Day 7 of Washington Trip: Friday

The alarm on my cell phone went off at 7am. I groaned and did not get up. I was dozing when my cell phone rang at 7:15. It was Tracy… the security alarm had gone off at our house, and he was 2 hours away. Would it reset? It’s a new system, plus I wasn’t fully awake yet, so I told him I didn’t know… it should, but I didn’t know for sure. He had told ADT to go ahead and send the police out there. He called ADT back and found out that the alarm would reset and they would call him back if the police found anything unusual. He never heard back, but it was still a day of being worried about the kitties and did someone try to break in or what??

That got me out of the bed, anyway. Mom and I got ready and drove to Virginia to Mount Vernon, the home of our first president, George Washington and his wife, Martha. The area is beautiful out there. The parking is even free at Mount Vernon! That’s a big deal up here!

The first thing we did was get our tickets for the river cruise and walk to the wharf to catch the boat by 11:30am. It was a pleasant walk… Along the way, we stopped and saw the tomb where George and Martha are buried. We continued to the wharf and boarded the boat for a leisurely, pleasant cruise on the Potomac River for about 40 minutes. We had a beautiful view of the Washington home from the river. We also got to see Fort Washington across the river in Maryland. George had it built to protect DC from invaders. It is so huge and imposing that it has never been attacked. The tour guide said the walls are about 25 feet thick – no wonder!

When we returned to land, we walked up toward the mansion. It was up a steep hill the whole way! I am so out of shape! But we finally made it and it was very worth it! There were several buildings on the property… barn, clerk’s office, salt house, gardener’s house, slave quarters, etc. There was a line to get into the mansion, but there is a lawn there and people in period dress were out there having “picnics”, giving concerts, dancing, mingling with the guests, etc. It was very neat and made the time pass by quickly.

We toured the house and there were guides on every level, telling us interesting tidbits about the time period and the Washingtons. So much of the house is from that time… including the banisters on the stairs… Washington had them installed himself. There is a beautiful view from the front porch… Across the river, they have turned that land into a state park and kept it looking almost exactly like it did during Washington’s time… nothing but trees and greenery… he loved the view from his front porch, across the Potomoc River.

After finishing the mansion, we headed back to the visitor’s center and lunch. We ate in the café and then visited the shops there. We had way too much fun shopping! It was after 3 by this time, and we headed back to DC. Traffic was heavy by this time, but we made it just fine. We ordered from a local pizza place for dinner… Mom got stromboli and I got lasagna… It was huge and delicious!! I was behind on my journaling so between that, checking out Facebook, talking to Tracy and Stacey, and checking e-mail, it was after 11 before I went to bed and I literally threw on pjs, took out my contacts, and crawled in the bed! I woke up the next morning with my earrings still in my ears!! LOL!

Oh, and when Tracy got home from work and found that the motion detector had went off at the house this morning. The only thing we can figure is that a cat jumped high enough to set it off! I would have loved to have seen that!