Rental in Rockport, Massachusetts

Eden’s Gate in Rockport was a really cute and comfortable place to rent. The arbor in the front, flowers, bushes, babbling brook on the side of the house, made the rental inviting and a picturesque place to be at.

The house was comfortable and decorated with New England flair. There was a first floor bedroom and bathroom, compact but functional kitchen, eating room, dining room, and sunken living room, where one could look out and see the water across from the house. The small sunroom or eating area was my favorite. It was surrounded by windows, next to the brook and I could see the water.

The upstairs had a great Master Bedroom and bathroom. There was also a smaller bedroom that could be used as a writing room, which my friend enjoyed and was totally creative with her writing.

It was an ideal place to rent. Already…I want to go back there!

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

On one of our early visits before we checked into our vacation rental in Rockport, Massachusetts,we stopped at Concord, Massachusetts, and toured Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery is on 119 acres of land and was laid out indifferent phases from 1823 to 1998, in Concord.

I like walking in cemeteries and taking photos. Maybe that’s why the Grateful Dead is one of my favorite music groups.

Sleepy Hollow was a pastoral looking and beautiful cemetery. My friend’s and my main objective was to find Author’s Ridge. With a few missteps, we found it up a hill and on a grassy knoll.

 

If you are an aspiring author, like I am, I know that you would have been delighted to find yourself on Author’s Ridge. I couldn’t have been more excited spotting all of those famous authors that were buried there with their families. There was Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott (some familiar names from my deck of Author’s Cards).

 

Once I spotted the author’s graves and the family plots, I could see that other visitors had been by to pay their homage and respect to these great writers. On each author’s grave there was some type of momento that was left – feathers, pencils, notebook, stones, acorns, and other things. After seeing the mementos stacked up, it brought a smile to my face. Not wanting to leave, I found some stones and acorns and placed those on the authors’ graves, while I thanked each of them for writing and opening the world of books to me. 

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

While in Concord, after a delicious lunch, we stopped into the Concord Bookstore, on the way to our car. The minute that I stepped into the store,  my eyes fell on a book, on the shelf, that was facing me. It was a slim blue book, Paul Revere’s Ride. Yeah, I know all about Paul Revere’s ride because when I was little my mother would recite the poem to me. I can still remember the first stanza of the poem.

I bought the book because it so reminded me of my mother and my childhood. Outside I opened the book and the first stanza as I remembered it:

                                                   

Listen, my children, and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-five;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

Another link to my childhood!

Walden Pond

I thought Walden Pond would be small, like, well like a very small pond. But it wasn’t. Walden’s Pond is 107 feet deep and the walk around the pond covers about 1.3 miles.

Walden Pond is part of the 335 acre Walden Pond State Reservation. The Reservation was declared a Historic Landmark in 1962, basically because of its associated with the famous write Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Thoreau lived two years, on the property that was owned by his fellow writer, friend, and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau built his cabin along the shore of Walden Pond. It was there that he reflected on the simple life and wrote many essays that would become his famous work, Walden or Life in the Woods.

Thoreau is sometimes referred to as an Anarchist. In his Civil Disobedience, he didn’t call for abolishing government, but rather for improving government. One famous quote that is attributed to him and still is a timely one, “That government is best which governs not at all…:”

Walden Pond was on our itinerary list. We drove to the Reservation and parked our car. We walked along the trails toward the signs to the Thoreau’s cabin. When we found the site, there was no building, only a sign that stated that this was the sight of the building. Next to the site was a large area filled with rocks and stones. This definitely was a visitor’s site where homage was paid to a famous writer and thinker. There were stones piled on stones. Some larger stones and sayings were written on them and other stones had paintings. 

While in graduate school, I was required to read Walden’s Pond. Now a few years later, I was standing here in a beautiful park, filled with trees, insects, and birds. I fell in love with this place. It was a tranquil setting and I assumed that Thoreau loved this place. It fit his perfect Transcendental* life and later he would write his greatest book.

We hiked from the site of Thoreau’s cabin, down to the Pond and walked around it. Afterwards, I felt triumphant and glad that I saw where Thoreau lived and that I walked around the famous Walden Pond. My legs were tired but not my mind. I was inspired to go back to my rental, sit down and begin to write.

*(Transcendentalist movement was a philosophical movement developed in late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. It came about as the reaction to or protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality at that time. The followers believed they were capable of generating completely original insights with as little attention and deference to past masters as possible.)