The weather
for Sunday looked good until late evening so we decided to take a tour of Mt.
Vernon, George Washington’s home.
Maddie and
Papaw Greg taking a break before we start our walking tour of the grounds.
In the
museum Maddie had to check out the Washington family, including their noses and
ears in great detail.
This is a
beautiful miniature version of the house.
I would have paid more attention to getting the details in some good
pictures if I had realized you can’t take pictures inside the house itself. The house has a lot of original paintings
that belonged to Washington and I think the flash from cameras would harm them
and they probably don’t want people taking pictures and duplicating them.
Dinah Oldham
this picture is for you. Beautiful
stained glass history timeline.
These
Washington quotes made me feel really good about the man who was picked to be
our first President. I wish I could say
the same about all of those who followed him.
Maddie
managed to keep up with all of the walking we had to do. It had been a while since Greg and I had been
walking for any distance but we found we didn’t have a problem.
The market
featuring vendors from Washington’s time in period clothing was special this
weekend. I understand that it isn’t here
all the time. I had to feel for the
folks in all of those long dresses, long sleeved shirts and vests. We were getting pretty warm in our shorts and
t-shirts. They had all kinds of vendors
– bakers, soap makers, pottery, gourd bowls, fabric stenciling and more. The “doctor” selling his elixir to cure all
your aches and pains was fun to listen to.
The
puppeteer was a favorite of the little kids.
On the path
to tour the house we came across the “necessary”. A real step up from most outhouses of the
time.
This is a
back view of the house and kitchen (the small building to the right). There was a game of cricket going on in the
large yard in the rear of the house.
I always
thought the house was made out of stone.
In fact it is made of wood covered in a procedure called
“rustication”. Pine boards were grooved
and beveled to create the appearance of masonry. The boards were then varnished and painted
and fine sand was thrown onto the wet paint.
This is the
front of the house overlooking the Potomac River. If I lived here I wouldn’t get anything done,
I’d be sitting on this porch all day.
Not much
going up and down the river today.
In the
carriage house we didn’t find Washington’s carriage but one just like he would
have used – pretty ornate.
From the
carriage house we walked back to Washington’s tomb. Washington is on the right, Martha is on the
left. Beyond the black door in the
middle 25 other family members are buried.
This is a really narrow, deep building.
A lot of
restraint is going on here to keep from running up and petting the horse.
The gardens
are huge and still looking good.
There is a
variety of livestock on the farm. We saw
cows, pigs and sheep in addition to the horses.
We stopped
at the Mt. Vernon Inn for lunch. A few
of the pictures I took today were a little blurry. I kept putting the camera in the bag with the
cold water bottles and the lens would fog up when I took it out.
I had
sparkling apple cider with my sandwich of fried green tomato, bacon, spinach,
and gruyere cheese on wheat toast – really good! It was supposed to have over easy eggs on it
but since I don’t like eggs I got them on the side and Greg enjoyed them with
his club sandwich. Robyn was brave and
tried the peanut soup they are known for.
It looked a lot like watered down peanut butter which didn’t seem really
appealing to me so I didn’t try it. She
said it was “different” and didn’t finish the cup. It must be an acquired taste.
Sunday
brunch has “first come, first served” seating.
We got in with just a few minutes waiting. This room is available for those who have to
wait a bit longer to be seated.
This was a
really great way to spend Sunday afternoon – Thanks Jason and Robyn!
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