We got up early to meet the Washington family at Mount Vernon!
George Washington had a long resume: Colonel in the French and Indian War, seat in the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, General during the American Revolution, President of the Constitutional Convention, President of the United States of America...yet spent most of his life longing for those he loved at his cherished Mount Vernon. Imagine...General Washington riding on his horse, after 8 long years at war, finally coming home. Imagine his feelings of anticipation and excitement. Imagine an overwhelming mix of emotions, when at long last, he arrived at this gate...at last, home, sweet, home. And yet he did this not once, but repeatedly throughout his life, as he dutifully responded to his country's call to service.
We got there so early that we had a private tour! The tour guides were surprised at how much the kids knew. The stuff they were telling the kids was too easy and the kids kept stumping them! Of course we knew that the Marquis de Lafayette visited George Washington here. We got to see the Lafayette room upstairs where he stayed in 1784. One of the items I couldn't wait to show the kids was the key 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. Lafayette sent a sketch of the Bastille and the key to George Washington with this note: "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." Wow! What powerful artistic wording!
Lafayette was a moderate who wanted social reforms for the lower class. When he came to America to fight in our revolution, it was because he intensely believed in the ideals of liberty. He had already been working on changes for his own serfs at his chateau. After the war he went home to France and unceasingly talked to his friends about American liberty. In fact, Monday evenings was American night. Invitations were written in English to some French friends and noted Americans, such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin! When the French Revolution erupted, Lafayette acted as mediator between the king and the extremists, though he did not advocate the forthcoming terror. When things got out of control, the extremists turned on him and he fled the country. He was captured and put into an Austrian prison. His wife was in a French prison. Through the efforts of George Washington and Congress to free him and his family, his wife was spared the guillotine. Eventually both were freed after the Reign of Terror.
On a lighter note, this is a haha wall! It separates the grand lawn of the estate from the more common area where the animals graze. (The grass/ground is actually level with the fence on the left side.) They were popular in England and mansions in the colonies adopted the cleverly hidden means of keeping the animals off the lawn. The name is derived from occasions when guests would walk around the lawn, and not knowing about the wall, fell off. Of course, that would cause others to laugh. It's a haha wall. I think this is my kids' favorite feature of mansions. When we saw these at Montpelier a tourist asked why it was called a haha wall and the tour guide didn't know...so my kids told her! LOL
This is the round barn that George Washington designed, to make the threshing of wheat easier. Horses, instead of slaves, did the threshing. You can watch the horses today trot round and round!
When the Marquis made his grand tour of America in 1824, George Washington and Martha had already passed away (GW-1799 and MW-1802). Lafayette came here to grieve the loss of his dearly beloved adopted father.
Today after quiet pause before this tomb, stairs lead out...
and the path is followed 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).
Unlike the day we toured with the remnants of Hurricane Bonnie in 2004, we had a gloriously sunny day!
After touring the mansion and grounds, we decided to take the boat tour on the Potomac. It was modestly priced and was one of the best boat rides we have ever taken. The kids were elated since they were hoping we'd do a boat ride this year and got to spend time on big water and see big bridges to boot! lol We got to see Fort Washington in the distance, and the scary WoodrowWilson drawbridge that we took the day before. We could see the Washington Monument and Capitol in the background.
After lunch we toured the gristmill which is about a mile away.
The water supply is activated with a lever indoors...
It was fun watching all the gears move. The gristmill was applying the very principles Leonardo da Vinci designed and we experienced earlier this summer! My son must have been quite impressed. When we got home from vacation, he spent a week with his gears kit!
Then we went back to see the Mount Vernon museums. These were new since 2004 and are incredible! The first thing we did was to look at the Houdon of Washington. There was a cute movie showing about how it was made, told from the perspective of Washington's granddaughter. Because of that movie, we now appreciate the works of Houdon which we would see again at Monticello. My husband and I got to see many of his works when we toured the Virginia capitol in 1989. My kids now want to go there and see the Houdon sculptures. There wasn't enough time on this vacation. We're just going to have to come back one summer! Or maybe move here? One can always dream, right?
I was a bit overwhelmed about to see next. We toured the grown up museum and saw lots of neat things. Then we went to the children's museum and that was incredible! Sadly, we ran out of time. My husband and son saw an interactive movie. My daughter and I tried to see all the life size 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. I was blown away to see the Gilbert painting of Washington. (Here's the link to the interactive portrait!) I remember reading about that as a girl, that Dolly Madison saved it when the British came into Washington DC during the War of 1812. To see how big it is in a picture is not the same as seeing how big it is in real life!
One new thing we learned when we left, George Washington started the Purple Heart!
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• Sep. 3, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Blessings,
Pam