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Today’s Mount Vernon is very beautiful, is well preserved, and has many newly reconstructed buildings like the 16-sided threshing barn. This building was designed by Washington to make the threshing of grain more efficient. It wound up being practically circular, so it was very odd for that era. I did not get any good photos of it so:

Left is the model, right is an old photo of the original.

Animals would walk on the stalks of grain and then the kernels would fall through the slatted floor to the lower level, where it was collected. The surplus of grain allowed him to make money from the production of flour and whisky (more about that later).


Left: Da-aaad! Did we have to come all the way to Mount Vernon to see COWS?
Right: If you get to feeling tired out, they have a shuttle bus from the agriculture area back to the museum.

Before continuing, we went to the food court which had some basic choices, but about like selections you would find at a mall. How does Karen (aka mattnkattsmom) put it – scrummy? A combination of scrumptious and yummy? Well, here it was just crummy. We did not have the time or the $$ to eat at the real restaurant here – the Mount Vernon Inn, so youse takes what youse can gets.


Left: This is food? Right: David comments on the often imitated - never duplicated Mrs. Fields Cookies

We then went back over to the Ford Orientation Center and watched the orientation film that was introduced by Pat Sajack. The film about Washington’s life was very exciting and we enjoyed seeing that some of the action used locations in Williamsburg, VA, where we have visited many times in the past.


This is the family in front of the stained glass. Of course, my DW was in the gift shop right then (sigh). Incredibly, I managed to get them all to smile at the same time.


We then went to the mansion (yes, we are going in circles) and were pleased to find that even though the queue was much longer than it was earlier, it moved quickly because all the visitors have to keep moving through. One thing they enforce is no photographs inside the mansion. Imagine what would happen if everyone stopped to get a picture of everything? Their shops have books with very good photos anyway. Well, we went through the mansion and it was very well furnished, like some homes in Williamsburg and also like Liberty Hall in Philadelphia.
After being rushed through the mansion, we walked back to the museum building again. They have the BEST museum on GW anywhere. There are several cinemas and a kids interactive area and many other displays. The detail and quality is astounding. I did not get any photos of it as my party was in a hurry to get to the main gift shop because they were making up for lost time.
Shortly, we packed up and drove over to the gristmill and distillery which is about 3 miles away on Dogue Creek.

Next up -- the lowdown on rot-gut!