For All To See

      After departing Washington, DC, our plans were to return to Mt. Vernon and take the tour of George Washington's estate.  Once again we anchored in front of Mt. Vernon, directly in front of the home.  We then lowered the dinghy from the top deck so that we could get an early start the next morning.  Our research on the internet reported the estate was open at 8 a.m. for tours.  The next morning we took the dinghy to the Mt. Vernon docks only to find that the estate did not open till 9 a.m.  We decided to go exploring on a nearby creek, Little Hunting Creek, which was a nice way to kill some time.  Finally, at 9 a.m. we returned to the docks to start our tour.  Mt. Vernon estate (grounds) has dramatically changed since my visit there many years ago.  We toured the home which has not changed in many years and for reasons unknown to me they do not allow you to take photos of the interior, I should have asked why.  We were very disappointed with the outbuildings as the ones we did visit were reconstructed buildings.  We were impressed with the new visitor's center that was built recently and includes a museum and an educational center, both are highly recommended.  The visitor's center is away from George's house and is very well hidden from the home and surroundings, separating the old from the new.  After returning to the boat we discovered that we did not take many pictures, due to all the photo restrictions, but we did get a photo of Big Run anchored in front of George's house for all to see

View of the Potomac River (and Big Run) from the porch of Mt Vernon.