Adams National Historical Park

I read the book "John Adams" by David McCullough and LOVED it and I finally had the time to watch the HBO mini-series after finishing my dissertation. They did an INCREDIBLE job with the mini-series- the acting and sets were just amazing. I absolutely LOVED it. I also recommend watching how they created the series- they made several complete sets to film. I found it fascinating to watch part of the interview with David McCullough where I was shocked to find out that he still does ALL of his writing by TYPEWRITER. WOW. I guess that it is from all of that patience that he was able to write two pulitzer prize winning books.

I made it my goal that while we were in Boston for my graduation that I would visit the Adams National Historic Site. We picked William's mom up from the airport and immediately headed out to the site where we made it just in time for the last trolley tour. The trolley with William and my mother in law Lynne was part of the tour in that it picked us up from the visitor center, took us to the two different sites, and then back to the center- which was nice since we didn't have to get lost in Quincy trying to find these places.

The first stop was the birthplace of John Adams (the oldest presidential birthplace in the U.S.)

And the birthplace of his son, John Quincy Adams.

The second stop was at "Peace field," their later mansion house.

They had the most beautiful wisteria growing along the side of the house

and an intricate weather vane.

Many of the original artifacts from Adams' day are kept inside of this house, whereas the birthplaces contain mostly replicas of period pieces.

However, my favorite part of the tour was the Stone Library. Just look at how charming it is from the outside. It currently houses the library of John Quincy Adams-over 14,000 volumes. As many of you know, I have a long love of libraries- particularly my 2nd floor home of the HBLL at BYU- so that is something I want for sure in a home is a great library.

I actually saw the library of John Adams a few years ago at the Boston Public Library. I have now been to 3 presidential birthplaces (I went to JFK's birthplace in Brookline several years ago) and seen 3 presidential libraries (I have also been to the JFK museum and library several times).