**FRI 6/21 Girls do Mt. Vernon, Chris HW and MH, and DRIVE 200 miles together
Chris is squeezing in time for schoolwork wherever he can so this morning Karen took the girls to George Washington's home at Mt. Vernon, and Chris stayed back with the motorhome to study and check out of the campground to meet us at a Walmart parking lot just after noon. The girls packed sandwiches in the cooler in the Jeep so we could eat on the 30 minute drive back to save time.
Mt. Vernon: We learned about both George Washington's home life in the late 1700's and his military career leading up to presidency. The first thing we saw were oxen waking down the dirt path. (I asked the handler for clarification and learned that bull neutered is a steer, and a working steer is an ox.) I made Marissa ask about the wooden harness holding the two oxen together, and he told her in a way to help her remember--it's a yoke, sounds like egg yolk.
He had 277 slaves to maintain the property. They salted their fish and meat to preserve them. The smoke house and kitchen are set away from the main house to prevent fire catastrophe.
Myth: He did not say "I can not tell a lie" after chopping down a cherry tree, although they did have orchards with cherry trees, so that part might be true... apparently biographers made facts up because they didn't know much about his childhood, and it was a good moral for school children.
Myth: His teeth are not wood. We saw his dentures on display--they were made from human teeth and cattle ivory and set in a large uncomfortable metal hinge frame. That is why\ you don't see him smile in pictures and his mouth looks wide.
The education center was amazing. We went through quickly and I jotted down notes to help us remember as much as possible. The movie was moving and enlightening as well--the cold air and micro-bubbles simulated the cold winter of Christmas Day military advance on Trenton. Washington led his troops to a surprise attack on British forces on Christmas 1776, through the cold and over the river, having motivated his soldiers with patriotism and cold hard cash. The film portrayed the British "Red Coats", and helped us understand the moral of American soldiers at this point in battle--like your team losing in the fourth quarter and you are feeling down and have to rally to keep going, only our soldiers didn't know the end was in sight.
Having just been to NY and knowing that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, we connected with the history about French becoming allies and assisting in the pivitol 1781 Yorktown battle where the British finally backed out and surrendered.
When the American Revolutionary War was over in 1783, George Washington surrendered his military position to be a private citizen and return to life at Mount Vernon. When he was elected to the presidency by the Constitutional Congress, it also ensured that the new government would be by the people and not military rule. Constitutional congress— Washington was the only thing the delegates agreed on. Imagine how hard it must have been for people from all different backgrounds and lives to agree upon anything! Washington established secret voting to establish consensus. (This took place at Independence Hall, then named the Pennsylvania statehouse, nor was the gathering called a constitutional convention at the time, because they were not gathering with the intention to start a new government, but to FIX the Articles of Confederation, the laws that gave states power but did not unify them, until they realized they needed to unite into a NEW government and drafted the new Constitution.)
Washington was sworn in to office in 1789. He is the only president to ever be sworn in by unanimous delegate vote. If you go to our blog post for New York, you can see Federal Hall where he was sworn in, the Capitol was at the time.
Chris is squeezing in time for schoolwork wherever he can so this morning Karen took the girls to George Washington's home at Mt. Vernon, and Chris stayed back with the motorhome to study and check out of the campground to meet us at a Walmart parking lot just after noon. The girls packed sandwiches in the cooler in the Jeep so we could eat on the 30 minute drive back to save time.
Mt. Vernon: We learned about both George Washington's home life in the late 1700's and his military career leading up to presidency. The first thing we saw were oxen waking down the dirt path. (I asked the handler for clarification and learned that bull neutered is a steer, and a working steer is an ox.) I made Marissa ask about the wooden harness holding the two oxen together, and he told her in a way to help her remember--it's a yoke, sounds like egg yolk.
He had 277 slaves to maintain the property. They salted their fish and meat to preserve them. The smoke house and kitchen are set away from the main house to prevent fire catastrophe.
Myth: He did not say "I can not tell a lie" after chopping down a cherry tree, although they did have orchards with cherry trees, so that part might be true... apparently biographers made facts up because they didn't know much about his childhood, and it was a good moral for school children.
Myth: His teeth are not wood. We saw his dentures on display--they were made from human teeth and cattle ivory and set in a large uncomfortable metal hinge frame. That is why\ you don't see him smile in pictures and his mouth looks wide.
The education center was amazing. We went through quickly and I jotted down notes to help us remember as much as possible. The movie was moving and enlightening as well--the cold air and micro-bubbles simulated the cold winter of Christmas Day military advance on Trenton. Washington led his troops to a surprise attack on British forces on Christmas 1776, through the cold and over the river, having motivated his soldiers with patriotism and cold hard cash. The film portrayed the British "Red Coats", and helped us understand the moral of American soldiers at this point in battle--like your team losing in the fourth quarter and you are feeling down and have to rally to keep going, only our soldiers didn't know the end was in sight.
Having just been to NY and knowing that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, we connected with the history about French becoming allies and assisting in the pivitol 1781 Yorktown battle where the British finally backed out and surrendered.
When the American Revolutionary War was over in 1783, George Washington surrendered his military position to be a private citizen and return to life at Mount Vernon. When he was elected to the presidency by the Constitutional Congress, it also ensured that the new government would be by the people and not military rule. Constitutional congress— Washington was the only thing the delegates agreed on. Imagine how hard it must have been for people from all different backgrounds and lives to agree upon anything! Washington established secret voting to establish consensus. (This took place at Independence Hall, then named the Pennsylvania statehouse, nor was the gathering called a constitutional convention at the time, because they were not gathering with the intention to start a new government, but to FIX the Articles of Confederation, the laws that gave states power but did not unify them, until they realized they needed to unite into a NEW government and drafted the new Constitution.)
Washington was sworn in to office in 1789. He is the only president to ever be sworn in by unanimous delegate vote. If you go to our blog post for New York, you can see Federal Hall where he was sworn in, the Capitol was at the time.
Mill & Distillery —
We must have had great timing because we got a private tour of the Mount Vernon Mill and Distillery. The mill tour guide did well connecting terms to things kids are familiar with (ex chute —like a slide). We saw how they control the running water for the big water wheel which connects to several gears, that turn the grinding wheel, and then dropped down the chute to the sifter to separate out the course parts from the fine powder. We got to touch a sample of the course and fine flour and corn.
The distillery was actually rebuilt very recently in 1990. It had burned down in the 1800's and when they fixed everything up for the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth celebration, they covered the foundation of the distillery because it didn't seem right to promote alcohol during the prohibition. The girls got to pretend to mix mash and scoop water from the boiler. They would give the leftover mash to the pigs, who were said to walk with their belly hanging on the ground because they loved it so much. Then we saw how they use the running water to cool the alcohol vapor to condensation in the coiled tube inside the barrel. It's totally appropriate to teach my children how to make whiskey, right?
I didn't realize today's post would be such a history lesson. We are learning so much, and the more historical places we go, the more the pieces start to fit together, making the story of our country.
We met up with Chris and headed further south, sitting in slow traffic, thanking God for our safety as we passed a downed motorcycle on the shoulder. We didn't want to make extra stops, so we turned off our propane at the inspection station before going through the tunnel at Hampton Bay, and left it off until we stopped for gas before arrival at Marcy's house. We made sure we pulled in from the south to make a left turn into driveway for max space into narrow driveway, which took us on narrow roads (with virtually no shoulder and a deep drainage culvert on the side), so we are well practiced at carefully driving narrow roads. We arrived around 7pm just barely in time to not disappoint an eager Annabelle who was waiting to see her cousins today.
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