Friday, May 7, Day 58

Started the day off by doing a little more catching up, paying bills, work on the RV, and then headed to Mount Vernon, George Washington's home. It is much more high volume than other homes we visited. There was quite a wait for the tour, and instead of being in a group, there was a docent (tour guide) in each room giving a continuous flow of information as you walked through.

We have done a great job of avoiding crowds but I think we finally caught up with peak season, as the weather is great, schools are taking trips, and people are out. A little more work to make it look like not so many people are around in the pictures!
Grant happened to find a one dollar bill on the ground, with George's picture on it, which he thought was quite a coincidence!

The view of the Potomac River from the back of the house was fantastic. We enjoyed sitting on some chairs and imagining what it would have been like to sit there with General Washington taking in the view. Actually, I asked Amanda where George was, and she said that he was in getting her an iced tea!



There was quite a bit of interesting information and displays of life in the "old days". We talked with the kids about the issues of slavery. Even in Washington's time they knew that it was going to be a problem for the country. (Washington set his slaves free when he died.) We visited the grave of Washington, and found out later in DC that people at the capitol had wanted Washington buried there (under the center of the capitol). However, he died while Washington DC was torn up after the war of 1812, and so he was buried at his home according to his wishes. To make sure that he did not get moved, Virgina passed a law forbidding him to be buried anywhere outside of Virgina!


It was nice to walk through the gardens and find a tree planted by Washington! They had an interesting education center, and of course a big gift shop.

After leaving Mt. Vernon, we visited our friends outside of DC, the Mleziva's. They cooked up a wonderful dinner, and our kids enjoyed playing together. More on that in the next post...