Mission Statement?

I think I know what this is.

For years I've been visiting historic sites of a variety of types, all around the country. Most of these have coincided with vacations and road trips - my family enjoys this kind of thing (surprise surprise). We've been visiting State Capitols, Civil War battlefields, and Presidential estates since I was just a small one, and we've kept it up - partly due to my insistence. We've done Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Gettysburg, we've been to living history museums and watched re-enactments. Recently, spearheaded by my father and me, we've also been on the look-out for smaller things, little gems of roadside historical tourism, both local and alongside major highways. My list of sites visited is already long, and my list of places to go seems to grow the more I study and read history.

So earlier it occurred to me (under the spell of a limited series of National Historic Sites, as well as Tony Horwitz's Confederates in the Attic and Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation), that a blog about history and tourism might be, if maybe not fascinating, at least kind of fun. I've been itching to blog for a while now, but didn't want to fall into the "pointlessness" trap ("no one cares what you had for lunch," my dad reminded me when I told him about this blog). I'm glad to have a theme. I'm looking to write about my experiences of some of the historic sites I've visited, relate some of the history involved, and my impressions of the presentation of that history here.

Sound terrible yet? It'll be fun, I promise. Stick with me.

Coming tomorrow - Rutherford B. Hayes! Stay tuned.