Mount Vernon!

Yesterday, for what will likely be our last museum outing of the year, Diggory and I took Grandma Becky and Grandpa Doug to George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Museum and Gardens.  We decided to close out a year of awesome museumness with a big, colonial, and patriotic huzzah!  You'd probably guess, that due to the significance of the place and of the man in our nation's history, and given the size of the estate itself, that this would be one of the longer blog posts in my archive.  But, even visiting the site with an eye toward catching the most blog-worthy of aspects, I was struck by how straight-forward and smoothly our trip turned out to be.  Well done, Mount Vernon, well done.  I might not actually have that much to say, gasp!

Waiting with Grandma and Grandpa for the film.  Diggory thought the decorated Christmas trees and holiday decorations were, "Wooooowwww!"

So...let's get started.  We arrived slightly after 10am, and I was pleasantly surprised that there were a lot of parking spots left.  I good omen for the smaller crowds we encountered inside.  Once we purchased our tickets...ages five and under are free...we browsed the exhibits in the Ford Orientation Center before viewing the orientation film in the theater.  There are plenty of restroom facilities here and an information desk where you can find out what's happening all around the estate during the day.  After the 25 minute film..."some battle scenes may not be suitable for young children"...we ventured outside into the very blustery day toward the mansion.  We had timed tickets for a half hour later, so we strolled leisurely up the walk and then turned left up the handicap/stroller accessible path toward the Upper Garden. We encountered two presidentially-pardoned Thanksgiving turkeys.  Diggory was quite intrigued.  

Gobble, gobble, gobble.

It was pretty cold, but at least there's a good number of buildings to block the wind!

We cut through the Upper Garden just before the Lady Washington Gift Shop, and came up to the mansion from the northwest.  Even though it wasn't quite our time to stand in the queue for the mansion tour, there wasn't anyone else in line so we popped right in and only had to wait about ten minutes.  We parked the stroller between the Gardener's House and Servants' Hall...just don't forget to claim it when you come out of the tour on the complete opposite side of the mansion.  'Cause we did...and got almost all the way to the Old Tomb before we remembered!  Diggory was a pretty good sport on the tour...helped by the fact that he loves being carried around by his very tall Grandpa Doug.  Who wouldn't want the best view in the house?!  The third floor of the mansion is only open until January 6, 2013, so it was a special treat to visit this rarely-seen space.  

It was quite windy, with upward of 50 mph gusts!  The photo of Diggory and his grandparents didn't turn out well, at all.  :)  Here's a slightly better one of me, to prove I was actually there.  

After our mansion tour, we walked down the hill to the south and looked inside the Storehouse, Smokehouse, Paint Cellar, Wash House, and Coach House and then made it to Washington's Tomb before heading back up the hill around the Fruit Garden and Nursery and Lower Garden on the west side of the  grounds.  We skipped the Slave Memorial, Wharf, Pioneer Farm and Sixteen-sided Barn because, well, it was just too darn cold.  We did make a brief stop just past the Bowling Green to visit Aladdin the camel, on view through the holidays.  In 1787, George paid 18 shillings to have a camel brought to Mount Vernon for Christmas to entertain his guests...so it's totally historically accurate.  

Watch out, they spit.

We were glad to finally get back indoors when we reached the Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center.  The museum houses spectacular items from the site's permanent collection and hosts temporary exhibitions.  (I got to be involved in one a few years back in my past life at museum collections manager at the Society of the Cincinnati, and it was such a privilege.)  Currently on view through August 11, 2013, Hoecakes and Hospitality explores how foods were prepared and presented in the 18th century at Mount Vernon.  I scored at least five recipe cards...a brilliant idea...and am very much looking forward to making the "ragoo of asparagus."

Even though our tummies were now grumbling (brilliant ploy to get visitors into the food court and restaurant, by the way), we took a not so quick spin through the Education Center.  Embarrassingly, even after all my visits to Mount Vernon for family trips or in a professional capacity, I had never walked through the Education Center.  Eek!  So, we finally went and it was so cool.  Lots and lots of interactive and eye-catching exhibits, generally organized chronologically through Washington's life.  There are dioramas, films, sounds, lights, and historical objects sprinkled here and there, including George's not-wooden lower jaw dentures.

