With my departure date being only a little more than a month away, it would be a while before I’d see my family again. Thankfully, my parents took the opportunity to visit me in D.C. before my departure. While I was in training they made the most of the opportunities available to them to explore the city, visit the museums, see the monuments, and do whatever else came to mind.
When the weekend rolled around, I finally had the opportunity to tag along, and we had a few places that were a bit out of the way that we wanted to visit. Among them were Mt. Vernon and Monticello.
Mt. Vernon is George Washington’s family home and plantation, which is located on the West side of the Potomac River, South of Washington D.C. by about 20 miles. The site is well-preserved, with tours going through the house and examining its contents, while the greater plantation has a number of other buildings with exhibits and actors all playing their part in the recreation.
Nearby is he tomb of George & Martha Washington, pastures, orchards, and generally well-kept grounds for visitors to enjoy. Of course, a site like this also has the prerequisite visitor center and extensive gift shop to separate people from their hard-earned cash. Given that it’s also a site that many distinguished guests pay visits to, everything is well-kept and constant restoration efforts are made to support the flow of visitors.
Personally, I found it interesting to be provided with insight to the more personal life of the first President of the U.S., though it was equally fascinating to learn just how few comforts they really enjoyed – despite being as wealthy as they were. Of course, their servants enjoyed significantly less comforts, and I found it difficult to envision the lives they must have lived.
On another weekend day, we went to Monticello, which was quite a bit further of a drive, being about two hours and change from D.C. proper. Monticello wasn’t our first stop when we arrived in the area though. Instead, we stopped by Michie’s Tavern, which is one of the oldest eating establishments in the states.
The tavern is pretty unassuming from the exterior. It looks old, but not outwardly remarkable. Upon entering the tavern, the bare-bones and no-frills experience is evident, but it produces an atompshere which is unlike many of the other eateries one is likely to visit – it really drills down to the point that this isn’t so much a place for a meal, but rather an experience to be had.
We had arrived shortly after they opened, so the tables had not filled up yet, and we were quickly ushered through buffet style feast with such courses as fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, roasted tomato soup, another vegetable soup, and other assorted roasted vegetables. We filled our metal plates and cups with the entrees available to us and found a cozy table (they were all cozy!) to sit down and enjoy our meal. I selected a brown ale to wash it down with.
The food itself was stunning – I think I can easily say that this was the best fried chicken I’ve ever had, and the biscuits were also top-notch. Everything else was various degrees of good, but those two were absolutely fantastic – easily worth the drive for a return trip at some point. When waitresses in period garb came around asking if we’d like anything else, it was easy to decide what to have seconds of. Before we had finished our meal the place had completely filled up. Apparently the trick is to get there early and then go to Monticello, otherwise if you try to do it after visiting Monticello, you’ll be lucky if you can get a foot in the door.
After our excellent meal we walked around the grounds, visited the general store and gift shop, finding all sorts of interesting (though pricey) items that tempted us. I did cave in for some Cheerwine, which I’ve had only a few times before – I guess it’s a big thing in North Carolina, and tastes like Dr. Pepper mixed with vanilla cream soda. I haven’t had any for at least 15 years, so I picked up a few for old times’ sake.
Onward to Monicello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States and principal author of the Declaration of Independence. His home was located on the top of a large hill (some may call it a mountain, but this offends my West coast definition of mountains), and has a leisurely walk to the top, which passes by the cemetery where he is buried, along with many other relatives and distinguished partners. Closer to the top, the grandeur of the manor is evident – being far more exquisite than Washington’s Mt. Vernon home.
There are plenty of outbuildings with all the various functionalities necessary to support the small community which lived here. Again, the life that they must have lived would have been very no-frills, with a lot in the way of hard labor, long hours, and little comforts. All of this is well-documented by the exhibits on-site, and one can spend many hours going around to get a feel for it all. I found myself wondering just how beautiful the grounds and the view from the hilltop would look in the summer.
We were provided with a guided tour for the interior of the house, which showed off more of Jefferson’s personality, and he seemed to dabble in all manner of activities – clearly a very talented and multifaceted individual, from the inventions he had, to the architecture he designed, along with the myriad of in-betweens. Lavish might be an appropriate word for it – and it was quite a treat to see the lower level of the house. If one chooses to upgrade their tour, they can be guided to the upper levels, where many of the distinguished guests stayed.
The tour was short and sweet, but quite remarkable. There was definitely enough to see there to keep one interested and wondering, though it felt like there was not enough time to see it all (which seems like is frequently the case). After the tour, we could explore at our leisure on the grounds, the basement, and outbuildings. Sometimes other tours covering other topics and areas of the manor and surrounding grounds were available. We largely ended up exploring on our own, and the experience was quite enjoyable.
I’d recommend all of these sites to anyone who is interested, though I think if I had to choose one or the other, I’d put Monticello at the top of my list – and I promise that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Michie’s Tavern is just around the corner…
