Events Calendar

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Highlights

• Plymouth, Mass. (1 night)
  • Mayflower II replica
  • Pilgrim Hall Museum
  • Plimoth Patuxet, an outdoor living history museum
• Concord, Mass. (4 nights)
  • Walking tour including Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
  • Walden Pond
  • Old Manse in Minute Man National Historic Park
  • Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House
  • Concord Museum authors' tour, focusing on Thoreau and Emerson
• Boston, Mass. (2 nights)
  • Duck Boat Tour
  • Quincy Market
  • Old North Church and Paul Revere House
  • Tea Party Ships & Museum
  • Independent afternoon

Tour Host

Gary Schmidt, professor of English emeritus, has led multiple CALL and student tours to the Shakespeare Festival in Ontario as well as many New England Saints interim trips for students. He is a prolific writer, having written on New England cultural history in his A Passionate Usefulness: A Study of Hannah Adams and many novels for middle grade readers. His Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, set in Maine, won Newbery and Printz Honor Medals, as did his The Wednesday Wars, a novel set during the Vietnam War. More recently his Orbiting Jupiter, set on a small farm in northern Maine, as well as his The Labors of Hercules Beal, set on Truro, Cape Cod, have explored New England life.  His most recent novels have played with mythology and ghosties: Styx and Stones came out last year, and his When Obed Ruin Came, Again, is due out in fall 2027.

Pricing

Pricing is $4,395 for double-room accommodations and with flights from Grand Rapids. Departures are available from other cities upon request ($75 fee for assistance with alternate flights). The price for single accommodations is $5,260.

Trip insurance is available through TravelEx; please review their policy for what is covered. (Residents of New York and Washington should contact Witte Travel for alternate plan options.)

Registration 

Register online via Witte Travel. All registrations are accepted on a first-come basis as received by Witte Travel.

Accessibility

Lodging in Concord is at the Colonial Inn, a historic building which has stairs and no elevator. If you need a ground-level room for accessibility purposes, please notify Witte Travel after registration. While the tour moves at a reasonable pace, it does involve walking through historic sites on sometimes uneven surfaces.

Also, please note that there are a limited number of rooms with two separate beds.

More Information

For the full itinerary and registration details, download the tour brochure (PDF). For additional questions, contact alumni@calvin.edu.

This tour is planned for approximately 24 participants plus tour host. All registrations are accepted on a first-come basis as received by Witte.

Calvin tours are open to any friends of CALL and the Calvin Alumni Association who wish to travel with us. Explore other Calvin-sponsored tours, too!