Mount Vernon

On President's Day T and I went to Mount Vernon even though it was sprinkling.  I know.  Are we patriotic or what?  We were planning to go anyway, but we definitely decided to go when we saw that admission was FREE on President's Day instead of the usual $15 per person.  We are glad we went on the free day because, really, Mt. Vernon is not worth $15 a person.  Maybe $5...

It was pretty busy but not unbearable or unpleasantly so.  We started off by watching a short film in the welcome center.  The film was both boring and violent.  You wouldn't think that was possible, but it is.  The violent stuff was pretty violent and when it wasn't violent it was boring. 

Next we moseyed to the mansion.  Apparently admission to the mansion is free, but it is timed.  You can't get in line until the time on your ticket.  We arrived about 12:30 and our ticket time to get in line was 3:40.  Seriously?!  That's a long wait, plus about the 45 minute wait once you are in line.  This was kind of irritating because we could have seen the whole mansion in about 15 minutes.  Plus, I have been to this type of thing before and while there would be some things in the mansion that were owned by the Washingtons, most of it would have been just things from the era. 

So we gave the tickets back and just wandered around the property.  Nothing too amazing at all, it's like This Is The Place Park in Utah or an old working farm.  The huge back porch, which was designed and built by Washington, is pretty awesome.  It has a wonderful view of the Potomac.

We saw Washington's Tomb.  Well, as close as we could get without waiting in line for 45 minutes.

We walked down to the wharf and saw the slaves quarters and the mill.  We also went to the museum, educational center (they are separate from the mansion), and gift shop.  Washington lollipops, anyone?

There are many five minute films throughout the museum and educational center, but I didn't care for any of them.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed.  I think the grounds would look amazing in spring, but I don't think we will go back.  The information and things in the museum were almost the exact same things in the Revolutionary War area of The Museum of American History which you can visit for free.  Oh, I guess the Mt. Vernon museum did have Washington's actual dentures on display.  The mansion, museum, and educational center all have a "no photo" policy.  But sometimes that is nice because then you can just enjoy the exhibits without worrying about taking pictures.

If you have young kids this is not the best place to visit because there is SO much walking - a lot of it on hills.  The walking was actually the part that I enjoyed best - but I know that would be different if I had to carry small children or push a stroller.

A few other things:  Mt. Vernon is about a 30 minute drive from D.C., the volunteer workers are SO nice, parking is free, and dogs are welcome (which I thought was horrible).  Of course the food prices were high and I was kinda disappointed that there were no cherry pies to be bought (maybe there were some in the sit down restaurant that we didn't visit).  We were there for two hours.  If we had gone through the mansion it would have taken us three hours, most of it waiting in line. 

To be clear, just because I didn't like Mount Vernon doesn't mean I don't like George Washington.  I actually think he was the greatest American President.  When I was visiting the Revolutionary War portion of the American History Museum, I had this overwhelming feeling of awe of George Washington and the wonderful things he did and the great leader that he was.  But I just didn't get that vibe at Mount Vernon - maybe because it was crowded and maybe because I had already had the George Washington experience at the American History Museum.

I only got through the first 50 pages, but I do think I am going to give "1776" by David McCullough another try.  But I will probably read this version because it is abridged and there are pictures.  Pictures make everything better.

Ultimately, if you live in D.C. this is something you should do once.  If you're a casual tourist, Mount Vernon is something you can skip.

Oh, on the drive home we saw this sign.  Everyone has seen it a picture of it before, but we actually saw one in person.

It's blurry because it is an iphone picture taken from a moving car, but it says, "Church parking only violators will be "baptized.""