Thoroughly starving by now, we were lucky enough to snag a table for four at the Mount Vernon Inn restaurant and had their famous peanut and chestnut soup and sandwiches.  Also, I should have mentioned that there are restrooms in various locations around the museum and education center, and near the food court and gift shop, but perhaps the most handy one is the handicap accessible restroom right next to the hostess stand.  It's big enough for a stroller and there's a counter just perfect for diaper changes.  Perhaps it's not meant for that, but I used it...and wiped it down, too.  So there.  You gotta do, what you gotta do.

It was way, way, way past bedtime by the time we left, so we sang about a million rounds of Old MacDonald's Farm to keep Diggory awake for the whole ride home.  We succeeded, and then he crashed out for a three hour nap.  And mommy got some shut eye, too.   

Grandma and Grandpa watching his every move.  :)

So, I think I'll call it quits until next year, which, really, is only next week anyway.  Diggory and I visited SEVENTY-TWO museums and cultural or historic sites this past year, and seeing as how we didn't actually tick off all of the places I wanted to go, I think we'll just have to renew our resolution for 2013, and go for it again.  What do you think?  Fifty-two museums in 2013?  I think, I can.  I think, I can.

Happy New Year!  And thanks for reading!  

The Intrigue of Historical Markers

It's been quite some time since I've posted.  I made a couple of cross-country trips over the past few weeks and had to finish my Christmas shopping, which, in my defense, takes a lot longer when you have a toddler in tow.  But, alas, I don't have any terribly concrete excuses for not keeping my goal of visiting one museum a week for a whole year.  I guess my biggest excuse is that I've already visited way more than 52!  I counted a few months ago, and I was already at 54.  So there.  I've dropped the ball a few times since then, going a week or more between postings.  But for goodness sake, I've been busy.  It's not that I don't think about visiting a museum or historic site, I just don't actually muster up the motivation to do it.  Today we did something different though.  And in my defense, all the other places I thought to visit today were closed.  So there.  

Instead of visiting a museum, Diggory and I went shopping.  I had a coupon, and I wanted to use it.  We found ourselves in Bailey's Crossroads, a neighborhood in Fairfax County, Virginia full of big box stores, car dealerships, and our trusty Trader Joe's.  I've stopped to read this particular historical marker before (see photo below), but today I thought I'd post a picture so all of you can see it too.  It's a total cheater's blog post, I know, but there's a special place in my heart for historical markers, and here's why.

On every family vacation taken in my youth, inevitably, my father would ask, "What did that sign say?"  He was usually referring to some historical marker.  And the tricky bit was that we were usually traveling at 65 mph.  No one can read that fast!  But, after some trial and error, I believe I became really good at surmising the gist of said marker with only a split second to actually read it.  And what I didn't actually read, I usually just made up.  But, ever since then, I've made it a point to read most markers I see.  I even pull over the car, back up, walk across the parking lot, etc.  It's amazing what you learn when you "stop and smell the...er...read the marker."  

For example, did you know that Bailey's Crossroads has a connection with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus?!  I had a forehead-slapping, eye-rolling "duh" moment when I read the marker the first time and also realized that that's why the "Now Entering Bailey's Crossroads" signs have circus tents on them.  Turns out that Hachaliah Bailey purchased the northeast quadrant of land formed by Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike in 1837, and his son, Lewis Bailey, who pioneered the canvas circus tent and owned a traveling menagerie, settled on the land in the 1840s.  Some sources say he needed a place to keep his exotic animals during the winter.  The land also included a large mansion house called "Moray," which burned down in 1942.  All that exists now is Moray Lane, which would have led directly to the house, but now cuts directly through the Crossroads Shopping Center parking lot.  It's entirely possible that the house once stood exactly where I had to stand to take this picture.  

I love imagining what the landscape of our neighborhoods once looked like "back in the day."  And I only hope that those who once lived here wouldn't be too disappointed that there's now an Old Navy in what would have been their backyard.  Maybe they'd be delighted that I could hear the laughter of children wafting up from the Glen Forest Elementary School playground too.  And I hope it might bring them comfort that there are still those of us willing to read the historical markers.