April 7, 2012.....Guests of Mt. Vernon for a day....

 April 7, 2012

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We left the Berchtold’s yesterday afternoon and drove to the Cherry Hill Park campground in College Park, MD.....and as true to our testimony of the enjoyment of travel, we got a little lost.  Hey, it wouldn’t be appropriate if we didn’t get lost on the way to a new campground.  It is a very nice campground with many showers and clean bathrooms, WOW!!  That is very nice!!  Christian has scouted out the miniature golf area and can hardly wait to play in the next few days....





...the Potomac side.....

Gracie in front of Mt. Vernon

Mt. Vernon.....the home of President George Washington, our first president, where he lived for 40 years until his death in 1799......we visited there today and it was awe-inspiring to be standing on the same ground that he stood on, looking out over the Potomac.......truly inspiring......Have I mentioned how much I love my teacher id card???  Williamsburg, Mt. Vernon and Monticello gave us great homeschool discounts because I utilized all of the field trip planning skills that I have acquired over the last 10 years of planning for the PSP.....all I had to do was go to group sales and show my teacher id and we were good!!!  Thanks, Jenn, you saved us a lot of money!!! (I lost my id and Jenn made me a new one so we would be able to prove that we are homeschoolers).......



Mt. Vernon Plantation
 



Cruise on the Potomac River at Mt. Vernon



view of Mt Vernon from our boat....

We enjoyed a boat tour on the Potomac River right off the bat,  we saw bald eagles and an osprey nest.  We could see the mansion from the water and it was a pretty view......

 



Osprey nest

 



scavenger hunt at Mt. Vernon

At Mt. Vernon, we were given a kids scavenger hunt and it was fun to answer the questions as we explored the property.....The grounds are extensive, although small now compared to Washington’s time (he expanded the plantation to 8,000 acres and it is a fraction of that now)....we saw the gardens, kitchen (when we got to the kitchen area, the docent told us that Washington’s favorite thing for breakfast was pancakes), smoke house, salt house, barns, carriages, slave quarters, slave cemetery, baby lambs, baby pigs, tomb of the Washington family, Pioneer Farm Site, the blacksmith shop

(where the resident blacksmith still  makes things out of iron that they would have had on the plantation like the chain we watched him make), toured the house (which we were not allowed to photograph), the wilderness trail and eventually made our way to the Education Center.  This was an awesome area with many hands on interactive areas, exhibits and movies about aspects of Washington’s life.  In one theater, we sat down and there were two screens that they projected different parts of the audio onto.  It was like a giant map that moved and when the cannons and guns shot off in the movie, you could feel the rumbling and vibration of it in your chair.  At one point, when the movie talked about the battle of Trenton, it began to snow on the screen and it actually snowed on us in the movie theater!!!  It was sooo cool!!  There was a  life-like real size statue of Washington as a young man in the French and Indian war in the famous battle that defined him as a leader and confirmed his potential as a major player in the War of Independence.....this is the battle that General Braddock was killed in and Washington was forced to take over for him upon his death.  Washington was shot at and after the battle it was discovered that he had numerous bullet holes in his coat and 3 horses had been shot dead underneath him as he rode them.  But by God’s divine interference and providential plan, he was saved and able to grow into the leader and commander that we would need to win the battles to come in the American Revolutionary War.  Even though, he was a devoted soldier and advocate of the cause, his thoughts were never far from his treasured wife, Martha, and his family at Mt. Vernon.  Did you know his favorite color was green and that he painted the dining room in the mansion this color (and I mean bright green)..........?       

Royal Gift

Green was also the most expensive color of paint that you could get from England.  He designed and planned the decorations of the entire mansion except for the master suite, Martha decorated this area in all white.  In another area of the Education center, there was a life size horse with General Washington sitting on it.  It was his favorite horse, Nelson.  Madison liked this part.  Gracie really liked the soldier’s barracks where you could push a button and the man in the bunk sleeping would talk in his sleep, snore and roll back and forth.....Christian thought the huge interactive wall map with buttons to push to light up American victories, British victories, and stalemates was especially nifty and of course, the glass cases of guns and swords was to cool!!  In the next room, we came across the thing we had looked for all day.....the life size replica of the famous Jack, Royal Gift that he was given by the King of Spain.   My dad had told us all about the Jack and that Washington had bred him to his horses to get mules to work on the plantation.  So it was fun to see info about this.  While down at the Pioneer Farm Site, we visited with the docent in the Treading Mill that he not only designed but also invented. 




at the farm area

in the Treading Mill



The building is round with a round section in the middle to stack up the wheat in.  The horses were brought in and trotted at a steady pace (for 45 minutes) over the wheat, separating the wheat heads from the straw and dropping the heads into the area below (the boards in the floor were spaced apart to allow the heads to drop through). 

 

 

One great perplexion to us is that Washington never released any slaves from service until he died.  

 

 

 

 

meet George Washington.....at the Edcation Center

 

 

Before going to the Education Center, we visited the area where Washington's tomb is....

"Within this Enclosure rest the Remains of Gen'l George Washington"

Once again, we closed this park down as is our MO this trip.....off we went in search of gas and a restaurant to have a celebration dinner for Pam’s bday...well, phone service being what it is, it took me a few minutes to get the trip tik to work to show me restaurants and gas stations.  We took a little tour of Alexandria and finally came to a gas station where I found a young couple in a Mercedes that lived in the area.  They were gracious enough to tell me where to find a Dos Padres to eat at.  We decided to try it and we are glad that we did.  I had a great meal of carnitas and Christian had not only a huge burger of his own but ate ¼ of Brookie’s, also.  We all enjoyed our meals and dinner was a success.  The waiters sang Happy Bday to Pam and she had to wear a Mexican sombrero, so funny!  They brought her a sweet fried tortilla with syrup and powdered sugar, much appreciated by the kids who ate it up as quick as they were served.  When we left, the kids spied a “31 flavors” so they got ice cream on top of all that they had eaten.....I have been battling a dry throat this whole trip, I think it is the change climate so often and perhaps the weather or allergies....in any event, it is a little irritating and I can hardly wait for it to go away......drinking tons of water.....