A Trip Back in Time

We traveled back from New Jersey on Saturday morning so that we could have the balance of the weekend to spend relaxing at home.  That's one thing that I love about being so close, and there so much more often - there is no need to stay the entire holiday weekend, or pack as much in as we can - like we used to have to do when we were traveling from 2,000 miles away and only visited about once a year, if that - because we know we will be back soon.  So we had the best of both worlds with this long weekend - two days with the family, and then two days at home. 

Because of this, we found ourselves at home on Sunday looking for something to do on yet another gorgeous Fall day...sunny with highs in the mid 60s.  We decided to head to Mount Vernon, a destination we've intended to visit since we arrived back in Virginia.  James and I had visited when I was in college and I knew the kids would enjoy it.  It turns out they've added some features and you could really spend all day there, depending on the season.  We started with a 20 minute movie - an introduction to the estate with all of the places to explore, then a docu-drama about GW and his war times.  The mansion tour was great, we had some fun tour guides.  Keely wants to live there, although the next day in retrospect pondered where the bathrooms were :)  The only complaint was that we couldn't actually enter each of the rooms, only view them from hallways - the kids remembered the tour of Muckross House in Ireland where you could be in each room.

Because we were visiting in the holiday season, we got two special treats with regular admission - one, the house and grounds were decorated for Christmas (though I imagine that's more interesting at night) and two, the 3rd floor of the mansion was open.  About a million people visit each year, and only about 10,000 see the 3rd floor.  Martha lived on the 3rd floor after George's death, and you get also get a view up into the cupola which was used to cool the house back in its days.  Aside from the mansion, we saw the slave's quarters, various outbuildings, graves of both Martha and George as well as a few other Washington family members, and some of the farm animals that reside on the land.

Also a perk being that we were there after Thanksgiving was seeing the turkey pardoned by President Obama, as well as a camel that is residing there for the holiday season (apparently, George Washington had a liking for exotic animals).  We spent about 3 hours, a bit longer than I thought we would - and I could see being there longer if the gardens were in bloom.  We ended in the gift shop where we treated ourselves to some authentic 18th century chocolate - which was honestly some of the best I've ever had.


So we've checked another place off the to-do list (we don't actually have a real list, it's in our heads) but this is one I can see visiting again and again depending on the season.  We're even considering an annual pass, especially since I know this is a place we will take visitors.  It was a wonderful way to spend a warm sunny November afternoon!