Yesterday, we spent the day at
Mount
Vernon, George Washington's house. They've done a lot of
remodeling since we were there 3 years ago. They've got a GREAT
museum there now.
Martha was a little bitty woman.
They have a really cool miniature
Mount Vernon which is open on all sides and you can see the complete
house. Every 4 minutes, the house lowers slightly and the roof
lifts up so we could see the attic area. Very cool!
This is the front of the house.
This was how George Washington rode
around.
Visiting some of his sheep.
This one really liked the grass just out of her reach outside the
fence. Emily was more than happy to help her out.
This is the tomb where George
Washington was first buried. His will directed the building of
a new vault and he and the others where later moved there.
This is the new vault. The tomb
on the left is Martha Washington and the one on the right is George
Washington. The rest of the family members are behind the
black door in the center.
We liked this tree on Washington's farm.
It looks like fingers.
This is one of George Washington's
invention. It's a
16 sided treading barn used to separate the grain from the straw.
This is the view from the barn looking
across the gardens and to the Potomac River.
The newly constructed
Museum and Education Center was fabulous! At the entrance
is a great big floating George Washington head. It's one of
those amazing optical illusions, like the dragon. It's
actually a concave mask of his face but when you look at it it looks
like it is a solid statue looking out at you. His eyes follow
your every move as you move around the room. Really eerie and
cool!
This was how George Washington looked
at age 19 when he was a surveyor.
The second
forensic figure of George Washington is portrayed astride his horse,
Blueskin, while addressing his troops at Valley Forge. He was
45.
Next, we went into a little theater
telling the story of George Washington as Commander-In-Chief during
the Battles of Boston, Trenton and Yorktown. The movie was
awesome. We sat in seats that vibrated and shook when the
movie was showing the cannons blasting during the battles and a fog
machine filed the room with "smoke" depicting the cannons. It
all felt very real! When they crosses the Delaware River it
was snowing on the movie screen and surprisingly it started snowing
in the theater and cold air was piped in. The kids LOVED the
snow! The great added features to the movie made us really
feel like we were in the scenes with Washington.
These are Washington's famous
dentures. They are not made of wood as many have heard.
He had terrible, terrible teeth problems nearly all of his life.
He must have been miserable. There's a great book about his
teeth and dentures called
George Washington's Teeth.
This is Washington at age 57 at the
first ever Presidential Inauguration.
This is a copy of the casket used when he died. He died in
the upstairs bedroom at Mount Vernon at age
We bought Season Passes this year and
plan to go back lots of times. There is so much more than we had
time to
Another trip to Mount Vernon
An online friend,
Robin at Martin
Zoo, mentioned that she was going to be driving up my way to go
to Mount Vernon
(George Washington's home) today and since we own Season Passes to Mount Vernon
I decided to try to meet up with her there. It's so nice to be
able to meet people face-to-face that you have previously only
gotten to know online. The boy in the red sweatshirt is her
son, GB.
The kids and I been there twice before
and so didn't do the house tour this time and just went straight to
the farm animals and great museum after meeting Robin, her family
and friends. You can see the pictures from our last adventure
to Mount Vernon by clicking here.
We somehow missed seeing the "privy"
before. Can you imagine three people using this at the same
time?!!
We always love spending time down in
George Washington's farm. I'd love to have a farm like his.
A Colonial soldier showed us his
rifle and told us all about his uniform. We learned a lot of
cool facts.
This woman was spinning wool and
asked Emily to model a shaw she made.
Afterwards, we went to check out
George Washington's Grist Mill
which was built in 1771.
It has a 16-foot waterwheel that powers
the giant gears and millstones of Washington's mill that includes
the only operating Oliver Evans Automated Milling System in America.
Corn is being ground here into corn
meal.
one of the few, still functioning water
wheels left in the country
the videos are of the mill in action
This is in
Washington's distillery.
The distillery was the largest in America, producing
11,000 gallons of whiskey in 1799, making it one of the most
successful economic enterprises at Mount Vernon. Water was
boiled in the big vat and poured into the barrels along with grains.
The water and grain mixture is cooled
and poured into vats in these fireplaces. The mixture is
boiled again to separate the alcohol from the water. Alcohol
boils at a lower temperature than water and so the alcohol turns to
vapors and travels up the pot and down the copper tube where it
condenses and turns back into liquid alcohol, in this case, whiskey.
Mount Vernon, VA trip - February 2006
(our first trip)
President George Washington's house and grave
site
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
