Escape to Mount Vernon

Those certifiably crazy Glen Beck teabagers are in town for a silly rally and so we escaped to Mount Vernon for the afternoon. Really, we had Riise in town and she wanted to go see George's house. It turned out that we were fleeing the idioticy that is Glen Beck... only to have some of his crazies "honoring" George Washington. *sigh* We still managed to have a marvelous time.

We met the family: George, Martha, Grandson George, and Granddaughter Nellie upon arrival.

We toured the ol' homestead. And by "tour" I mean shuffled through listening to the same monotoned spiel from a very tired, hot, and (I am sure) jaded volunteer. Just how many time in the past 60 minutes have you mentioned how many bedrooms the house had (10: 5 on the second floor, 3 on the upper level, the Washingtons' private room, and one on the ground floor); who bought the baby bed (Martha: she purchased it for her granddaughter a few weeks before George died); or that this was chair George sat in when he made the most important decision as president: to step down after two terms (I would guess, should we ask George, he would not say *that* was the most important decision made during his presidency.... I am just guessing).

We wandered the grounds, paused at his tomb, and enjoyed looking at his fruit garden with his apple and plum trees.
We liked the wild life on the property--with Mr. Woodchuck obliging appeared when we needed wild life. Llamas don't count.

We liked seeing the modern transportation for the 1790s.

Maddalena was doing some great research for her students in her history classes, while
Riise was comparing how Washington's blacksmiths work to cousin Danny's stuff.


We enjoyed the house and then went to the Washington Distrillery and Flour Grist (post for tomorrow). We rolled our eyes at the flocks of people wearing silly message t-shirts about hope, honor, and faith all around Mount Vernon. And we giggled at the fact that Eric kept singing the high notes to the songs on the radio. Wait---who is Eric?*


*"Eric" is Maddalena's husband's B's new nickname. Will gave it to him. Because Will turned to B and said, "hey Eric wanna another beer?" at dinner on Friday. Took a pause, and then acknowledged that he had no idea who Eric was. Eric now calls Will, Brad. It is all good.