Thursday, March 26, 2009

Mount Vernon

After arriving at the Ronald Regan National Airport, with nothing of great importance pulling at our first few hours in DC, we passed a sign on the side of George Washington Parkway that read, Mount Vernon-11.5 miles.

We looked at each other, smiled and headed in the direction of George Washington's (GW) former estate.

Once a parking spot was secured, Cole and I made our way through a jam-packed visitor's center and headed towards the grounds. Divided into multiple areas, each area of the estate is complete with detailed descriptions, clothing and furniture of the times. We were floored by the number of slaves that were packed into one-room structures, were properly impressed by the large windows in the gardener's cabin and a little grossed out by the underground areas used to store the salted meats.

The main house itself was amazing. The tour included beautiful art work, detailed moldings, exquisite dishes, hand-made furniture and a peek at the very bed GW died in.

My favorite part of the entire tour came as we were filing through GW's study, the last room on the tour. The woman in front of us paused with the most confused look on her face and blurted out "So where were the bathrooms in this place? " to the nearest tour guide.

Really...Really?

Gotta love it, people, gotta love it.

4 comments:

Heather said...

I am glad you had a good time. I agree, I can't believe how many slaves they would put in one little room. It makes ya sick just thinking about it. Those poor people.

The Hartle's said...

Ah, man... I've always wanted to go to DC! It looks amazing...

skymiles said...

You are too lucky! Your trip sounds like it was a blast, I'm totally jealous.
Skylee

Anonymous said...

Sweet! Wait, so is there a Mount Vernon in DC? I only know of the Mount Vernon in NY. My sister lived there for a while and I stayed with her quite a bit during my stint in NY. Must look that up. Glad you had fun!