Today we went to Mt. Vernon. Although Mike and I are both native Washingtonians, neither of us had ever been there. Last night I read through the reviews on TripAdvisor last night. People either thought it was fabulous or noted “George is rolling over in his grave.” My review would be it is somewhere in the middle.
We had an early mansion tour time which was good, given the heat today. In the first room, a gentleman asked whether the floor was original. He asked that in the next room too. Sort of an odd thing to focus on and luckily he decided to ask other questions as we moved through the house. Someone asked about ghosts at Mt. Vernon and the docent blew that off. I’m going to research and see what ghosts are there because there’s obviously something the way the guy responded but he didn’t want to get into it.
After the mansion we wondered around to the outer houses (not to be confused with the out houses) and made our way to Washington’s tomb. We got there in time for the laying of the wreath ceremony. Two young kids were chosen from the crowd to bring a wreath into the tomb. The docent at the tomb was quite the Washington fan. Her speech was informative but it very much made it seem as if she was in love with “the General” as she referred to him. She told us we could pay our respects and then she had to “secure the General.” It was strange.
Later at lunch I joked that she probably has sexual thoughts about GW and Kathryn suggested she might have a GW blow up doll she sleeps with each night. Mike made some other inappropriate jokes and I ended up snorted with laughter and blowing soda out my nose. Just a normal conversation/outing with the Motleys.
Back to Mt. Vernon…We went through the museum and I thought it was very well done. There was finally a picture of Martha not looking like a man. At a Girl Scout outing one time years ago, we learned that Martha loved to dance but an ongoing incontinence problem prevented her from participating as she would have liked to. This was not mentioned today and I didn’t bring it up. Just a little historical factoid there for ya.
The museum has interesting information about their lives, the property, the slaves and their release from Mt. Vernon and George, himself. Everyone refers to him as General Washington versus President Washington so I need to research that too to better understand why. Overall, a good time. If you have the chance, I would recommend a visit. The mansion is currently undergoing some work so the scaffolding is up but the grounds are very nice.
I do love the oldies but even I don’t have any music George Washington listened to on my IPod so instead, in honor of Madonna’s birthday today, I’ll pick one of her songs. This one is for the docent and her man, George.
spooningwithsmokey 