July 3: Mt. Vernon Is Not a Band

Mike chose to spend his birthday at Mt. Vernon since we hoped it would be less crowded than the Capitol area. Neither of us had been there although Chris had unpleasant memories of johnny cakes from a prior trip.

The weather was perfect to wander aimlessly around the estate. However, a sign warning us of a 50 minute wait to get into the mansion inspired us to head directly to line up in front of the mansion. Fortunately most of the line was in the shade but, after 90 minutes, we had exhausted all conversational topics.

The line ran next to one of the gardens so I snuck away to take pictures of flowers.

So after 90 minutes we entered the mansion, and were marched through like we were on an assembly line. The docents repeated the same speech every minute and did not welcome questions.

On one hand, I understand that they wanted to keep the line moving and avoid longer waits. On the other hand, I really wanted to get my money's worth after waiting for an hour and a half. And we weren't allowed to take pictures which made me very sad.

However, after waiting in yet another line to see Washington's tomb, I began to understand the ban. People took a really long time taking pictures. Does it seem a little rude to take pictures of a person's final resting place?
We wandered down to the Potomac and walked along the banks, visited the demonstration farm. Is it just me or does this woman look like a Vermeer painting?
We had to head back to the Kurans' to get ready for Mike's birthday dinner.
On the whole so far, this trip has been frustrating. We end up spending more time getting to places, finding parking, waiting in line and then hurryong off, not spending enough quality time enjoying the experience.