Tales From My House: George Washington Trifecta

People who know us well know how much we like history. To give credit where credit is due, it is mostly Thomas driving that ship. The guy knows everything about American history. Going places with him is like walking around with your own encyclopedia (or Wikipedia, depending on your age bracket). A particular favorite of Thomas' is George Washington. We had been to Mount Vernon several times and had visited Washington's birth place at Pope Creek, but we had yet to visit Ferry Farm, his home in Fredericksburg. With the Memorial Day 3-day weekend, we decided to visit one Washington home a day.

Saturday was Ferry Farm, his second home. We wanted to make sure we got this one in, because we had never been before. It is much smaller than Mount Vernon and Pope's Creek, and it also had an admission charge. They loan you an iPad that you take on a self-tour around the property. The kids were not at all interested in hearing what the iPad had to say, but Thomas and I found it interesting. It is outside and self-paced, so the kids ran around and we tried to listen. It was enjoyable and worth a visit, but not someplace we would go again. One nice thing was the proximity to Fredericksbug, only 5 miles to a real mall! After about an hour at Ferry Farm, we were done and decided to visit the mall, which was fun. Oh, and there was also a Krispy Kreme nearby, so we made another stop. We were almost home (on Route 5 in Mechanicsville) when we heard a loud thud and the car shook. It felt like we hit something, but there was nothing in the road. Thomas pulled over and looked at the tires and saw that one was quickly losing air. He felt confident we could make it the mile or so to a nearby church parking lot. The church had a playground, so we let the kids loose while Thomas worked on the car. Unfortunately, our jack was useless. Fortunately, there were some good Samaritans nearby who saw him struggling and offered to help. Once he had good tools, Thomas had the spare on in no time. We got home and called a few places and were able to get new tires that evening. I felt very lucky that the incident happened so close to home and not in Fredericksburg, or even worse, the Nice Bridge. I was thankful that Thomas was driving and grateful for the people who stopped to help. All in all, it was a great first day!

Standing in front of two cherry trees. I wonder if they are descendants of the one George chopped?

The tread had separated

Sunday was Mount Vernon. We are pass holders and well-acquainted with Mount Vernon, typically we try and get there before 10 to beat the crowds. This time, we got there shortly after 9, but we did not beat the crowds. Well, we beat a lot of them, but the place appeared very crowded. There were several school groups along with the usual families. We had never seen the movie in the visitor's center and since I needed to feed Luke, we decided it was a good day to give it a shot. We were warned that there were some graphic battle scenes, but we felt the kids could handle it (they can always close their eyes). However, the warning was enough to make Kara apprehensive. She managed to hold out until Luke was done eating and then I had to take her out. When Jack came out he announced that he had changed his mind, he decided to "work in an office like Daddy, and not be a soldier when he grows up." (As an aside--Jack obviously has forgotten about Thomas' recent deployment.)

We had a nice visit. As always, the kid's loved the children's area. We also saw the shearing of a sheep and spent some time walking around the grounds. When we left, around 1, the parking lots were all full. Memorial weekend is not the best time to go, although since we opted not to see the house this time, they really didn't impact our visit much.

Kara wanted to pose for a picture.

Shearing of the sheep. Interesting fact, Mount Vernon buys the shears from the same English company that George Washington used.

Looking into Washington's famous 16-sided barn

My cute family

The girls LOVE this dollhouse. They make a beeline for it every time and could stay there for hours.

Luke's first trip to Mount Vernon

We stopped a few miles up from Mt Vernon and took a picture of Fort Washington, just a stone's throw away.

Jack and Kara declared themselves too tired to go to Pope's Creek on Monday. Anna was really upset. She wanted to "finish the Washington unit!" Instead, we stayed around the house. Thomas grilled for dinner and it was a nice, relaxing day. We were a bit disappointed to not go on Monday, especially because we had gone to the birthplace on the previous two Memorial Days and wanted to continue the tradition. It would have been fun to say that we visited his birth place, boyhood home, and final home all on the same weekend, but, if there's anything we've learned as parents, it's that unwilling participants can make any outing miserable.

So, we went a week later. Well, on a Saturday, so just 5 days later. We left early and stopped at Walmart to let the kids pick out food for a picnic lunch. They were super excited to have juice boxes and Lunchables (it's the little things in life). We got to Pope's Creek around 10. This time, we actually did a tour of the house, which was very interesting. We enjoyed walking around the extensive grounds and our picnic lunch. I can't understand why that place isn't busier--it's free, interesting and beautiful. I really wished I knew something about photography because the grounds are so picturesque. The sky was very blue and the trees were very green. It was a perfect day.

Running around the outline of where the actual house stood

Inside the Colonial house (built in 1932, before they found the foundation of the original)

One of the few (only?) trees that existed in Washington's day.

The girls leading the way on our hike. They liked to be tour guides. Kara would point out trees and say, "this is a tree a beaver could knock down with one bite." Anna also commented on the trees, but her line was, "this is a tree that George Washington cut down, but he didn't get the roots, so it grew back."

Enjoying their picnic lunch

I love this picture of Luke and Thomas.

The four kids. (I have to get used to that 4)

After lunch, we decided to see Stratford Hall, since we were so close. Plus, Thomas was wearing a Washington and Lee t-shirt and it was funny to us (well, me anyway) to visit the birthplaces of both our University's namesakes on the same day.

Stratford is the birthplace of Robert E. Lee. It was a bit more crowded than Pope's Creek. We got there at 1:45, just in time for the 2:00 tour of the "Great House." The tour was over an hour long. The kids were miserable! It was way too informative and detailed for them (our tour guide gave an oral ancestry that seemingly rivaled the ones found in the Old Testament). However, they were very well-behaved. The tour guide also wasn't kid friendly. We went into a wing of the house and she told people they could look around, then appeared irritated at the kids for going in a room that didn't have a barrier. I was actually a bit happy when Luke started to cry, so I had an excuse to take him and Kara out (unfortunately, he waited over an hour to do so). The tour ended about 15 minutes after we left and the other people in our group made a point of commenting on how Thomas and I should be very proud of how well our children listened. However, I also heard some people telling the tour guide that it was among the best tours they had ever been on. Some truths are relative, I suppose. Actually, the tour was good and very informative, we were just expecting it to be more about General Lee and less about the history of the house, its other occupants and life in general during that time period (all good stuff, just not what we were prepared for). The kids did like seeing the school room in the house and hearing about the tutor's disciplinary techniques. Anna commented that she was glad her teacher didn't adhere to those strategies! We may go back to explore the grounds and visitor's center a bit more another day.