The Trip - Part 14 - Braintree, MA & Home

Day 14
The last day of our trip! We woke up early and got all of our things packed then drove out to Braintree, MA to tour the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams as well as the "Old" House in which they lived after he became president.

John & Abagail Adams are one of my favorite first families so I was very excited for this part of the trip (We recognized Paul Giamatti so easily since he plays John Adams in the HBO series adaptation of David McCullough's book). We had an amazing tour guide at the Presidential house which made it even better.



There were a lot of funny stories about the Presidential house. For one, they purchased the house without seeing it. Abagail had remembered the house from when she was younger and how large it was, they were in France at the time and when they heard it was for sale, had a friend purchase it for them. When they returned home they were shocked to find that it was not quite as big as she remembered. Even worse, the house was only about 12ft deep from the front door to the back. Abagail was disappointed but determined to make it work so she had additions build onto the house. In the addition, she wanted the ceiling raised. This caused a problem, however, for if the ceiling was raised in just the addition, the floors of the second story would not match up. When the contractor told her this her response was "Well then lower the floor." So they did, and when you walk in to the addition on the first story you have to take a few steps down.

The best part of the Adams house was that every single thing in the house was owned by the Adams family. Dishes, tables, books, beds. They even have the chair that John Adams died in.



This little house is the stone library that was added to the house by John Adams' great grandson (I think) to protect the books his family had collected. It is separated from the main house to prevent it being ruined in case of a fire and to allow for it to be kept at a cooler temperature preserving the books. Wouldn't you love a little place like that to go and read? It includes two stories of book shelves and over 14,000 books all originally owned by the Adams family.



Around the grounds was beautiful. All sorts of flowers and orchards surrounding the house.

As soon as the tour was over Benson and I ran (literally) to the subway and rode it to the Airport. We checked in for our flight and realized we probably wouldn't make it on (we were flying standby). We had to wait in the airport for a couple of hours and then finally made it on a flight (the last one of the day!).



Going home from vacation is always a bittersweet thing. It's so exciting to be in your own home in your own bed - but ending the freedom vacation brings is no fun.







Home Sweet Home!

Next up: The Food!

The Trip - Part 13 - Boston, MA

Day 13
This was the last fully day of our trip and we had a LOT to see! We got an early start and drove out to Plymouth to see the Mayflower, Plymouth rock and First Church and the graveyard. While we were there we also went to the Pilgrim Hall museum.


(Mayflower Replica)


Plymouth Rock - yep, it's that small - people chipped away at it for years as "souvenirs" and what not. They now have it surrounded by a wall and you look down at it from a platform. While we were all looking at it Benson dropped his keys down into the area around the rock and had to fish them out with a net!





Fun fact: Benson and I's closest ancestor was the first pilgrim baby born in the US. He was born on the Mayflower in Plymouth harbor since the houses had not yet been built.

After touring the Plymouth area, we went back to Boston to walk the Freedom Trail. We started at the end and went to the beginning because we're cool like that.


Old North Church






Paul Revere in front of the Old North Church


Paul Revere's Home




Pear tree and lavender in Paul Revere's garden


Fanueil Hall


Benson helping out the street performer. This guy stood his sweaty stocking feet on Benson's arms and juggled knives. It was intense.




Old State House




Granary Burying Ground

Next up: Braintree, MA and Home!

The Trip - Part 12 - Worcester & Concord, MA

Day 14
Benson's uncle Bill, who we were on the trip with, grew up in Worcester not too far from Boston, so we stopped there Sunday morning and were able to go to the ward he went to when he lived there. After church, we drove into the Boston area and drove around the Harvard campus, Lexington & Conchord, the Old North Bridge, the Emerson house, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, the Manse house and the Orchard House where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women:



We also went to the Boston temple right at nightfall. We were able to snap one or two pictures right before it started pouring rain!

Next up: Boston

The Trip - Part 11 - Palmyra, NY

Day 13
This is the place I was really looking forward to. When I was 11 my family spent a week in Palmyra visiting close family friends (the Grahams) who were serving a mission there restoring the Grandin building. I haven't been back since and was really excited to see it all again!

We first drove to the Smith farm and took the tour there seeing the log cabin, the frame house and the sacred grove.





View of the Palmyra temple from the log cabin



Then we had the opportunity to go visit "Pop" (Ken Graham) and his new wife Cora. Pop is the same family friend I went to visit the first time I came and he now lives in Palmyra. Visiting with them was a lot of fun since I was close to their family growing up and hadn't seen them in a long time but also because he had a lot of wonderful stories to tell us from his service in the church. He worked on the restoration of the Grandin building and the Smith's log cabin and was involved in many other church projects in the area. We enjoyed hearing the stories and before we left he gave us a few nails taken from the original floors in the Grandin building.



After the visit we went straight over to the Grandin building for the tour and to look for all of the neat things he told us about (we felt like we were on our own secret tour since much of what he told us isn't included in the actual tour - it was really cool).

