We recently drove up to Mt. Vernon to see George Washington's Estate (once w/Grammy and Grandpa, and Mike and I went once alone while Grandma and Grandpa M watched Jillybean.) What a beautiful place! The property is HUGE and the views from the mansion are amazing. We got to see George's tomb (where he's buried along with his wife Martha and 25 other Washington family members); we also saw the slave burial ground where something like 200 of Washington's slaves are buried; we saw his farming grounds with his 16 sided barn and his many different types of fencing; his vegetable and flowers gardens; his "outer buildings" where his slaves did the laundry, cooking, and tending to the business side of of running the estate (such as caring for the horses that carried him through Virginia as well as the paint cellar that housed all the paint for the buildings.) HGTV would be very impressed with the color of George's dining room...something along the lines of sea-foam green--seriously, it's the original color! Apparently the color was to impress those who visited the estate--in one year alone George had over 600 visitors pass through his home shortly after he left the presidency. Sorry, no pics allowed inside the mansion! We also saw the actual bed where George and Martha slept--and where George died. The really interesting thing was to see George's study where there is the actual leather chair that he sat on while he was the President. Oh, and yes, we saw his wooden teeth in the museum--dental work has come a long way!
George and Martha singing Christmas Carols
Walking (and bouncing along) the forest trail
A view of the farm up to the 16 sided barn
The Potomac River, from the beach area
A nice area where we had a picnic lunch
George's tomb (which was erected 30 years after his death because in his will he said the current family tomb was "improperly situated" and he wanted a new one)
The river again, from the back porch of the mansion
Posing with the mansion
The only child to ever view the Potomac upside down!
George's Estate
I think these people were hired to roam the grounds because they weren't giving out free rides :-( But, it made for a nice photo and Jillian loved watching them.
Mike and I took these pics on the day we went by ourselves--we had yuckier weather though. Notice how cold Mike looks and how my hands have frozen off...
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