After a long day of traveling and running late, our first day of learning was great. (I should clarify—I was running late, not the group. I set my alarm for 4:15 a.m. the morning of our departure; however, I didn’t wake up until 6:15 a.m. With a record-setting drive to Louisville, I made it with time to spare. Needless to say, my trip did not begin so well.) One of our first stops was at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Hawthorne, Thoreau, the Alcotts and Emerson are buried here, all within close proximity of each other. Their graves, marked with one large family gravestone as well as individual markers, are simple, very minimalist. Professor Rutledge made the comment while at Sleepy Hollow, “It’s nice to see the simplicity of these authors—they weren’t ostentatious at all.” I can’t help but agree with him. These authors lived in a time when wealth was the measure of a person’s character, yet they chose to follow their own paths of individualism.

The day continuing, the group visited The Old Manse, once home to Emerson and Hawthorne. This house, seemingly boring from the outside, abounded with history once we entered the doors. Our booty-clad feet stepped neatly around the rooms as we soaked in the stories from the tour guide. The Old Manse was in Emerson's family for generations before he asked Hawthorne and his new bride, Sophia, to move in. As Professor Rutledge said, Nathaniel and Sophia were “deliriously in love,” evident from the etchings Sophia scratched in the windowpane in this house. This remaining feature of the house, eerie yet spectacular, was my favorite part of the day.