I haven't found my pennies yet.

Ok, so a couple weeks ago, my mom and I went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. Concord is about twenty minutes away by car. We went on a Sunday morning, and though it was still "the season," a couple shops were closed (I'm looking at YOU, little candy store). But it was a cute little town and it was a great morning (weather-wise) to wander around the cemetery.

Including a family ancestor, Daniel Chester French, the graveyard is where a lot of other very cool people are buried...



I'm sure it's just because they can't lump him in with the literary group, but I like that he gets his own sign.



He was also the hardest to find, since he's up on a hill near the beginning of the graveyard. A local walking her dog pointed us in the right direction. The whole place is still worth seeing...



Great moss and great mushrooms.



This was just kinda creepy...



A lot of the graves have markers if they fought in a war. I'm really not used to being in graveyards that go back this far:



As for the famous graves, people seem to have made it customary to leave certain things on them. Like twigs on Thoreau, pennies on French's (Lincoln penny)...I forget who gets what and apparently no one else can get it right, either:



And I'm not sure why Hawthorne gets a big piece of driftwood. I can't say anything nice about this one anyway, so let's move on...



Difficult to shoot, but Emerson had a giant plot for the whole family.



Thoreau had the busiest grave by far, and rightly so. You can't see it, but there are also little notes written in Japanese under a wood block.



And last but not least, the long flat grave belongs to Daniel Chester French.



Here, people seem to get the penny thing right.



But some people still leave dimes. Are they making a wish or what?