Day 4--Mount Vernon

For our fourth day, April 2, we spent the day at Mount Vernon. This was the mansion and estate of George Washington. There are 50 acres available to the public. It is a truly beautiful location up on a hill with the river below.

In addition to the mansion house, there are also many storehouses and rooms in outbuildings for various tasks such as laundry and food preparations along with stables, the 16-sided barn and gardens. His tomb along with several family members is also on the estate. There are two amazing museums and several narratives and videos about George Washington there including immaculate displays. They include three full-body wax sculptures of George Washington created from his original bust and then electronically aged so that they represent him at 3 different ages. In many ways, the whole place is like a working plantation with crops and animals. All the buildings are furnished with many original and period pieces.

Just as we were walking in, I took this picture of the kids outside the museum

Inside the museum, this cool face of George Washington watches you throughout the lobby, but the most interesting thing is that although it looks like it is sculpted on the outside of the wall, it is actually inverted so the sculpture's going INTO the wall. The kids and I were pretty amazed by it.

One of the wax sculptures of George Washington at age 19...they looked SO real.

This was a play area for the kids. Each yellow button told something about the thing is was on.

This cool playhouse in the kids area was a miniature model of the mansion house. The kids really liked it...unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to spend here.

One of George Washington's horses, and Tessa (our horse lover).

Another of the wax sculptures. I believe this was at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and he was something like 49 years old.

Almost at the front of the line now to go into the mansion

Here's the back of the mansion that overlooks the river

All of us with the view of the river behind the house

Another picture behind the mansion

Inside one of the sheds where they were demonstrating welding and making tools, Tessa and Jarem huddled in a little corner

Jarem and Tessa writing their names in the dirt

Looking into the room where the laundry was done

This was Lord Fairfax's riding chair...it is said to be very similar to the one George Washington had. It looks like a rocking chair with wheels.

The lighting wasn't right on this picture, so I converted it to sephia, but this is the Powel coach, again very similar to one George Washington would have owned.

Jarem looking into one of the rooms

This was such a beautiful spot down the lane from the house that we stopped for some pictures
Tessa wanted me to take her picture, I tried to get the other kids too, but no one else wanted to.

Another cool spot for a picture

My handsome husband... :)

Alex, Tessa, and Eric taking a break on a bench

Jarem pouting, I don't remember why, but he walked off by himself and sat on the grass to pout.

Eric helping to cheer him up, and it did work!

All in all, it was a great day. We all enjoyed it very much. Jesikah told me later that she learned A LOT at Mount Vernon. She said she'd learned isolated stories before about George Washington and history, but going there helped her see the big picture of how everything fit together. I'd highly recommend it if you are going to Washington DC and haven't been there. I personally loved the mansion. There were no photographs allowed inside, but we bought a book(a money-making scheme, I know) with pictures so we could remember. The last room built on was a huge dining room, and in it were all types of grains and corn adorned moldings on the ceiling and around the door frames and crown molding, it was said after the returned from the Revolutionary War that he just wanted to settle down and be a farmer, so that is what this room represents.