Spring Break visit to Mt. Vernon

Hello President and Mrs. Washington!  It's lovely to meet you!

Sophie, Abbie, Grant and Nelson

our family at Mt. Vernon

Abbie, Nelson and Sophie hanging out on the front porch

This year, for the girls Spring Break, we drove up to Richmond, VA to spend time with Matt's mom, Teresa and his sister, Leia, who was getting married on the 2nd Saturday of the Spring Break.  We drove to Richmond on Saturday.  On Sunday, we spent time with Matt's family and then on Monday, we left and drove to Mt. Vernon about 2 hours away.  We packed bags for about a 2 day stay in the Washington, D.C. area because we knew that Matt's mom and sister would have lots of last minute details to see about before the wedding.

Well, as they say, "some things are just meant to be" and that's the way it was for us on our trip.  Matt had bought our tickets for Mt. Vernon in advance.  It was quite chilly when we arrived there in the mid-morning but it gradually warmed up.  Within 5-10 minutes of our arrival at Mt. Vernon, I ran into a good friend of ours from when we had lived up in Maryland about 10 years ago.  I thought that a little boy looked like her son in the visitor center but I wasn't sure.  Then, my friend, Katherine McClure, walked over next to her son a few minutes later.  Their family lives in a suburb right outside D.C. and the boys happened to be out of school that day.  Our family watched a film with them and then we hung out for most of our time at Mt. Vernon.  Katherine's boys, Nelson and Grant, are the same ages (approximately) as the girls.  The boys enjoyed showing the girls around Mt. Vernon and the girls loved hanging out with other children their ages and hearing about history from someone besides their parents. Right before we had arrived at Mt. Vernon, Abbie had said, "oh, this is so boring!"  I was like, "Our 1st President, George Washington actually lived here.  How cool is that?"  We toured the blacksmith and livery and all the places outside the house and then enjoyed touring Mt. Vernon. The girls liked seeing George Washington's false teeth.   It turned into a very pleasant, sunny day.  We already had a hotel lined up for that night but Katherine invited us to stay at their home while we were in the area.