May 19-20, 2012 Saturday the 19th, our first day here, we decided to just veg for the day. We needed some down time after all the travel of the past several weeks. We perused the camp store, Loni bought a hat, I bought ice cream, and we just flaked out. Mushroom pasta for dinner. Yum!
Sunday we decided to go to Mt. Vernon, Washington’s home. It’s 27-odd miles from the campground via surface streets (we would take the scoot, not the rig), and we didn’t feel up to trying our GPS-less (on the scoot) navigation skills in this wholly unfamiliar area, so public transit it is.
One of the bonuses about the CHRVP is that a city bus has a stop right inside the park. The bus takes you to one of two subway stations, depending on the day and hour, and from there you can make your way all the way down to Mt. Vernon. The park sells passes, and there’s even a half-price one for seniors, good on both buses and subway. It costs $5, but you then have to fill it up with value at one of the machines at the subway. We were off!
Well, we didn’t break any speed records getting there. Took us 2 1/2 hours to cover the 27 miles, although I’m sure we covered more than that as the bus at each end has to wander its route. On the way down, we took two buses and 2 metro lines, and missed the proper metro connection as the schedule changes on weekends, a fact undisclosed in our guidebook. The stops near our park are on the green line, at College Park and Greenbelt. Mt. Vernon lies at the end of the yellow line, at Huntington. We had to take a bus from there to Mt. Vernon proper. At least the metros are clean and relatively quiet. A far cry from the wooden coaches in Buenos Aires.
Once we got there it was all worth it. Again, if you have any yen for history, standing within the very rooms in which these historical figures lived their lives is a tingly experience. Mt. Vernon was saved back in 1860 when it was purchased from the family by the Mt. Vernon Ladies Association, which has preserved it for us to enjoy many generations later.
Neither of us has much regard for Washington’s military skills (it’s a miracle we won the war), but he certainly was charismatic to his men and was blessed with a type of integrity and “country first” attitude that present day politicians don’t even try to emulate. The grounds are beautiful. The house sits on a hill high above the river. It’s neat to see paintings of the view from his time that match what you see today.
The above left view is from the back of the house, pictured below. You can sit on the porch and recreate George’s scene. They hold a lot of events on the lawn, but when nothing is going on visitors are welcome to flop down or have a picnic.
We weren’t able to take any interior photos of the main house (they gotta sell those picture books!), but we were able to shoot outbuildings and slave quarters.
Ah, yes, there was food. And surprisingly good for a tourist attraction. We ate at the Mt. Vernon Inn, starting with their signature peanut/chestnut soup. Loni had a duck cassoulet while I opted for the salmon corn cakes. We finished with a bread pudding and were stuffed. Again, no dinner tonight.
The return trip was a little faster (2hrs) because we now knew the proper transfer point on the metro. When we got back, we took the scoot to a nearby market for a little grocery shopping. On our return, we found another Lazy Daze had pulled in. A couple from Ohio who originally came from Chino, CA. The cloudy skies turned into rain overnight, but it just lulled us to sleep all the faster.
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