Today's post was supposed to be about how wonderful it is to live in a
place that is saturated with history and how I have been able to expose
my children to the wonders of America's past - blah blah blah
You know what's more fun? Let me tell you how our day fell just a little short.
I
was super excited - for some reason - to go and visit the Woodlawn
Planation. It's just down the street past Mt. Vernon a bit and the
pictures on the web had shown a huge beautiful house with lots of
gardens. It looked like a great place to run around and in my mind
would be similar to Mt. Vernon. My first tip off should have been that
we were the only ones there when it opened at 10 - we were trying the
beat the heat. I got the stroller, sunscreen, hats, Emmy's taggie and
baby doll (we can't go anywhere without BOTH of them), snacks, drinks,
diaper bag - oh yeah - and kids all set and ready to go walk around.
Note - still no one else has arrived. We walk over to the house - there
is very little signage (another clue??). We find the door to go in and
pay but we find out that it is FREE to just walk around if we don't
want to take a tour of the house. Great - wonderful - I love anything
that is free. So we start out around the house - rather mansion. I
encounter the first set of stairs - don't you think the ladies inside
would have said - you should probably carry the baby - there is no way
around the stairs because of the HUGE OVERGROWN bushes everywhere?? I
carry Emmy and the stroller down the stairs swearing to myself because I
KNOW that there is a corresponding set of stairs that go UP somewhere
in our near future. Anyway - I think you get the picture. This
mansion is beautiful and I'm sure it's beautiful inside but the outside
leaves much to be desired and is NOT stroller friendly. We made it
around the house and I discovered that there was really nothing for us
or anyone else who likes things other than overgrown plants - so back in
the car we went and we drove to Gunston Hall (home of George Mason)
which is right down the road - OK - 20 minutes - still not bad.
We
arrive and it is getting hot - pretty normal for VA but I usually don't
take the kids out if it's this hot. The older woman at the check in
takes my $8 and tells me that I shouldn't be giving my kids cookies -
they are eating an organic granola bar and water I tell her - probably
should have just told her to keep her opinions to herself. Why do I
feel like I have to justify my choice of diet to a stranger? We'll
never know...
So we have to walk around for 30 minutes before the
next "tour" (more on this later) of the house. That seems fine to me -
all I really wanted to do was walk around anyway. We see the school
house which impresses Aidan with it's tiny size. "Where do they play
with playdoh?" he asks. Good question Aidan. We walk through the
garden which is more of a path lined with boxwoods and go and see the
outbuildings - kitchens, wash house etc. Aidan is intrigued with the
push button self guided tour thing they have going on. We go into the
house for our "tour". We are the only ones on this "tour" and the woman
takes one look at me and say "So - do you want the abbreviated tour?"
in the most condescending way imaginable. "Sure" I say - I could tell
this was a no go from the beginning. She tells us interesting things
about the house - and lets us go up the tightest spiral staircase I have
ever seen to the upstairs where the bedrooms are set up but you can't
go in them. Aidan LOVED the staircase - probably the highlight of the
trip! Unfortunately the tourguide had either never seen a child before
or perhaps had only been around children who were physically restrained
because she kept shrieking at Aidan not to touch anything - mind you he
was touching the 3/4 inch thick plexiglass barricade between us and the
items in the room. Maybe they had already run out of Windex...
So here are some pictures:
Woodlawn
Plantation - it was a gift from George Washington to his nephew Major
Lawrence Lewis and his wife Nelly Custis (Martha Washington's
granddaughter from her first marriage)ALWAYS pack a snackGunston Hall - home of George Mason - author of the Virginia Declaration of RightsAidan in the school house - 9 children went to school here.
Aidan and Emmy in the garden at Gunston Hall - Aidan hates the heat and Emmy was just happy to be out of the stroller
OK
- so maybe it was fun to get out of the house and do something a little
different. It's always fun to do stuff with the kids - even if things
don't run smoothly!
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