I am starting this entry on Wednesday night but I am not sure it will be completed tonight. We left this am around 9 and just got in- about 11:15. Needless to say, our rear-ends are dragging behind us.
Today looked the most promising day weather wise so we wanted to spend it at Mount Vernon. The estate is located about 16 miles south of DC- sounds easy enough. Not exactly. After discussing our options for transportation with our concierge we opted for the Metro/public bus combo. We have gotten the hang of the Metro so that was not a big deal. However we had to ride the Metro to the end of the Metro in Virginia. That was about 1 25 minute ride with numerous stops between. At the end, we had to wait on a public bus for the ride to the estate. The bus runs every hour so we had a thirty minute wait. Met a lovely family from Massachusetts that we spoke to while waiting. The minute you mention Louisiana they wanted to know if we took a hit and how it’s going since Katrina.
We finally made it to the estate after 11. We were both starved so we walked right into the Mount Vernon Inn. A restaurant that is right in front of the entrance gates. All of the staff was dressed in period attire and were very kind. We ordered a cup of roasted red pepper and cheese tortelini soup. Very good. We both ordered a shredded beef brisket sandwich. The sandwich was delicious. There was just a hint of barbecue sauce on it but it rocked. We finished our lunch and headed out to the estate.
You don’t see the mansion itself from the entrance area. The grounds are very well kept but once again it was cloudy and breezy- a little uncomfortable. We waited in line for 30 minutes or so to tour the mansion. It is an impressive house- you are not allowed to take pictures at all inside the house so we shot on the grounds, etc. George actually decorated the entire house except for the master bedroom. His paint choices were obnoxious. One of the dining rooms is green- floor to ceiling. They think it was a showing of his status that he could cover his walls with paint- either way, his color choices left something to be desired.
The back of the house has a porch running its entire length and there are some rocks and chairs there. It looks out onto the Potomac River. An absolutely tranquil setting. He often wrote about Mount Vernon as his heaven on earth and it is so obvious why one would think so. He’s got acres of farming. He was a well-known farmer and did lots of experimenting. It is a beautiful location and he and Martha are both buried there on the grounds.
There is a new education center and museum that has been built recently on the grounds. If any of you have seen on the History Channel, a group of artists, scientists, etc have worked on creating life size statues of him at different times of his life using the portraits that had been painted, descriptions, etc. These figures are in this museum. The museum itself is very well done and the films, pictures, etc are all excellent. We very much enjoyed this portion of the our visit. The man was brilliant and had lots of common sense. It is a great tribute to him.
We grabbed a snack and headed out to the bus stop to start the trek back to DC. The return trip went rather smoothly- just crowded because we were returning around 5 pm. We needed to get back to the hotel to get our tripod because we wanted to take the Twilight Tour of DC. Once we had the tripod in hand we headed back to the Metro to get to Union Station. What a place! It began as a train station for Amtrak, etc. The they added the Metro to it and built several floors of shops, restaurants, etc. The building itself is incredible, the outside as well as the inside. It was teeming with people. We found the ticket kiosk, grabbed a pizza slice and beer before boarding our bus at 7.
It’s a 3.5 hour tour that stops at some of the better known monuments/memorials. The city is gorgeous at night. We throughly enjoyed the lit venues that we visited. Obviously the secret is out about the area at night because we saw more people at each stop than we have during the day. Lots of kids- pre teen/teenagers. They looked like carpenter ants crawling up the stairs at the Lincoln. Once again, we would like to suggest one night to be an adult only night- not sure how that will go over with the city though. While at the Lincoln we turned and shot several pictures of the Washington Monument in the reflecting pool. We all have our reasons for being there and as a group of ‘pubescents’ walked past us, a kid shouted out- hey look, this is the scene from Forrest Gump! We shot quite a few pictures and made it back to our hotel after 11. We were starved so we ordered room service and enjoyed two cheeseburgers before calling it a night. By the end of the day our shins were killing us.
Not sure what the plan is for Thursday yet- there is cloudiness and drizzle in the forecast once again but the weekend looks great! (We leave on Saturday- go figure)