that’s what Calvin Coolidge, his vice president, did. The modest frame and clapboard house is located in the tiny community of Plymouth Notch, Vermont, all or most of which is included in the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District, a National Historic Landmark. Like a time capsule, the district remains largely unchanged and includes not only the Coolidge home but also the homes of neighbors as well as the town church, a cheese factory, a schoolhouse and a general store. Coolidge and his wife are buried along with seven generations of the family in the town cemetery.
Share this:
Step by Step in Colorado
By Linda Tancs
You’ll want to take it literally step by step, walking the 1,257 wooden planks suspended 956 feet over the Arkansas River across the Royal Gorge Bridge. It’s a popular tourist attraction near Cañon City, Colorado, within Royal Gorge Bridge and Park, a 360-acre amusement park located along the edge of the Royal Gorge around both ends of the bridge. If the walk isn’t adventurous enough for you, then you might consider the zip line, or a guided climb or a 50 mph swing from the top of a 100-foot tower, the Skycoaster.
Share this:
A Gem in Omaha
By Linda Tancs
At the Durham Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, visitors get two gems in one: a landmark building and a seminal collection of the region’s history. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the building housing the museum is the Art Deco-style Union Station. At its peak, 64 passenger trains and over 10,000 passengers utilized the facility every day. The focal point is the Main Waiting Room, currently the Suzanne and Walter Scott Great Hall, which measures 160 feet by 72 feet and is spanned by a 60-foot-high ceiling adorned by six, 13-foot-high chandeliers. The hall features several architectural elements common to the style, like a ceiling of sculptured plaster, cathedral-like plate glass windows, a patterned terrazzo floor and colonnettes of blue Belgian marble. The museum’s permanent galleries also capture a bygone era and include reproductions of Native American abodes as well as a worker’s cottage from the late 1800s and early 1900s, a replica of a grocery store from the 1900s and an authentic streetcar from the 1940s.
Share this:
The Life of William Penn
By Linda Tancs
Philadelphia’s Welcome Park is the only site in the city dedicated to celebrating the life and contributions of William Penn, who founded the Commonwealth in 1682. Named for Penn’s ship, Welcome, the park features a marble layout of Penn’s city plan for Philadelphia and boasts a statue of him that is a miniature of the one atop City Hall. The site once hosted the Slate Roof House, where Penn resided from 1699 to 1701. The park is located at Second Street and Samson Street Alley.
Share this:
Mayflower Redux
By Linda Tancs
Mayflower was an English sailing ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. Their journey to Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, is commemorated there with a full-scale replica of the historic vessel, Mayflower II. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, she’s both a floating classroom and working vessel. Nearby is Plymouth Rock, the legendary site of disembarkation and arguably the most visited rock in New England, housed under a memorial colonnade.
Share this:
A Hidden Gem in Scotland
By Linda Tancs
One would hardly expect one of the finest collections of 20th-century British art to be located on the tiny Scottish island of Orkney. Yet that’s what you’ll find at The Pier Arts Centre in Stromness, a captivating maritime town that serves as Orkney’s main ferry port. The venue features artists like Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis as well as contemporary art by Sean Scully, Eva Rothschild and Olafur Eliasson. A focal point for the local community, local artists are featured as well, and the facility boasts a valuable library and archives open to the public.
Share this:
Queen of American Lakes
By Linda Tancs
Sometimes referred to as the Queen of American Lakes, Lake George is the longest lake in New York State, stretching 32 miles from north to south in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. One of the most popular hikes in the Lake George region is the Prospect Mountain trail, which begins on Smith Street in Lake George Village. The 3-mile, roundtrip trek is steep in places, not surprising considering that the route once incorporated the Prospect Mountain Cable Incline Railway, at one time the longest cable railroad in the world. At the summit you’ll find remnants of the railway, which was built in the 1800s as an alternative to horse-drawn carriages to transport wealthy guests to the Prospect Mountain House. Although the hotel subsequently burned down, its fireplace is still visible. In addition to its historical features, the 2,030-foot-high summit rewards hikers with 100-mile views of Lake George and the Adirondacks.
Share this:
The Spirit of Rural Vermont
By Linda Tancs
The spirit of rural life is alive and well in Woodstock, Vermont, at Billings Farm & Museum. The farm was established by Frederick Billings in 1871 as a model farm run by the Billings family, their farm managers and their farm staff. It remains one of the oldest registered Jersey dairy farms in the country. It features Jersey cows, of course, as well as sheep, horses, oxen, pigs and chickens, all of which you can experience with hands-on activities and events. Farm life exhibits will explain what farming was like in the 1890s. You can also explore the restored 1890 Farm Manager’s House, where interpreters will answer questions about the home. The Billings estate passed on to three generations of Billings women and ultimately to Billings’ granddaughter, Mary Rockefeller, and her husband. The Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park adjoins the farm site, and both locales share a visitor’s center.
Travelrific® Travel Journal 