Just a brief entry today as the lethargy continues, although we began to get an inkling of what might be the cause. Let me explain: following a rather exhausting day touring Boston, we decided to spend the second Sunday of the trip with a more relaxing schedule. For this, I chose to visit the National John Adams Museum, in Quincy, just outside Boston. I say just outside, although it's pretty hard to say at exactly what point we left Boston as it seems to be one massive urban sprawl. Still, all of a sudden we emerged into an entirely different neighbourhood to what we had seen before, with large impressive houses and big green lawns. One of these houses turned out to be the John Adams Museum, although it was a case of blink and you'll miss it.
On our second pass we spotted it, and pulled up alongside to park. After Dad jumped out to ask about wheelchair access, we were shown the path to take which brought us to the park rangers office. We got out, and for $5 myself and Steffen, although not Dad as he seems to have some kind of allergy to tour guides, were given a personal guided tour of the house in which John Adams and four generations of the Adams family lived (if you're thinking Lurch and Uncle Fester, you've got the wrong family!). Despite only being able to get into three of the rooms in the house, we got all of the information from the tour we would have received otherwise, which was really interesting although my brain did reach overload point after about 20 minutes!
All in all however it was excellent value for money, and I found it good to see some context for the stories which featured in the historical TV show, John Adams, which chronicled the life of the founding father and third (I think) US President. I was probably the only one really interested in this however!
Anyway, I digress, it was on the way back from the museum that we saw the potential reason for my recent lack of energy. We got caught in some traffic on the way back into Boston, with four slow-moving lanes of cars on the highway. From here we caught a glimpse of the Prudential Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Boston located right next to our hotel. At first it seemed obscured by fog, but it was otherwise quite a clear day. As we approached it, it disappeared before our eyes into the clouds, which we soon realised was a thick layer of smog. The fact that our hotel is in the middle of a polluted haze, and the consequent effect it will have on my already restricted breathing, may explain my less than energetic feelings.
The solution for now, it seems, is to keep taking things easy and adapt our activities to my energy levels, however frustrating that may be. It might also be a good idea to try to get further out of the city to some nice clean air.
On a more positive note, to finish off the day, we went to the cheesecake factory for dinner. This was quite an experience, as you are handed a weighty telephone directory - sorry, I mean menu - with a huge variety of meals to choose from, and no less than 30 different types of cheesecake. Suffice it to say, I promised my Dad we could come back again, as I think he has designs to try as many as he possibly can. In fact, he does seem to have been wandering around a lot whenever I have been taking a rest, and coming back with useful information and goodies - could these be to try and disguise some kind of guilt over secret cheesecake eating?! Just kidding, he’s actually been fantastically helpful, even to the point of doing some hand-washing of laundry and even contemplating ironing. Anyone that knows him knows how significant that is!
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