Tracy was able to take a vacation day while we were in Washington, DC. We spent the day at Mount Vernon, exploring George and Martha Washington’s estate.
The day we went, a Thursday in April, didn’t seem to be very busy - there were still a lot of people around, but it wasn’t as crowded as the area around the monuments and memorials in DC. We walked through the welcome center and then headed to the house for a tour.
The view as you walk up to the house. The house looks like it’s made of stone, however, it’s actually pine siding boards that are cut and painted to look that way.
I really liked how they did the house tour. Twenty or so people were grouped together and each different room had it’s own guide. So as one group left a room, another group entered. There was plenty of time to look at everything, ask questions, and move around so that the next person could look. It was fast paced, but slow enough I didn’t feel like I missed anything.
I was very surprised at how colorful the interior walls were, as it was very expensive and not many people spent the money on that. Some of less public areas had more subdued colors.
After the house tour, we walked the grounds. First stop was the gardens. The garden area had several different vegetables, herbs, and fruits growing in it. Another garden area had a more formal feel to it with landscaped areas and flowers growing in it.
There were two different areas with animals. The Pioneer Farmer Site had a 16 sided barn and a few sheep, while the paddock area closer to the barns and house had quite a few baby sheep.
Throughout the grounds of the estate are the graves of George and Martha Washington and their family, a memorial to the enslaved people of the estate, a wharf area, and beautiful views of the Potomac River.
While I felt like I took photos of just about everything here, I realized after going through the photos that there were quite a few areas that I didn’t take any photos at all - especially the historic outbuildings that housed the various specialities that took place on the estate like the blacksmith shop, smokehouse, spinning house, etc. Tracy took photos the placards that were throughout the grounds.
At the end of the estate tour, you exit the grounds through a museum dedicated to Mount Vernon and George Washington. The air conditioning felt great after a long, hot day of exploring outside! However, we were both ready to be done by this point. While we did walk through the museum leisurely and looked at the different exhibits, I’m not sure either of us got the full potential learning experience out of the museum.
After a day of exploring Mount Vernon, we went back to the camper for some food and bit of down time before starting our night tour of the monuments. That, plus my daytime explorations through DC will be in my next post.
The rest of the posts in the DC series -
Great pictures and story. That is one place we have not visited so enjoyed the tour through your pictures.