Lexington and Concord, Mass

Today we drove into Lexington and Concord to visit the beginning of the American Revolution and the "shot heard round the world".  My recollection of American history was a bit fuzzy on the details.  I knew some Minutemen had faced off with the British Regulars and ultimately sent them packing and this was a good refresher.  The Minuteman National Historic Park runs most of the way along Battle Road from Lexington to Concord where the British marched both ways being attacked on the way back to Boston.  There are a lot of historical homes along the way, some graves and in both towns, and memorials to the Minutemen.

We went to the visitor center first and it was nice with a lot of informational boards and a movie about the day’s activities and what led to the battles.  After that we drove into Lexington to see their Battle Green where 8 colonists were killed.  I was dismayed to see all the political propaganda around the outside of the green.  It was sad to see politics invading a sacred place like this.  I went into the Lexington visitor center and they had 2 small displays of the history and the rest of the facility was dedicated to selling merchandise.  Kind of sad that was their priority.

We then headed over to Concord where the Militiamen turned the British back and it was a better visit.  The traffic was building so it wasn’t an easy drive on those narrow roads, but we made it to the Old North Bridge where the main battle occurred.  The parking lot is across the road and you walk across and down a path to the bridge.  There’s a monument on this side and a British grave.  Then you can walk over the bridge and see the Minuteman statue which is very impressive. 

There was a Park Ranger there telling the history of what happened so it was very interesting. There's a hill behind the statue where the Minutemen mustered that day for their march down to the bridge to face off with the British. It was here that the "shot heard round the world" was fired since this is the actual spot when Americans fired back on their government. Apparently the Americans didn't shoot at Lexington so this was the moment things turned.