Day 1 of Road Trip: Mount Vernon Tour

On Monday, July 9, my Mom arrived around 8:30 AM to pick my girls, Dextra my Seeing Eye Dog, and I up for a few days of travelling.   We were going to head up to Mount Vernon to take a tour, later that afternoon.

We got the car loaded up and headed on our way.    It was supposed to take about 3 hours, but ended up taking a little over 4.   We arrived at Mount Vernon a little after 1 PM and headed into the museum and got some lunch.

After we were refreshed from the drive we headed out of the museum and out towards the main house.  We walked the dirt road towards the house, where they had us stop to wait in line.  The person in charge of tour sizes, of course, immediately saw Dextra and the usual question flowed from her mouth, "Is that a service dog?"   With my polite response affirming that Dextra was indeed a Seeing Eye Dog, this woman immediately got on the radio  to inform the interpreters along the tour route that a guide dog was coming.   Is this really necessary?  I mean, she's in harness and if the first person let her through, wouldn't they think the appropriate questions were asked and all was okay?  Do they really have to tell everyone a guide dog is coming?   Just seems funny to me.

Dextra, was, of course, her stellar self, well behaved, following the group as we made our way through the main house.

First we actually went into the servant's house, where guests of George Washington would have their servants stay.   Then we made our way into the main house, first into the huge dining room, with it's huge windows at the end looking out onto the green grass and the Patomac River.   Unfortunately, it was dark in all the rooms, so I couldn't see much detail, with my limited sight, so I just listened to what was described and asked a few questions.

After the large dining hall, we went to the front porch, then to the foryer, which had 4 rooms off of it, two parlors, a smaller dining room for the family, and a small guest bedroom.  Hanging in the foryer was a key to the Bastile prison in France, given to Washington as a gift.

From the foryer, we headed upstairs, where the main hall had 4 more bedrooms off of it.  We could not go up to the 3rd floor, which had 3 more bedrooms.   In one of the 2nd floor bedrooms was an original cradle given for the birth of a grandchild of Martha.

George had a master bedroom added, at one point, and it was at the opposite end of the building from the dining hall, on the 2nd floor.  I could peek in the room and see a bed in white, which they said was the original bed and the one Washington died in.

We then headed down a very narrow and steep private back staircase, which Dextra worked perfectly, being super cautious as we made our way down it.   We then went into Washington's study, where he kept over 900 books.  He had a chair that you could lay in and peddle and as you peddled it moved a fan that would help cool you off.  That was neat, I had not heard of such an invention.  There was also a chair in the room that was the chair Washington sat in when he was President.

We then headed outside and to the kitchen, which was quite the large building.  After that we were on our own, for the most part.   We went back around to the front of the house and sat on the grass looking out at the river and over to Maryland.

From there we headed to look at the rest of the outbuildings.   These included the wash house, bath house, smoke house, carriage houses, barns, etc.

We then walked down the hill to the old crypt and then to the newer crypt, where Washington was moved in 1831 and buried with quite a few family members.

We continued down the hill and my youngest still didn't want to ride in the stroller, luckily it was an unbrella one, so I held her hand, while my Mom carried the stroller and held the hand of my oldest daughter.   I was also carrying a heavy backpack, with drinks, snacks, diapers, etc.  We had to make it down a lot of steps to make it down to the warf, where they luckily had a water fountain.  We all got a drink, including Dextra.

There was a pioneer village left to see, as part of the outside touring areas, but we decided it was hot and getting late, so we would head back to the museum.   Luckily, they had a shuttle bus to take you back up the hill, so we got on one.

Once inside the museum, again, we walked around a little bit, before finding the hands on childrens room, which both my girls totally loved.  There was a huge dollhouse of Mount Vernon that both spent a long time playing with, especially my oldest.  My youngest played tea party with the tea set, for a little bit and also enjoyed pushing the buttons on the interactive wall, where animal noises would come out when she pushed buttons on each animal. 

Dextra took that opportunity to take a nap, while the girls played and my Mom went to look in the gift shop.

Mom returned and wanted the girls to look at some things in the gift shop to decide what they wanted, so we headed over there.   The girls picked out a t-shirt that had a horse infront of Mount Vernon on it, each getting the same one.   The shirts came with a cute stuffed horse.  They also got a few childrens books and a coloring book.

My oldest learned about George Washington this past year in school and says that he is one of her heroes.  What a smart 6 year old she is!

As we were paying for items, suddenly a dog from behind the counter started to go nuts.  Sounded like a small dog and it sounded quite mean as it spotted Dextra.   So, I quickly got out of the gift shop, to avoid any confrontation between the dogs.   Dextra has already been attacked once, while in harness and I was not looking for a repeat.   Not sure what this dog was doing in the store, if it is a service dog, as well or one in training, but it was a small dog of some kind and with it's nasty sounding attitude towards other dogs, if it is a service dog or one in training, it doesn't sound like it really should be doing that job.

After we were done in the gift shop we headed towards the exit and somehow that same dog got near us, yet again.   We quickly made our way out of the building and away from the growling and barking dog, Dextra doing her job beautifully, ignoring the hurling insults the other dog must have been throwing at her.

We got back to the car and prepared for the next leg of our journey, heading towards Baltimore, where we had a hotel reservation for that night, so we could get an early start to the Baltimore Acquarium the next day.

We arrived in Baltimore around 7:30 and got to the room to freshen up a little, before heading downstairs to eat.  Luckily, the hotel had a restaurant that we could get dinner in, so we didn't have to walk or drive anywhere.

We finally got to bed a little after 10, much later than my girl's usual bedtime, but it was a vacation and they had experienced a full and fun day.