Friday, May 21, 2010

Quincy, MA

One of our favorite places in MA was the town of Quincy, home of John Adams, a great man and one of the Founding Fathers. We learned a lot about his life, family, and the way they lived. Here is a statue of his wife, Abigail, and son John Quincy Adams.
Here is a photo of the front of the house John Adams was born in. It is not as big as it looks, but is as old as it looks. It is really a shame you cannot take pictures inside as the living accommodations were remarkable.
This house has obviously received some remodeling, but on the inside it was still authentic. Here is where John & Abigail lived after they were married. While John was away Abigail climbed a hill less than a mile to the east of this house and watched the Battle of Bunker Hill some miles away on the other side of the river in Charlestown. She wrote that it was that experience that convinced her that there was no turning back, that they were indeed at war. By the way, the house above faces this side of this house. I took both pictures virtually standing in the same spot, just turning.This is a great library, holding all the books of three+ generations of Adams'. It is a lot of wood and a whole lot of books inside. Very nice!
This is the west side of the Adams' place that they moved into upon their return from Europe. Only the very front (on the right) is original, the middle and the back (on the left) were added on later. Everything inside is original - some of the furniture, which is very fancy, was brought by the Adams family from France and was the first furniture in the new White House. Oh, and by the way, it was purchased second-hand in France.
This is the southeast view of the house. The original house stopped where the porch does, so you can see that even though the house at the time was one of the most spacious in town, it really wasn't that big.
And finally, here is a video of the grounds on the west side of the house. They are beautiful. One of the things we really loved about our visit to Quincy, and indeed, everywhere we went back East, was the blooming lilac bushes that seemed to be everywhere.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Mainety

For those of you who were missing your TVH fix. Here are some classic moves that we saw in Maine. He does love to blow dandelion seeds, but needs to work on his form.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Lighthouses

A pause from our normal blogging is in order here to do some explaining to those of you who have received a token of our rememberance of our trip back East (and to the others, we will get to you as we can). We saw some really great lighthouses in Maine. For some reason we really like lighthouses. They remind us that truly Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy, and invite us to Come, All Whose Souls Are Lighted. So we got something for us, and for each of our families, to remember to "send a gleam across the wave", either "from Greenland's icy mountains" or where-ever.




"My counsel for all of us is to look to the lighthouse of the Lord. There is no fog so dense, no night so dark, no gale so strong, no mariner so lost but what its beacon light can rescue. It beckons through the storms of life. The lighthouse of the Lord sends forth signals readily recognized and never failing.
"I love the words found in Psalms: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; . . . I will call upon the Lord . . . so [I shall] be saved from mine enemies.”
"The Lord loves us, my brothers and sisters, and will bless us as we call upon Him."
President Thomas S. Monson