This is a recap from day 3 of my trip, which was actually on Sunday, August 4th.
We got up pretty early, and headed to Mt. Vernon, the estate of General George Washington, the first President of the United States.
And no, I didn’t come home. Yes, I live in Mt. Vernon, but not this Mt. Vernon.
His plantation is huge, and we walked most of it. You can see on this map above how it is laid out.
It was after this day, doing all this walking and toting around a purse and a camera, that I decided to borrow Leslie’s backpack, and boy did that help a lot.
Look who I found in the lobby! It’s George and Martha with their grandchildren. Was George really this tall or am I just short?
This was on a column outside the lobby.
This is the road we took to get to the slave quarters. Everything here was just beautiful.
Well, not the slave quarters so much, and I’m sure they didn’t think they were so great either when they had to live in them. This is the slave quarters which housed, men and women in separate quarters, the Shoemaker’s shop and the Stove room.
This is the women’s slave quarters. They lived and worked out of here. Some of them would work out of the house. They have a lot of artifacts enclosed in glass that they have found beneath the slave quarters.
The older women who couldn’t work in the house or keep up, would work in the slave quarters, spinning to make thread for the clothes.
The men’s quarters stayed mostly empty throughout the day as they worked sun up to sun down. They slept two to a bunk.
The stove room, which was in this building, had to be manned at all times throughout the winter to provide heat for the greenhouse to keep special plants and trees alive.
The gardens were very beautiful.
Then we went around to the Blacksmith Shop and learned a lot about how they make all the things on the plantation as complete replicas of what was here during George Washington’s time. Nails, candlestick holders, hooks, horseshoes, etc.
Next, we went on a tour of George Washington’s house, but you are not allowed to take pictures inside. However, this is the view from his backyard.
Amazing right! Can you just imagine George and Martha taking a stroll out here?
Then I would imagine he would take his lady for a drive in this bad boy!
By the way, Martha’s maiden name is Ball, and my grandmother was a Ball, I’m pretty sure I’m not related to Martha, but wouldn’t that be totally cool??
Ok, back on track.
Here’s a view of the stables.
They still use and work this land, so just let me say, there are years and years of a funky smell coming from this stable.
They also have sheep and cattle. I couldn’t get a good shot of the cattle they were too far away, but here’s a cutie chasing some birds out of the food.
Then we followed the loop around to the location of the original tomb of the Washington’s. Originally there were twenty or so people buried in this tomb, and when George died, he specified in his will for a new tomb to be built and they all be moved to it.
So, here is the new tomb.
And here is Martha on the left, and George on the right. Through the door behind the wreath are the other family members from the original tomb.
Then we followed the road on around and came back to the center opposite of their home. We tried to take a selfie, but it was a fail. Here it is anyway. You can kinda see the house in the middle of our heads, and the rainbow. Lol.
A bystander seeing our effort failing, offered to take a photo for us. Which was really quite funny considering Leslie had just offered to take a picture of a nearby family, and the man barked “NO!” at her as the wife tried to smile it away. I’m praying for your girl if you happen to read this. He must be something else to live with.
Then, lo and behold we ran into the plantation overseer.
He was kind enough to let me take a photo. But, if I were you, I wouldn’t mention to him that it’s the year 2013 and he is NOT really a plantation overseer. He gets really offended. I’m thinking he should hook up with that ladies husband and they can bark at each other. Right, Leslie?
Anyway, that concluded our tour of the Washington Plantation, and it was really enjoyable. I highly recommend you go there and experience this for yourself. I will someday take Knucklehead here as I know he would have loved this.
We left there and headed to the Hamilton Hotel where we went to a Gospel Brunch. If you have never done this, it’s a must do thing. It was really neat.
We stood in this long line to get in. Once inside, the lines were just as long for the buffet, but man oh man, the food was excellent.
This is the Gospel Persuaders, and they were really good. They sung songs that they have written and usually perform, and they were good.
And after this we went back to the apartment and Leslie had a volleyball game. She plays in a local league and I was going to go with her, but hey, I’m old and she’s young and I figured she would need a break from me at this point and I figured she would really like to hang with her friends afterwards like she always does, so I bowed out. Really, I know that all sounds good but the truth was my feet hurt pretty bad and I knew I couldn’t muster the energy to do one more thing on this day.
So, this is what I did. I laid on this bed and watched her Netflix all night.
Win Win for both of us.
Don’t forget I have a huge give-away coming up in just two days!