After touring the Grandin building we went to the Martin Harris farm which was especially exciting for me. You see, when my family came to visit Pop last while he was serving a mission, the Martin Harris farm was the mission home - so we were able to spend a week living there. Since there were so many of us visiting (all of his kids, grandkids, and my family) they converted the garage into a temporary apartment for all of us - we just had to shower in the house. So each morning as my friend Ashley (Pop's Granddaughter) and I would be walking into the main house in our jammies for breakfast and to shower we would get stopped by tourists asking all of these questions about the farm, house, and how we were related to the Harris family. Some people would even ask for our picture in front of the house.

At first we were a little weirded out by it and didn't know what to say. Before long, though, we were making up all of these elaborate stories of how we were related to them, about how the farm worked, even that there were homeless people who lived in the corn field behind the house so we would never get rid of it since that's where they lived. Looking back that was probably not the best idea, but we were sure some imaginative kids!


(the Harris home)

We spent the rest of the day visiting the Hill Cumorah, touring the Peter Whitmer home, and seeing the temple.




(Cute little house in town that reminded us of the house from 'Up')

That night we had another long journey ahead of us to our final destination!

Next up: Worcester & Concord, MA

The Trip - Part 10 - Niagara Falls

Day 12
When we woke up in the morning it was cool and rainy. As we drove toward the falls you could see what looked like billowing smoke meeting the clouds in the sky. As we got closer we realized it was just the mist from the falls, which we were able to see from miles away since it was so humid that day.

Most of the pictures are pretty foggy looking since it poured most of the time we were there but we really enjoyed the break from the heat that we had been enduring!





Benson and I had both been to the falls before and gone on the "Maid of the Mist" tour, but had heard from friends that the "Cave of the winds" was a far better way to see the falls. So, he and I took a couple of the bigger kids to do that rather than the boat ride - we were so not disappointed!! The cave of the winds was INCREDIBLE! If you ever go to Niagara - you HAVE to see it this way. Trust me. If you feel like you need to do Maid of the Mist then do both, you won't be disappointed.

As a bonus to the poncho you get when you do cave of the winds you also get these bad boys:



If that doesn't convince you, I don't know what will!
As I am sure you can imagine we got SOAKED, which also meant there was NO way the camera was coming out of the bag without it being drenched (bummer) but it was totally worth it. I can honestly say it was one of the coolest things I have ever done!



When we were done with the falls we drove over to Rochester to check into our hotel and still had time to attend the Hill Cumorah pageant that night which was really fun! I hadn't seen it in about 12 years and it's changed a lot, it was like seeing a whole new show.

Next up: Palmyra, NY

The Trip - Part 9 - Kirtland Ohio

Day 11
After a long drive the night before we arrived in Cleveland, Ohio - right outside of Kirtland.
Another beautiful place! There were wildflowers everywhere we went and bright orange lilies popping up all over the sides of the roads and highways.

We went to tour the Johnson Farm which was a really beautiful house - it's a little bit out of the way but definitely a must see if you're doing Kirtland!



On our way back to Kirtland from the farm I remembered that my grandma was born in Ohio so I called to see which city. I looked it up on the map and we were only a few minutes away from it! I wished we would have had more time to try and find the house she grew up in or at least the street, but we were on a schedule so I only had time to take a quick picture of the city sign.




After stopping for lunch we made our way over to the visitor's center and toured the replicas of the Newel K. Whitney store, as well as their house and the sawmill and ashery which were used in the building of the Kirtland temple.















We were able to see the Kirtland temple from the outside but got there too late for the tour.
We also drove over to the Issac Morley farm which was another beautiful, special little place we were glad we went to.



That night we watched the Kirtland pageant then were on our way again to the next destination

Next up: Niagara Falls

The Trip - Part 8 - Gettysburg & Our Celebrity Encounter

Day 10
On our way out of Washington D.C. we stopped at Ft. Mc Henry in Maryland where the 'Star Spangled Banner' was written. This was especially cool since just the day before we had seen THE flag that inspired our anthem at the Smithsonian.



From there, we started our journey toward Ohio, stopping along the way in Gettysburg. This civil war battle site was considered the turning point in the war, it also recorded the highest casualties and was the site of Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (obviously). It was a gorgeous area to drive around and incredible to read about the long hard battles that were fought there.




(the hole between the two diamond shapes in the side of this barn was formed by a canon ball during the Civil War)








As we were driving in to the parking lot of the visitor's center in Gettysburg to get a driving tour map Benson thought he recognized someone walking through the parking lot. He said "Isn't that..." "Paul Giamatti!" I finished.

So we parked and told his cousins what we thought we had seen. When we walked into the visitors center, sure enough, there he was with his son, now sitting and enjoying a snack. We all wanted to somehow document that we had seen him, but knowing that he probably didn't want to be disturbed by a large group of people we stood a little bit away and stared and whispered like a bunch of school kids. We were a little too obvious since he put his sunglasses on right before I took this paparazzi shot:



Aunt Laura decided she was brave enough to walk over and get his autograph so we all slowly went over and said a quick hello and headed along our way.

There was an older man sitting at the table with Paul and his son (seen in picture above) chatting with them and we all just assumed they were together. Then, when we went up and began talking to him the man said "oh are you famous or something!?" to which Paul replied "No, I'm just an actor"

We all thought it was pretty funny that the man had just sat down at the empty seat at his table and began talking to him having no idea who he was.

Next up: Kirtland Ohio