Highly overdue: a visit to Mt. Vernon

Despite living in the DC metro region for over 13 years, I'd never made it to Mt. Vernon, home to our founding father and first president, George Washington. It's seriously like 20 minutes away from me. I have no excuse.

So when my mom came down for a weekend recently, and this was on her list of suggested things to see, I thought it was a fantastic idea.

Mt. Vernon from the Bowling Green Gate. He loved a manicured lawn, apparently, but this was before lawn mowers naturally. Which meant slaves had to cut that giant lawn with SCYTHES. It's good to be a plantation owner, evidently.

It was perfect the day we went: bright blue skies and less humid than it had been in weeks.

And the place is straight up GORGEOUS. Originally something like 200 acres, I believe? But the main house is on a bluff overlooking the Potomac River, and MAN. Not too shabby, Mr. President.

There are "history interpreters" who give you little snippets of history and information as you go from room to room. Everything they had to say we found SUPER FASCINATING, but very brief. We both wished they had told us more. I suppose we should have sprung for the audio guide for more details.

In the kitchen: a hearth as big as my mother. Who granted is not large. Still.

I had no idea George Washington was such a renaissance man. The tour focuses almost entirely on the aspects of his life *outside* of the presidency - the Revolutionary War was not even mentioned - and more on his life when he lived on the plantation (or as they mostly called it, his "farm"). But in addition to oh, leading the country to independence and founding the United States, he was an accomplished farmer and botanist; a talented surveyor and cartographer; developed new techniques for farming like a special 16-sided threshing barn; personally designed the (very lovely and extensive) grounds and gardens at Mt. Vernon; constructed the most advanced greenhouse of his time; and regularly entertained an entire house full of guests the majority of every year.

Of course, all of this was actually accomplished due to the presence of several hundred slaves on the premises. To their credit, Mt. Vernon does not shy away from this fact. The role of enslaved workers (the preferred terminology there, apparently) was emphasized frequently and honestly. The super-innovative greenhouse, for example, was only able to function due to a slave boy sleeping in the adjoining quarters, constantly feeding wood to a huge fire pit that vented hot air into the greenhouse to keep it heated.

Not the greenhouse, which was actually closed the day we were there. These are regular outside gardens.

All in all, highly recommend a half day at Mt. Vernon. I hear it can get reeeallly crowded during tourist season - we went on a Friday, post Labor Day, and found it very manageable. It's something like $17 to enter, but we thought it was well worth it (especially since they exist solely on private funds, no government funding currently or ever! The story of how Mt. Vernon came to be is actually really fascinating too - entirely due to the efforts of the women of the Mt. Vernon Ladies' Association, who were able to raise $200k and acquire the land in a time when women could not even own property).

Selfies when it's 200% too bright to see your camera screen are hard.