Mount Vernon

Yesterday, Eric and I took the kids to Mount Vernon the home of George Washington on the Potomac River. We had a great time there. The weather was beautiful, the ride down the George Washington Parkway was pretty, driving thru Alexandria was neat and experiencing Mt. Vernon, learning more about George and Martha Washington was much more enjoyable than I expected. The kids and I read about George Washington last year in history so we were a little informed about him and his home but we definitely learned alot more from our visit.

So here's a lowdown on G.W.

George Washington was born somewhere in the northern neck area of VA to Mary and Augustine Washington. His father owned plantations and died when George was I think eleven. That is also when his education stopped but continued to teach himself with a library that grew into over 800 books. His older stepbrother, Lawrence, inherited Mt. Vernon after their father's death, took care of George and taught him his trade of land surveying. As a land surveyor George Washington was familiar with the land in Virginia and beyond which helped him in his travels and battles against the French and Indians in the Ohio Valley. Though he had helped the British Army tremendously in these battles he was never made apart of the British army. He went back and lived at Mt. Vernon that he now had inherited since Lawrence's death.

At that time Mt. Vernon was only a four room farm house. Over time it had two other expansions out and up making it what it is today. What was amazing about the mansion is although it was big and had quite a few rooms it was in no way overly grand or wasteful. The second floor had five guest rooms and the guide said that in one year they had over 600 guests(or was it 800). Pretty much all the rooms in the house were used and for a variety of purposes too. The estate itself was over 8000 acres, had I think five farms and a distillery. His plantation also had over 300 slaves that worked it for him and helped with household chores. In his will he freed all his slaves and apparently was the only founding father to ever do so.

Then George Washington becomes the general of the continental army, fights thru the Revolutionary War and was a courageous leader. After the war he gives up his position as military leader although people at that time would have made him a king or ruler of some sort but he declines. He goes back to Mt. Vernon to live with Martha only to be unanimously voted as the first president of our country. After serving two terms and again declining to stay in office for longer than one president should (although term limits were not made yet until the 1950's but all but one president since Washington followed his example) he went home to Mt. Vernon. He lived for two years after that, was a healthy man but caught a cold and died less than two days later. Martha Washington could not even attend his funeral because her grief was too much. She locked their bed chamber and spent the rest of her life in a room on the third floor never leaving Mt. Vernon again until her death a few years later.

I feel like I'm one of those kids doing a book report on "Reading Rainbow". What can I say we really liked Mt. Vernon. Aside from the mansion and the grounds there is a new education building that was so cool. It was like a mini version of epcot but all about George Washington. Further proof of how much we liked it - we upgraded our tickets to annual passes. So if you come visit we'll be more than happy to go with you!

The upper garden and the greenhouse

The lower garden
View of Potomac from back porch
Back of the house looking up from river
Kids with view of the Potomac

The poplar tree Washington planted