John Adams House -- Finally!

Last Saturday we finally made the trip to John Adam's house- a trip that Grumpus has been jonesing for since we moved here. Adams is JR's favorite President these days, in large part because of his integrity, taciturn behavior and modesty... It took us about twice as long to get there as it should have because a long detour forced upon us by more highway construction (which apparently will continue this whole summer!!), but we got there just in time for the 12:15 pm tour.

Warning: the John Adam's historical site tour may include 3 houses and a trolley, but it is 2 hours long!! I'm not complaining, I'm just noting (JR's editorial note: it was awesome and well worth the time investment). Four generations of Adams lived in the third house on the tour from the 1790s to the 1920s -- Presidents John and John Q. Adams as well as Lincoln's Ambassador to England, Charles Francis Adams, and Henry Adams, the noted historian and intellectual. We had very good tour guides and we got to see quite a bit of historical architecture. Highlight: Mumpus surprised the last tour guide by being the first one to find the "imperfection" in the tiled library floor! She attributed it to recently honed observational skills from looking for birds.

After our tour, both starving at this point, we rushed over to our favorite spot for indulgent picnic lunch groceries, Fresh Market in Hingham, MA. We got samples of hotdogs (drool-mazing) and hamburgers (cold, bleh), and then picked up a fresh bagette, some meat, cheese, coconut shrimp and pistachios. With some fruit and cookies already in the car, and we headed off to picnic and hike around the nearest state park, Wompatuk!


Apparently Wompatuk is a biking park, because most of the paths in the woods are
paved, and it also apparently used to be along a popular train route because there are overgrown tracks everywhere. Not the BEST hiking, but we did wander into a meadow with lots of small butterflies fluttering about. They were really pretty, and they gave us a chance to hone our skills as travel photographers.

The second half of the bike paralleled a chain-linked fence with barbed wire running along the top. The fence was pretty old, since a few of the trees had busted through it, but it felt very odd to hike next to a fence. Towards the end of the hike, Mumpus used her improved eye sight to spot an abandoned well a few yards off the trail!

The end of the day was dinner at our friends' place in MEDFORD! We actually have friends
who live in Medford too! It's great, because no one wants to live here, and it makes us sad. We think all of you should move to Medford too. If you're considering it, Grumpus will give you the spiel about how many good places there are to eat in Medford.