Mt. Vernon Va- home of the Washingtons

While Mitch had work this weekend, I decided to take advantage to the close proximity we are to a lot of historical landmarks. I headed to Mt. Vernon to see George and Martha Washington's plantation. If you h aven't been to Mt. Vernon, it's awesome and well worth the money. On the 5oo acres( the original plantation was 8,000 acres) there is a theater, a large museum with a collection of their clothes and personal belongings. You also can walk the plantation and visit their house (they don't allow pics inside the house), their tombs, the wharf on the Potomac River, the farm stables and grounds, green house, and the various shelters that workers in on the plantation. Mt. Vernon is a little town in and of itself. These are the many pics I took as I strolled around...

Intersting facts..
GW died of a throat infection at the age of 67. Many say if antiobotics had been invented, it would have been treatable
GW never had any children of his own. He helped raise Martha's two children she had from a previous marriage
GW was never college educated
GW gave up tobacco farming for wheat farming. He experimented with very innovative farming techniques. He also had a distillery and gristmill near his home. He sold his products locally and overseas.
After he died, according to his will, he freed all this slaves
GW's false teeth were not made of wood but rather hippo teeth and ivory

not Mt Vernon but Mitch and Frankie bonding

outdoor bathroom

backyard of Mt. Vernon with spectacular view of the Potomac

again another view of the backyard looking out

looks so pr etty in Fall

back of Mt. Vernon- you can sit on those green chairs and gaze out

me in my green lounge chair

Clerk's quarters- where the guy who kept the books lived

smoke house- where smoked meats where hung for preservation

Wash House- where all the laundry was done

Washington's vehicles- can't imagine drive one of those

Spinning room-where clothes were made, they also bought clothes overseas

botanical gardens

Oversears Quarter- when the guy who ran the place when GW was away slept

where GW used to be buried. They moved him and his wife to a location near that according to his will

Potomac River

animals on the plantation

Shame on GW- where his slaves used to sleep. He owned some 400 slaves between the upkeep of the house and his farms

Sarcophagus of Martha Custis Washington

sarcophagus of GW

beautiful archways

Mt. Vernon

this shows you just how set back this house is and how big the property is