Sunday morning, we watched sacrament meeting on Zoom and then headed to Mount Vernon. I had always wanted to go and was so excited to finally visit. It did not disappoint. I liked it even better than Monticello - although I liked that too.
Cupola Tower
The gardens
This girl!
The home is perfectly situated on the Potomac.
We toured some of the outer buildings before our mansion tour. This was the overseers cabin.
Blacksmith
View of the Potomac from the back.
Gallery to the kitchen.
I had always seen pictures of Mt. Vernon with people in period costume, but this is the only person we saw in costume while we were there.
I thought this squirrel was a cutie.
The mansion looks like it's built of sandstone, but it's actually wood. It's ingenious how they did it.
Here you can see the wood in it's natural and sand painted states.
Guest parlor where formal guests waited.
Family and close friend parlor.
This key to the Bastille was a gift from the Marquis de Lafayette.
Guest rooms
Note the bell chord on the wall.
Washington's room.
There was a private staircase from their bedroom to Washington's study so they could go back and forth without seeing their numerous guests. Washington's fan chair could be pedaled to work the fan and keep him cool.
The open gallery led to the kitchen.
You can get more information about the rooms in the house
HERE.
I can't remember what this is, but I think this is where they washed the large pots and pans.
The "necessary" or toilet.
The Ice House - they would cut ice from the Potomac when it froze over in winter.
Burial place of Martha and George
She's on the left, he's on the right.
A memorial to the enslaved people who lived at Mt. Vernon. It is in the middle of a burial ground where there are several unmarked graves. Washington designed Mt. Vernon so that guests wouldn't see the laborers in the field. When he died, he freed all his slaves. Martha had her own slaves that she brought to Mt. Vernon. She did not free her slaves so they were sold or inherited when she died, which resulted in families being broken up. I appreciated that Mt. Vernon was very open about slavery there. It is hard to understand how Jefferson and Washington could fight for freedom while owning slaves. It doesn't undo the important role they played in the foundation of our country.
The actual slave quarters are on the opposite side of the mansion. At Mt. Vernon there were male and female quarters where several people lived together. This is different from the slave cabins I had seen at other plantations.
At the discovery center, there was a 4-D video experience about Washington as general. It was really good. There were lots of displays and activities that we just didn't have time to do.
I had hoped to run into a friend of mine from our Texas days. The Murrahs got married shortly before us when we all lived in Texas. They live in Utah now. I knew we'd be at Mt. Vernon on the same day, but wasn't sure we'd be there at the same time. We ended up on the same shuttle! Such a fun coincidence.
Cameron also met us at Mt. Vernon and spent the day with us.
I hadn't known what to expect from Mt. Vernon, but we were there for four hours and could have spent much longer.
Next we headed to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It's an air and space museum near IAD airport. The Air & Space museum on the mall is closed for remodeling. I actually preferred this place. It was fascinating. It's hard to convey what it's like in pictures. It has to be experienced. There are so many different aircraft, particularly military. There's even a concorde and space shuttle!
They were showing Maverick on IMAX, but it was sold out. That would have been fun.
After our explorations, we went back to DC to see more monuments. We parked near the Jefferson Memorial and then walked over.
Then we walked to the Lincoln Memorial. It was extremely crowded because it was Memorial Day weekend.
This memorial to Gulf War veterans was on display.
There were lots of ducks.
View from the memorial.
We then decided to walk to the White House. We did A LOT of walking.
We reenacted a photo at the World War II Memorial.
We made it to the White House at nightfall. You can't get very close anymore.
We headed back to the car after another long day.
Both nights we had icees from food trucks. (I just had the ice.) We were tired, but happy. Our nation's capitol is a beautiful place.
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