Mount Vernon

For our monthly family get-together, we decided we should take a trip to Mount Vernon (George Washington's home). It's about 15 miles from Lauren's house. Need to take advantage of being close to all these Historic sites. The only downside to the trip was that it was so stinkin' hot outside! But we managed to find relief from the heat for parts of our trip. When we first got there, we got in line for the house tour. Waiting in line, you could look at a garden and one of the two "necessities" or outhouses. Interestingly enough, they have room for 3 people to be in there at a time. We joked that that's where George made all his business deals. After the house tour, we booked it down to the dock for the cruise on the Potomac. That was a lot of fun. We were on this sweet ship that was 1. air conditioned and 2. had food and water. It was about a 40 minute trip.

Waiting to load the boat. That's the boat behind everyone. It was called The Spirit of Mt. Vernon



Carson sitting on one of the tables looking out the window. Grandma was keeping a close eye on him.

The view of Mount Vernon from the river. The backside of the mansion is a lot prettier than the front. We think it was meant to be seen from the river.

After the cruise, we walked over to the barn. Then we took the 10-minute hike in the forest to get back to the house. The shade of the trees was nice in the 96 degree heat.


Carson's walking alongside Grandpa, wanting to help push the stroller.

The rest of the group close behind.

Then it was off to look at the tomb. Currently George and Martha are in the crypt on the estate. We were dumb and didn't take a picture, so here's one I found online. Martha's tomb is to the left of George's. You can't see it in this picture. They have this ceremony where there is a wreath outside the crypt and they pick someone to take it inside the crypt. They were asking if anyone wanted to volunteer. I could never get the nerve to do something like that. Call me weird, but I'd be scared that as soon as I walked in the crypt, old George would jump out of his casket and lock the gates. Anyway, we did get a picture of the old tomb.



This is the old family tomb. George, Martha and like 20 other Washington's were buried here at one point in time. George wanted this burial plot to be updated. Later on they moved George and Martha to their current resting place. Not sure if the other 20 people are still here or not.



And finally we reach the end of our trip. After this most of us had had it with being outside. Andrew would have liked to see more, but others, mainly me, couldn't take the heat any longer. So we stopped to pose one last time in front of the mansion (yes, Lauren and I are wearing the same shirt in different colors. That's what happens when you go shopping together and buy the same things. And yes, Carson is leaning down picking up rocks...a favorite pasttime). Then we walked over to the museum for some water and cool air.


Now you don't need to go to Mount Vernon because I've shown you just about every picture we took. But if you make your way over there, make sure to go into the museum and look for his dentures. They are made out of iron and have human and animal teeth in them. They look really strange and very uncomfortable to wear. So there you have it!