{"id":3703,"date":"2015-06-14T09:43:52","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T16:43:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/?p=3703"},"modified":"2015-06-14T12:44:26","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T19:44:26","slug":"a-fresh-look-at-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/travel\/a-fresh-look-at-george\/","title":{"rendered":"A FRESH LOOK AT GEORGE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

lego & salad–The chicken is coming.<\/p><\/div>\n

Father of Our Country<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I was introduced to George Washington when I was a child. So it seems I’ve had a lifetime of knowing him. Come to think of it, though, my knowledge of our first president has always been pretty shallow. A few weeks ago I had a chance to learn a little more about him.<\/p>\n

My youngest daughter and her family live in a Washington, D.C. suburb, an area with so much to do that it’s hard to choose. On my recent trip we had high tea at the Strathmore historic mansion<\/a>, watched a children’s play about Sinbad the Sailor, and ate at a Mexican restaurant that made guacamole fresh at our table. Yum!<\/p>\n

But back to George.<\/p>\n

\"boat\"<\/a>We rode up the Potomac River on the Miss Christin <\/a>to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon. Did you know that Washington surveyed the Potomac? It was a useful task since parts of the river are shallow and wide with a channel running somewhere down the middle. (You have to know where it is.) His surveying work was used to choose a location for Fort Washington (formerly Fort Warburton)where the channel was near the shore.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>This is the back side of Mount Vernon. The house is on a hill with a beautiful view of the Potomac. I was surprised at how many sitting rooms and bedrooms there were for guests and also for their slaves.<\/p>\n

\"M<\/a>The siding used in Mount Vernon was (and is) wood made to look like stone. They call it “rustication<\/a>.” They bevel the wood at regular intervals to simulate stone blocks, and apply sand to the surface to imitate the rough texture of stone.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>

Mount Vernon garden<\/p><\/div>\n

The gardens at Mount Vernon were beautiful. Washington was a serious farmer who experimented with new crops, fertilizers, crop rotation, tools, and livestock breeding.<\/p>\n

\"garden<\/a>

garden at Mount Vernon<\/p><\/div>\n

Mount Vernon also had a flour mill, a commercial fishing operation, and a distillery.<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>

Mount Vernon garden<\/p><\/div>\n

Nearly half of George and Martha’s 316 slaves were too young or too old to work. The rest worked in the fields, as house servants, and in such crafts as spinning, weaving, blacksmithing, cooking and bricklaying. Washington was the only slaveholder among the founding fathers to free his slaves. Although he thought the nation was too young and fragile at the time to have a fight about slavery, he wanted to set an example for the others.<\/p>\n

\"construction<\/a>

construction cranes at MGM National Harbor<\/p><\/div>\n

My daughter (the engineer) was snapping lots of photos when our boat sailed past the construction sight for this huge new casino resort.<\/p>\n

\"Capital<\/a>

Capital Wheel<\/p><\/div>\n

We also sailed past this new ferris wheel. It’s big, but I don’t think it’s quite as big as the Big Wheel in Seattle.<\/p>\n

For more on George Washington and Mount Vernon, see this site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Next week: a brief trip to Annapolis, MD.<\/p>\n

\"my<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father of Our Country I was introduced to George Washington when I was a child. So it seems I’ve had a lifetime of knowing him. Come to think of it, though, my knowledge of our first president has always been pretty shallow. A few weeks ago I had a chance to learn a little more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[253],"tags":[822,823,820,815,821,818,817,819,816],"class_list":["post-3703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-capital-wheel","tag-construction-of-mgm-national-harbor","tag-gardens-at-george-washingtons-mount-vernon","tag-george-washington-father-of-our-country","tag-george-washington-freed-his-slaves","tag-mount-vernon-md","tag-potomac-river-cruise-to-mount-vernon","tag-rustication","tag-strathmore-historic-mansion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3Kn1e-XJ","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3725,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/family\/visiting-annapolis\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":0},"title":"VISITING ANNAPOLIS.","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Although I really would love to have my children and grandchildren live just around the corner, there are benefits to having them live in a distant city, chief among them: I have an excuse to travel and see new sights. My youngest daughter and her family live in Maryland, 2741\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "family"","block_context":{"text":"family","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/family\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Annapolis main street","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Annapolis-main-street-e1434075698403.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10169,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/cascadia-art-museum-thoughts-images\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":1},"title":"Cascadia Art Museum, Thoughts & Images","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"April 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago I visited The Cascadia Art Museum. See An Artist Date. 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I won't know for sure for a while, though. I'm only on page 172 as of this writing,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Gul-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Gul-5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Gul-5.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4179,"url":"https:\/\/nickichenwrites.com\/wordpress\/writing\/an-authoritative-voice\/","url_meta":{"origin":3703,"position":3},"title":"An Authoritative Voice","author":"Nicki Chen","date":"October 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0If not for George and his authoritative voice, I might be a teacher of ESL (English as a Second Language) today instead of a writer. 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