Mount Vernon

On Sunday, I met Stacy and his family at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. It was far from my first trip to the grounds. But, it does seem every time I visit, my perspective is just a little bit different and I pick up on different things. In past years, I definitely focused on the mansion or the farm animals. This time around, it was the trees and gardens that caught most of my attention.

Turning leaves

Spider web

The grounds had a lot of old, large trees

From One Generation to Another
My maternal grandmother used to volunteer at Mount Vernon, so she brought my siblings and I to the property pretty often. She taught me quite a bit. I, of course, learned about the Washington family and life during that era. But there were little unrelated lessons as well. I still remember my grandmother pointing out and telling me about sycamore trees. I learned what the color “Navy Blue” looked like thanks to her uniform. And Mount Vernon was the very first time (but not the last!) I got shocked by an electric fence. 🙂

Me, Grandma and Carolyn at Mount Vernon (Photo from ClintJCL)

This year, I got to witness the process starting over! I got to see cute little Addie enjoy Mount Vernon with her own grandparents. How can you NOT smile?

Addie walks with her Grandpa at Mount Vernon

Addie and Grandpa enjoy the gardens

Rustication
This wasn’t a new discovery about Mount Vernon by any means, but I did want to share one of my favorite parts about the mansion. The outside of the mansion looks like stone and it feels like stone as well. But it is made of pine boards! What Washington did was have the boards beveled to look like masonry. Then when they painted it, they threw sand on the wet paint to add texture. Pretty sneaky! I just love the thriftiness and the creativity with that trick.

NOT stone!

It may have been a brief trip, but it was a great one! More pictures of our Mount Vernon outing can be found on my Flickr site.