The President Invited us to his House

We thought it would be fun to spend some time at the White House while we were here in Washington, DC. But, since it is now nearly impossible to get tickets to tour the White House, we went to Mount Vernon instead. Hey, a president is a president.

We took a cruise along the Potomac River to get to Mount Vernon. It actually reminded us a lot of taking the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. It was a Seattle sort of day, which was so much nicer than the 90 degree and humid days that we had been having. This is the first view that we had of Mount Vernon. I don't know what I was expecting, but this wasn't it.

They said to wear comfortable shoes for the walk to the mansion. It turned out that it was a quarter mile trek up hill. While comfortable shoes are important, I don't think they're the only thing to get you up the hill. This is probably only cool to a plant lady like me, but this is a espalier apple tree. The trunk was probably a foot in diameter. Did you ever read the book Misty? It was about a chincoteague pony. This is a chincoteague pony. I thought that was pretty exciting. Ok, maybe only to me, but still. Her name was Butterfly. We had a horse when I was growing up named Buttercup and they looked a little alike. Maybe that's why I liked her so much.

George Washington considered himself to be a farmer first. He felt there was a better way to separate the grain from the shaft, so he invented this round barn. The ponies trot around the barn on the shaft and it makes the grain fall through holes in the floor. It's kind of hard to explain, but maybe this video will help a little. Ok, after about 20 minutes, the video didn't load, so that won't be any help.

It was a good day!