President's Day

Despite Wes's warnings of big crowds and crazy traffic, the boys and I visited Mount Vernon this morning. It was free today to all visitors and several events took place in honor of Washington's birthday. We arrived in time to see the wreath laying ceremony at his grave. The honor guard lined the path to the tomb wearing 18th century war uniforms. The boys loved the costumes. We arrived at the green space in time to see the troop demonstrations and hear the musicians perform. The soldiers fired blanks from their guns and modeled different troop formations. Evan was mesmorized. We left the huge crowd early and headed to the education center to find empty seats in the Revolutionary War movie theatre. It is impressive with the seats rattling with each cannon shot, the fog rising, and the snow falling. From here we toured the rest of the museum and discussed Washington's contributions to America. Even though we had been two or three times before, Keagan didn't remember much of it. As we were pulling out of the parking lot, I must admit that I couldn't believe how easy the trip was. We left as hundreds of cars were trying to find places to park. We avoided the crowds and really enjoyed ourselves. I highly recommend this to any family looking for an outing.