Mount Vernon and Arlington

Our first stop on our trip was Mount Vernon. This house and surrounding museums could take all day to visit and ended up being one of the kids' favorite places. I loved seeing Washington's home; he considered himself a farmer first and foremost and used many innovative farming practices for his time. It was also interesting to see how revered he was among his contemporaries. His accomplishments were recognized even in his day. No pictures were allowed inside the home, but green was Washington's favorite color and the family dining room had bright green walls. Green was also an expensive color and indicated the wealth of the homeowner. Other walls were painted blue, another expensive color.

Appropriately, we were there visiting the home of the father of our country on Father's Day. An actor portrayed Washington and did a great job of telling his story.
I was in the gift shop looking at this year's Christmas ornament for Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon creates a new ornament every year, and since our family adds one new ornament to celebrate each year this seemed serendipitous. I noticed that this year's Mount Vernon ornament had the Arnold Friberg painting, "Prayer at Valley Forge" on the back. The little explanation with the ornament said that the original is at Mount Vernon. We had passed a painting that we all thought was a copy. It was under glass, but other than that there was no indication that the painting was special.We ran back into the museum to get a picture.

The curator said "We get a lot of Salt Lake Mormons that go crazy over the painting." I told him I would be one of those. For a painting that's supposedly worth millions you'd think they'd make a bigger deal out of it.

Because we spent so much time at Mount Vernon we were left with little time to see Arlington National Cemetery. We had enough time for a quick bus tour and to see the changing of the guard which was very precise and impressive. We are so grateful for our armed forces.