An Afternoon At Mount Vernon
Friday morning dawned bright and beautiful, what a great day for an adventure!
Michael and I headed north towards Mount Vernon, Virginia.
The home of our first President
George Washington.
We arrived and parked in a lot that was over flowing…
I have no idea why
I would have thought the beautiful home and grounds
of one of “our” most historic figures
would not be covered with tourist on this warm spring day…
I rather enjoyed the dream of walking right up,
maybe being introduced as welcome visitors,
sitting for a “spot o’ tea” ,
then taking a personally guided tour of the grounds…
Hey, a woman can get caught up in her day dreams..especially given a couple hours between point A and point B..
So, Cousin George wasn’t there to greet us
and Martha offered us no tea..
While walking along the actual grounds and along the same hallways,
while running your hand over the very same banister
that once felt the warmth of their hands long ago …
if you just barely squinted your eyes and cocked an ear
you could just almost “hear”
the rustle of a many layered dress as
Martha would have passed this way…
or maybe even the far off whispered sound
of a General’s voice
as he arrived home
coming through the door…
So we did not sit for tea,
all the same I truly enjoyed our time at Mount Vernon.
We began our visit in the Orientation Center
viewing Mount Vernon in miniature .
.a one-twelfth scale exact replica of the mansion
with 22 rooms containing
hundreds of tiny objects
including oil paintings, china, books,
and more than 100 tables and chairs.
A little girls (or an older gamma’s) dream come true …
except it was out of reach behind glass!
While there we watched an 18 minute “action adventure” film
which introduced us to the young Washington
who was to become
“The Father of His Country”.
then upon leaving the the center
we walked upon the grounds that
oh, so many years ago the Washington’s called home.
Mount Vernon
sits upon a gently sloping hill beside the Potomac river..
sporting a long porch on the rivers side
to sit in the shade and catch an afternoons pleasant breeze.
After leaving the kitchen we quickly headed in the direction
of the “Old Vault”
that first housed the earthly remains of our first president..
In his will George made arrangements
for a new burial tomb to be built..
knowing that erosion would ill afford
a good resting spot for him and his prodigy
at the present site of the old tomb.
The new tomb was finally constructed in 1831,
where the Washingtons remains rest today.
From there we headed out
by way of the Museum and education center…
Here, we were also not permitted to take pictures
and this area was being watched over
by some extremely serious looking
security guards..
Didn’t help matters when Michael said rather loudly..
“Hey Donna here’s you a good picture of the copula and dove weather vane..”…
Well, that big guard furrowed his brow,
set his jaw and leveled a very hard look at me!
Needless to say ,
I took no “accidental” pictures in the museum!
***
***
Some facts below I have found on a most wonderful web site
from Mount Vernon
and would highly recommend you
spend some time navigating among its pages
for an in-depth look at the life and times of
George and Martha Washington and of Mount Vernon…
On this web site I have also found a “Virtual tour” of the mansion..
Please, click on this site and enjoy a tour…
we were not allowed to use our cameras “inside”
except for in the visiting servants quarters and the kitchen.
and the couple of times my camera “accidently clicked”
while hanging around my neck the pictures
it produced were mainly
different parts of the nice lady standing in front of me…
Be sure and watch for the key
hanging downstairs on the wall between
the bedroom and dining room!
It is the very key of the Bastille
,a present from General Lafayette in 1790.
It is said that Pres. Washington was so proud of this
that he hung it there on the wall
and there it has been ever since!
On the floor above,
the very bed he slept and perished on
can be seen in his bedchambers
…upon his death..
the room was closed and
Martha moved to another bedchambers
on the next floor up…
(so they said was customary of the times.)
www.mountvernon.org/virtual/index.cfm/ss/29/
Washington greatly expanded his Mount Vernon plantation. He increased the acreage from 2,100 to 8,000, rebuilt the simple farmhouse he inherited into a 2-1/2 story, 20-room Mansion, and designed and built all 12 outbuildings.
Washington chose to aband tobacco farming around 1765, ending his economic dependence on English agents to sell his tobacco and giving Mount Vernon greater autonomy and self-sufficiency. His main crop became wheat, but he experimented with over 60 field crops. Fish from the Potomac was also an important source of food and cash.
Increasingly conscious of the injustice of slavery, his will freed the 122 slaves that were in his posession at the time of his death. He trained slaves as gardeners, shoemakers, carpenters and weavers to help prepare them for their freedom.
Creative and persistent in solving problems, Washington overcame the poor soil at Mount Vernon by starting an innovative plan of crop rotation (switching crop type every year) and mulching, which made his farmland able to sustain its yields. He also introduced the mule to America in a successful effort to find an animal better suited to farm work than the horse.
www.mountvernon.org/learn/explore_mv/lndex.cfm/
If sometime in the future,
you should find yourself in the neighborhood
stop by and give the Washington’s a visit!
***
Patriots' Day
April 19th
The battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.
(Wikipedia)
