Spring Break in DC - President's homes and Zoo

On our way to the airport Friday afternoon I had Emily check our boarding passes for some piece of info and she noticed that the flight status said, "canceled".  I called Greg and continued driving to the airport.  After a lot of confusing texts, emails, waiting in line and chatting with an airline agent, we returned home for a several hours wait until our 11:30pm red eye to Atlanta.  But we made the most of the hours.  Emily did her online homework so we didn't need to bring a computer with us and then both girls did a much needed deep clean of their rooms.  It was a bit of a bummer but I was trilled to see their carpet again.  

The red eye left us without much sleep so we enjoyed our three hour layover in Atlanta sleeping laying down on the floor and benches.  We arrived in DC around 10 and quickly made our way to Montpelier, Madison's home.  We had sadly missed our 10:00am appointment to tour his home and only had 30 minutes to explore the grounds, but it was worth the stop.  

The grounds were beautiful, especially this Japanese Cherry tree in full bloom.

We drove on to Monticello, Jefferson's home.

We loved all the fascinating inventions and preferences that Jefferson built into his home.  Like the clock that showed time and day of the week.

Many natural history relics.

numerous skylights, and a lovely personal library.

His bed that could open into his bedroom or his office is most unique and quite short for such a tall man.  But since he slept sleeping sitting up I guess it worked out okay.

Each room had a built in area for the bed which wasn't a hit for all of his guests - many felt trapped.

He disliked large staircases for the waste of space but these little things are taking small a bit too far.  How did his house help make it up and down carrying laundry?

His daughter didn't love the bed alcoves and enjoyed this special bed in the style of the ones she was used to in France.  She used the built in alcove as a closet.

The dome was my favorite room so open, light, and spacious, and like much of the house filled with lady bugs 😂.

This area off the dome must have been a lovely hiding place for the kids to get away from all the adults in the house.

The beautiful grounds kept us busy for a while and we found more cherry blossoms.

We ended our day at the 1784 Michie Tavern just down the road where we enjoyed authentic southern food.

We forgot to take a picture of the delicious fried chicken, hush puppies, and potato wedges but we did capture this pickled egg that would have been served back when the tavern opened (we didn't love it).

Stuffed and sick from all the fried food we drove the two hours back to DC through some beautiful country.  We fell asleep rather quickly that night grateful to sleep in an actual bed.

Sunday morning we caught a sacrament meeting in Alexandra then headed to Mount Vernon, Washington's home.  We had been there back in 2018 so they tried to recreate a picture from that day.  This was a repeat visit for all of us but we still learned a lot and enjoyed the grounds.

Our favorite new kid bits of info were about the exterior of the house but unfortunately it was under renovation so you can't really see it.  

We learned that it is made of wood but carved to look like stone bricks.  Then they painted the wood and threw sand on the wet paint giving it the look and feel of stones.  For years they historians used sand from the Potomac which made the house look white, but recently they discovered that originally sand from a quarry was used and that sand looks more beige - that is the sand used today.

We also learned that as Washington added onto the original house he inherited he struggled to keep things symmetrical due to a large staircase inside the house.  There are also several strange gaps between windows that make symmetry difficult to achieve so he offset the pediment and cupola to create a feel of symmetry but if you look closely it is all very wonky.

In this picture we were trying to recreate a photo from 2018 - they are much bigger now!

This wall color is authentic - pretty cool right?  It was also a two story room with fake windows on the outside to keep symmetry but no second story windows inside at all.

Dinning room with an amazing ceiling and another cool wall color.

This is the sitting room where guests would wait to see Washington.

Many people stop by his home to meet the President and very often they were invited to stay.  His guest rooms were busy with guests.

This is his room and the bed where he died.

This shows a bit of the wood siding process.

Great view out of his back windows.

We enjoyed exploring the vast grounds before we found some lunch and headed to the zoo.

The girls loved every minute at the National Zoo.

Orangutans

Sand Cats

Panda's were one of the highlights

As was the must see Pallas Cats that were glaring at us - Lily has wanted to see one of these for years.

We stayed until the zoo closed - enjoying the last moments with all the critters before making our way back to the hotel to find dinner and give our feet a rest.