Milepost 5,360 (Braintree, MA)

Greetings from windy and rainy Massachusetts. We're going through the first extended rainy period of our trip. Yesterday, it rained pretty much the whole way from Middletown, NY, where we had stayed the night before and Braintree, MA, where we're staying for three days. Today, it just poured and the winds were often quite strong. The next two days are expected to a little better, but still wet. Tomorrow, we're heading down to Cape Cod, and on Wednesday, we'll visit Lexington and Concord.

Yesterday,we stopped in Springfield, MA, for the Basketball Hall of Fame. It includes a wealth of information about basketball at all levels, including professional, college and high school. You can learn about all 293 members of the hall of fame, which includes former WSU/UW/PLU coach Marv Harshman. And, of course, there was the obligatory shrine to Michael Jordon. On the bottom level there's a basketball court where you can actually take some shots. Which I did, not that I made very many.

There is a lot of memorabilia from the past. For example, this is a jersey worn by Elgin Baylor when he played for Seattle University and led them to the Final Four in 1958, losing to Kentucky in the championship game.

Today, we turned our attention to earlier and more serious times in American history.  We visited the Adams National Historical Park, which includes the birthplace homes of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams.  It also includes the Old House at Peacefield, home to the four Adams generations from 1788 to 1927.  It was also the home where John Adams died on July 4, 1826, the same day Thomas Jefferson died and the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

This photo is the home in which John Adams was born in 1735.  It was also was where Adams first practiced law after graduating from Harvard. 

In 1764, Adams married Abigail Smith, and the couple moved into the farmhouse (below) that was just a few feet away.  This is where John Quincy Adams was born. 

While our group was in this house, we were paid a brief visit by John Adams.  At least he claimed to be John Adams.  Unfortunately, I have no photographic evidence since photos were not permitted inside the houses.  But he was there, though somehow, I expected him to look a little more like Paul Giamatti. 

The last photo is of the Old House at Peacefield.  The Adams acquired this house after living in luxurious homes in France and England.  After those experiences, they did not want to return to the more mundane house pictured above.