Surprise! I'm back--well, sort of--after my long vacation from blogging for the summer. We had such a busy, fun time while Sarah, Joel and Eliza were with us. We were having constant adventures it seems. Then they left, and I've still been out of the blogging habit. But I thought I'd take the time this evening and tell about the fun day Tiffany and I had at Mount Vernon today!
Yesterday (Thursday, Sept. 4) we left Salt Lake and flew to Washington D.C. for a mother/daughter outing and pre-graduation (MS degree) trip. We thank Steven and Richard, who are at home holding down the fort, for making it possible for us to take some days off. Boy! Are we having fun!!!!!!! When we got to DC yesterday, the shuttle from Old Colony Inn picked us up at Reagan National Airport and drove us to the hotel. We landed at 5:00 p.m. EST. Once we checked into our hotel (my favorite place to stay in Alexandria), we set off on foot for Old Town. It took a little time to get our bearings, but pretty soon we were finding our way around. We walked past Robert E. Lee's boyhood home, George Washington's town house, Christ Church, and lots of delightfully quaint rowhouses. We walked along King Street down to the river and enjoyed the ambiance of Old Town Alexandria. We ended up at Gadsby's Tavern (where George and Martha used to dine and dance) and had dinner by candlelight, and I mean by candlelight--no other lighting. Just like back in colonial times. We ordered Martha's puff pastry and some mini crab cakes. Both were delicious, served by our waitress in colonial attire. Then it was back to the hotel to relax and enjoy some treats from the hotel "snack room." We watched John McCain's acceptance speech and thought it was actually pretty good. It was best at the end. I think Sarah Palin has livened him up a bit!
Today we spent the whole day at Mt. Vernon! Boy! Did we have fun! We actually got up early enough to have breakfast and catch the shuttle to the metro by 8:00 a.m. Breakfast here at the hotel was very good--lots of choices: grits, potatoes, scrambled eggs, western scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and--Steven's favorite: biscuits and gravy. Plus there was fresh melon and pineapple along with an assortment of pastries. We didn't eat all of that, of course, but those were our choices. After breakfast, we caught the shuttle to the Braddock Street metro station where we caught the metro for Huntington Station where we caught the bus that took us to Mount Vernon. It took us one hour and ten minutes from the hotel to Mount Vernon. We were there just after it opened at 9:00 a.m. We watched a movie about George Washington and then took a tour of the home. We enjoyed the lovely panoramic view out over the Potomac from the piazza along the back of the house. After walking around the grounds and visiting Washington's tomb, we took a 45-minute cruise along the Potomac which left from the wharf at Mt. Vernon. That was a lot of fun. Richard would have enjoyed seeing the five blackhawk helicopters which flew overhead. Back at Mt. Vernon we headed to the Mt. Vernon Inn for lunch. We had originally planned to stay until dinner time and have dinner there, but we were informed that it would be closed for a private party, so we opted for lunch there instead. First we had peanut/chestnut soup (of course!), and then Tiff had salmon corn cakes and I had rosemary chicken with peanut stuffing (gotta have your peanuts in Virginia!). It was delicious. We topped it all off by sharing some bread pudding (gotta have your bread pudding!). That was some good food! After lunch we browsed the shops for awhile, then we met the group for the 3:00 National Treasure II Tour of Mt. Vernon. We got to hear about the filming of the Mt. Vernon segment in National Treasure II and have a tour of the basement of Mt. Vernon, which is usually off-limits to the public. I told Tiff that every historical administration major should be allowed to see the basement of Mt. Vernon. It was very interesting. The tour involved quite a bit of walking out over the grounds and down along the river. A bald eagle flew overhead just as the tour was finishing! A fitting conclusion. By the end of the tour we were so tired that we took the shuttle along with our guide back up to the house. By this time we were pretty much dragging. We made it to the bus stop to catch the bus back to the Huntington metro station where we took the metro to Braddock station. The hotel shuttle came and picked us up there. Back at the hotel we collapsed on our beds. After some relaxing and TV watching we have revived a bit. Right now we're on the computers in the business center where I decided to do a little blogging after a loooooong hiatus. Tropical Storm Hanna has started to blow in and it's raining outside. I don't know how much sightseeing we'll be able to do tomorrow. It's supposed to be pretty rainy and windy, so we'll see. We're sure having a lot of fun, though!