Visiting the Old House, August 7th 2008

Today Maura and I took our second research trip. We hopped the bus from Weymouth to the neighboring town of Quincy, Massachusetts, home of John Adams and his descendants. We stopped in at the National Park Service Visitor Center in Quincy Center, across the street from Quincy Center T station and bought our tickets. The price was very reasonable. Adults pay $5 for a two hour tour and kids 16 and under are free.

The tour visits three houses owned by John Adams and lived in by him and generations of his family. The first two houses are the Adams' birth places, the house where John Adams was born and the house next door where he lived with Abigail and his young family before the Revolution and where Abigail lived during his long absence during the War of Independence. This was the house that John Quincy Adams was born in.

While we were in the birth places Maura was interested and paid attention. We had a junior ranger book and we trying to fill in some of the pages. I think she was learning and enjoying the experience. The tour then took us to the house John Adams bought when he returned to the United States after he was minister to Britain following the War of Independence. He called it Peacefield and later generations of the Adams family called it the Old House. It was bigger and had a lot more stuff to look at and Maura started getting bored. Maura probably likes history much more than the average almost six year old but I don't blame her for getting tired of looking at old paintings and furniture and hearing about people who died a long time ago. I think she also had to go to the bathroom and there wasn't one handy.

After we caught the trolley back to the Visitor Center and she used the restroom there we got some lunch. Maura picked the restaurant from the many choices in Quincy Center. She picked a Mexican restaurant called Acapulco's. Maura enjoyed her taco but decided that next time she wanted to try what I had, enchiladas. We had a good lunch before catching the bus home.