When John first set up this trip I was a little uncertain about spending five days in Washington. As we were leaving today, I felt like we could easily have spent another five more. We had a pleasant breakfast, as usual, at the Taft Bridge Inn. We have particularly enjoyed the company of Ken and Celeste, two teachers from Puyallap, Washington.
We went down to Budget to pick up our rental car. It seemed to take a long time and get the car and even longer to get out of town, but none of this was interesting while it was happening and I cannot image retelling it will make it more fascinating. We headed off to Mount Vernon to finally see the famous estate.
After you buy your ticket, you walk through a pretty decent museum. One of the most intriguing exhibits is about reconstructing what Washington really looked like. They have this great holograph of Washington that seems to turn and watch you as you walk around it.
A long path leads up to the main house.
Although made of wood, the exterior of the mansion is covered with a textured coating to make it look like stone. The docent explained to us that they threw sand on the wet paint.
You have to wait for about 30 minutes or so to get into the house. Once you are inside, you a pushed along pretty quickly. Taking pictures is strictly prohibited, but I found a few stills on Google Images. This is the last room built in the house, a kind of trophy room.
This is Washington’s study. Notice the foot operated fan for hot days.
It was a long an fairly frustrating drive from Mount Vernon to Charlottesville. Once we got there, we were greeted right away by Rafiki, Ellen’s dog. Fiki is getting up in years now and has lost most of her hearing.
They have a large house on a pretty large lot. It is quite a bit different from their Portland digs.
There’s a nice dining room, though in real life the wall is not curved.
There’s also this great sun room. I think it must originally have been a porch, but this makes it much more usable.
Ellen had to go off to some University function, so Michael made us sandwiches and we went off hiking through the nearby woods.
John was delighted by daffodils growing wild.
And on our way home John discovered the colonial house his mother always wanted.
