"Exactly how do you plan on doing this?" "I was thinking Mount Vernon." "I'm in." - National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
George Washington's Mount Vernon is located roughly seven and a quarter hours from my home in Northwestern Ohio and was our first stop on our trip to Washington DC. Monday, September 3, 2018, around 6am we took off towards Mount Vernon, Virginia to attend our first two tours of the trip and I was overloaded with excitement. While researching stops along the way and fun things for us to do, I decided to see if there were any locations in DC or around that offered specialized tours that focused on my favorite movie franchise. To my utter excitement, Mount Vernon fit that bill. In National Treasure 2, the president's birthday is held at Mount Vernon, and Mount Vernon offers a National Treasure Tour that runs from March through December for only $10 on top of admission prices. We had booked ourselves for a 3 pm National Treasure tour followed by a 4:20pm Mount Vernon tour. After weeks of planning tours, mapping our trip and confirming reservations, it was time to go. When you're as excited for your destination as I was, 7.5 hours can fly by easily, helped along by music sessions and conversation with my grandparents on what our next few days were going to entail.
When you pull into the parking lot at Mount Vernon, it appeared to us as a nice park like area until we began walking further along the sidewalk which lead us to the map of the estate and pointed us towards the visitor center.After crossing past the gated arches, we were greeted with brick walkways which give the estate a definite old world feel. After a few pictures with the statues of George and Martha, we received our "specialty tours" stickers and were guided to the direction of the estate in which we would begin our tour. It was a warm sunny day in Virginia and the grounds are beautiful, so we enjoyed the short walk to our destination. The team at Mount Vernon maintains the grounds and estate extremely well and you can tell the land is lovingly cared for. After passing the gardens, we arrived to the cobble stone drive surrounding the mansion and grabbed some shade to wait for the group to gather and the tour to begin, after a few selfies of course! If you're in the area or visiting, I would highly suggest visiting Mount Vernon. The staff here are incredibly nice and you can spend all day walking around the grounds and touring different areas. Our tour guide lead us around the side of the house until we looked over the Potomac River, from the top of a hill. We were standing where they filmed the president's birthday in National Treasure 2 and I was so incredibly pleased. It was beautiful, enriched with history and had a special place in my heart already because of the franchise. We then went down to the cellar, or basement, where they filmed where Ben "kidnaps" the president. In the movie, there was a story conducted surrounding the cellar and secret tunnels opened by a cornerstone. The original stone structure was removed for safe keeping, but an exact replica of the Lawrence Washington stone is located in the basement and I made sure to snag a few pictures of and with the stone. Unfortunately, we didn't see any secret rooms or passageways, but actually there are quite a few open "rooms" or areas in the cellar that were fascinating to observe and learn about.
Following our specialized tour, we took our 4:20 Mount Vernon tour and in a much smaller group roamed the halls of the 11,028 square foot mansion that the Washington family called home. The mansion itself holds many rooms, 21 to be exact. They even had a library! *sigh* Goals! Fun fact: George Washington inherited the mansion in 1761, a mere 27 years after it was built. There were 3 major expansions documented, bringing the home to what you see now. Besides the mansion itself, our tour took us to the Tomb of the Washington's, the fruit garden and nursery, the Ice house and the ferry. You can easily spend an entire day or two at Mount Vernon and not see everything. Unfortunately for us, the hours of operation are only 9am-5pm during our visit, so we didn't stay near as long as we could have. After a few more photos, we were off towards our hotel in Arlington, VA, a mere half hour from Mount Vernon.
After checking into our hotel and unpacking our belongings, we hailed a Lyft to our final destination of the day: the Lincoln Memorial. A twenty minute drive later, as the sun was setting, we stepped out of the vehicle towards those legendary steps. Washington DC's National Mall was breathtaking in the dusk, the Reflecting pool cast the image of the Washington Monument and just past the monument, the World War II memorial. Surrounded by all walks of life, I was moved more than I can reflect on. The utter history and livelihood surrounding the Memorials was astounding and could not be ignored. You can't help but try to take in every bit of each new area you come across. If I lived in DC, I would probably visit the mall every evening. Although filled to the brim with tourists and locals alike, it was a tranquil place to go, and one we would visit more than once on our trip. After taking in the Lincoln Memorial, and snapping some photos with Lincoln and the "National Treasure shots", we walked along the reflecting pool to get some photos of the World War II memorial, and then quickly stopped by the White House before catching a ride back to the hotel to prepare for day 2 in DC.
"Before the Civil War, the states were all separate. People used to say, "The United States are." are. Wasn't until the war ended people started saying, "The United States is." Under Lincoln.... we became one nation. And Lincoln paid for it with his life. So did Thomas Gates."- National Treasure : Book of Secrets
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