George Washington had a long resume:
- Colonel in the French and Indian War
- seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses in Williamsburg
- General during the American Revolution
- President of the Constitutional Convention
- President of the United States of America
Imagine…General Washington riding on his horse, after 8 long years at war, finally coming home.
Returning Home
Imagine his feelings of anticipation and excitement, when at long last, he arrived at this gate, nostalgically on Christmas Eve.
This familiar scene was a recurrence of his life, as testified in the above list.
Since we arrived so early, we got a private tour!
The tour guides were surprised at how much the kids knew.
Ha-Ha Wall
Near the mansion was a sudden drop-off called a ha-ha wall!
Separating the grand lawn of the estate from the more common area where the animals graze, they were popular in England and colonial mansions.
This cleverly hidden means of keeping the animals off the lawn, apparently derived from the French, causes visitors to laugh when they come upon it.
Lafayette
When they took us to see the Lafayette room upstairs where he stayed in 1784, we exclaimed: Oh, we know him!
One of the items I couldn’t wait to show the kids was one of the keys to the Bastille, the notorious political prison in France.
During the French Revolution, Lafayette led the National Guard, who stormed the prison on July 12, 1789.
Sending a sketch of the Bastille and a key to George Washington, Lafayette wrote: “Give me leave, my dear general, to present you with a picture of the Bastille, just as it looked a few days after I ordered its demolition, with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute which I owe as a son to my adoptive father-as an aide-de-camp to my general-as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch.”
When the Marquis made his grand tour of America in 1824, he visited the Old Vault where George and Martha Washington were interred.
New Tomb of George and Martha Washington
The path leading out takes one to the newer tomb where the Washingtons were laid to rest in 1831.
The words of John 11:25-26 are inscribed on the plaque on the wall above his sarcophagus (not seen in this picture).
Boat Ride on the Potomac River
Then we took a gorgeous boat tour of the Potomac River from the Mount Vernon dock.
Passing Fort Washington on the Maryland side, we approached the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, past which a view of the Washington Monument was seen.
16-sided Barn
George Washington cleverly designed this 16-sided barn, so that horses, instead of slaves, would easily thresh wheat.
Because the floor is a type of grate, heads of grain fell through, while the straw was left behind.
Sometimes there are horses trotting in there, and other times my kids joined others to pretend to be horses, running around in circles to thresh the grain.
Gristmill
After lunch we toured the gristmill which is about a mile away at the site of Washington’s Dogue Run Farm.
Applying the very principles Leonardo da Vinci designed, the gristmill was fascinating to watch, from the water arriving from nearby Dogue Run, into the mill, to turn the lever that activated the gears.
Impressed, my son spent a week with his gears kit when we came home from vacation.
Houdon of George Washington
Then we returned to Mount Vernon to explore the incredible museums, which were new since 2004.
Our favorite display was the Houdon of Washington, featuring a cute movie told from the perspective of Washington’s step-granddaughter, explaining the shocking way the Houdon was fashioned.
It all began with a life mask!
Houdon’s work can be seen at Monticello and the Virginia State Capitol.
Squeezing in all the fun in the last bits of time, my son saw an interactive movie while my daughter and I visited all the life-size wax figures of George Washington that we could.
We worked some of the interactive displays and appreciated the ones where we saw how outnumbered the Continental Army was compared to the British.
I also liked the massive wall map that showed the battles of the American Revolution and then you could light up the ones in which George Washington participated.
Blown away to see the Gilbert painting of Washington, we couldn’t believe the huge size.
Because Dolley Madison rescued it from the White House when the British came into Washington DC during the War of 1812, we still have this stunning painting today.
Although she escaped with the painting and important papers, the White House was set on fire.
As we left and approached the parking lot, we saw a sign signifying that George Washington started the Purple Heart.
For more photos of our day, click any of the pictures or click here to be taken to my Flickr set.
Recent Comments