Day 9 -- Mt. Vernon

George Washington described his estate at Mt. Vernon as the most beautiful estate in all of the United States. After having been there, I can't say that I disagree. We spent all of Saturday at Mt. Vernon and thoroughly enjoyed it (even the kids). It was a little on the hot side.


When you first get there you go into a small museum type area. You can plan your visit, see a nice movie, and see an amazing miniature of his house. You can take your picture with these statues.



They have a sign that tells you what the approximate wait is to go into his house. When we first arrived it was already 45 minutes long. We decided we did not want to stand in the sun for that long so we headed out on the grounds. You can walk through the orchards, gardens, farms, and down to the waterfront. You can see their gravesite and the slave burial grounds and it is all pretty impressive.











By the time we walked back up from the farms by the waterfront, we had hoped the line for the house would be shorter. We were WRONG! It was now over an hour and a half wait. Given that it was almost 2:00 and hovering right at 100 degrees. We told the kids that we were just not going to see the house. They were sad, but were good sports. We took this picture and headed into the big museum section.



The museum is really amazing. It has several cool movies (one of them is like disneyland -- the snow falls on you and the ground shakes when the cannons go off). They have a very fun kids room and we learned so much.


We all were very thankful for the air conditioning. We did everything in the museum and it closes at 5:00. So we headed out the door. I said to Trent, do you think the line has died down at the house??? He decided to run up and check (as the house tour did not close until 5:30). Several people told us they were pretty sure the line was closed, but Trent ran ahead anyway (probably almost 1/4 mile -- maybe more) I waited with the kids when my phone range -- it was Trent, there was no line now, but we had to get there fast. So the kids and I RAN!!!! We were the last ones through the house (no photos allowed inside). It is pretty amazing! And then we were the last ones out of Mt. Vernon. In fact it is the security guard following us who took our family picture as we were the last ones there. Our timing was immaculate.