Prior to attending their friends' evening wedding, Jon and Colleen had lunch and toured the outbuildings around Longfellow's Wayside Inn in Sudbury, MA. Open since 1716, it is the oldest operating inn in the country. It was also featured in a Longfellow poem and there's a whole room set up recreated to look like what the poem indicates.
Turns out the church, schoolhouse and mill on the property was actually a short walk from the inn, so we had to wait until after our reservation to check them out. The food itself was like Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps because Jon had turkey and Colleen chose the chicken pie. With whipped potatoes, peas and cranberry sauce, it was the perfect, home cooked-style meal.
The church closed, after lunch Jon and Colleen went to the schoolhouse near the grounds, where there was a plaque talking about the inspiration for "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The guide inside who probably hadn't talked to anybody else all day, told us that Henry Ford (yes, the Henry Ford) obtained a schoolhouse *similar to the schoolhouse in Sterling, MA where the person believed to be the inspiration behind the poem attended. (That schoolhouse has since burned to the ground.) The guide also told us that when she was working in the gift shop, the dolls that featured the tune, "You Are My Sunshine," went off all on their own one night.
Although it was now about 15 minutes beyond their initial scheduled departure time (set for 1:30) Jon and Colleen made a quick stop at the mill (also unmarked from where they were at the inn - thank goodness for the waitress providing some instruction) which featured a guide and displays explaining how it all worked. Apparently Henry Ford put it in, intending to run a factory there, but that never actually happened. Jon and Colleen definitely need to go back to this place!
Food: A-
Other Attractions: A-
--POSTED BY COLLEEN
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