Introduction

Everyone learned about the U.S. presidents back in grade school — around the same time we were learning our state capitals — but only a very few remember anything beyond the basics. George Washington cut down the cherry tree. Thomas Jefferson built Monticello and the University of Virginia. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s building programs helped get us out of the Great Depression. Richard Nixon was forced to resign after the Watergate scandal. But not many of us know or remember much beyond that.

So we had an idea to re-learn our presidents. The idea is simple, yet promised to take a while – visit a place important to each U.S. president and then write about it. It was part history, part travelogue, and we call it Presidential Pursuits. There were no rules, except one – we have to visit the important places in order of the presidencies.

This means we can't knock out the geographically proximate Washington, Jefferson, Monroe and Madison over a long weekend. Nor could we fly to Boston and take care of John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams on the same trip.