We took this whole Memorial Day thing seriously and spent a few hours celebrating the life of a real patriot — John Adams. We watched the HBO miniseries a few months ago (it’s based on the book by David McCullough) and I’ve been dying to take a tour at the Adams National Historical Park ever since. We began our day at the home where John Adams was born (pictured above), then rode the trolley to nearby Peacefield, where John and Abigail lived for much of their married life. Four generations of the Adams family continued to live there, and all the contents of the house have remained just as the owners left them.
A piece of me wants to share all the fun facts and neat stories we learned today on our tour, but I’m going to instead recommend that you take the tour yourself (and watch the miniseries and read the book!). The gardens outside the stone library are incredible.
Although it was about a million degrees out today, I was content to sweat to death while looking at the thousands of flowers.
See? I wasn’t kidding about the hot and sweaty thing — frizzy hair, squinty eyes, etc.
After the tour, we blasted the AC in the car and drove to Fratelli’s Pastry Shop, also in Quincy. I’ve done my fair share of pastry eating in the North End, and I can tell you there is little to nothing you can buy at those shops for a dollar. Not so in Quincy! Fratelli’s has a whole section of mini pastries that cost $0.99, and they’re not even that mini.
I went for the cannoli (the green ends are pistachio chunks, if you were wondering), but they also had small versions of their cheesecake, cream puff, Neapolitan, and eclair. The taste ranks right up there with Modern Pastry and Mike’s in Boston, but everything there was slightly less expensive. I’m now trying to think of a reason to go for one of their full-sized cakes. And I don’t even like cake.
Tagged: cannoli, Fratelli's, John Adams, Peacefield, Quincy
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