If you find yourself with cabin fever over the holidays, try taking your family or out-of-town visitors out on a Perfect Day Trip* to Lowell. We did this recently, and by absolute luck, we stumbled on the historic Boott Mill Museum, where generations of men and women, including my children's great-grandmother, labored to make a better life for their families.Friendly park rangers give you an authentic mill apron and answer questions along a trail of life-sized pictures of children through the mill. Walking through the weaving room is a step back in time - minus the dust, but including the din of the clacking looms (don't forget to take the complimentary earplugs). Upstairs, you can follow the process of turning cotton into thread, into cloth. Try out a small loom and listen to the voices of men and women who actually worked in the mills. By another stroke of luck, I later found our copy of The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully handed down by Lowell relatives, which made for great reading that night.
There are many reasons why Lowell makes a Perfect Day Trip: From the mill, you are just steps away from many other indoor and outdoor Lowell attractions, including The Revolving Museum, antique shops, (Jack) Kerouac Park, the Lowell Spinners (in season) and dinner at The Lowell Brewery. You can take a trolley tour along the Canals and check out the music festivals in the summer. The National Park Service site is a great place to preview your trip to Lowell. - by Laurie Smith
* Downtown Lowell, Harvard Square, and Moody Street in Waltham are just a few of the dozens of "Perfect Day Trips" featured in The Compleat Day Tripper.
