5/12/18: I woke up at 5:00am to the combined sound of 5 dozen bass boats, all running and ready to go! Sure enough, at 6:00, they started scooting past us like they each had a license to fly. I have always thought it funny that a bass boat needs to be able to go 80 mph so that it can zoom to it’s favorite spot, then putt along with an electric motor at 1/4 mph, then zoom 80 mph to the next spot, and repeat. But when there is a tournament involved, it makes sense – get there, get the fish, get back for the WIN!
We pulled up anchor and headed out of our beautiful anchor spot, although not nearly as quickly as we expected. It sure is a good thing that Plumber Kenny made the wiener dog hose work as an anchor wash down. Oh my grubby goodness the anchor chain was caked with mud! It took anchor goddess Karen about 15 minutes to bring up the anchor…about 4 feet at a time, while spraying a steady stream of water on it. What a mucky mess! But the anchor held great, and the wash down worked great too!
We headed on up the Potomac river. There was just a bit of a southerly breeze, which was following us, so it was a nice pleasant morning on smooth water. We had only about 2 hours to go to get the Mount Vernon. This is Washington’s Mount Vernon (home of our first President) – not Mt. Vernon, Washington (a town in the Skagit Valley of Washington State). The Mount Vernon wharf opens at 9:00, and that is when we planned to be there.
Along the way, we saw some pretty impressive homes! WOW! This one is NOT Washington’s home.
We got to Mount Vernon right at 9:00. Navigator Karen had read that private boats could dock on the upriver side of the pier, or could anchor out nearby and dinghy in. Captain tried several times to reach the wharf master. He finally responded when we were almost to the dock, and he said we could not tie up there because there was a barge docked in that spot. So we quick turned starboard and found a place to anchor. Then we plopped Stuart in the water and went to shore. This took us a little longer than we planned, but it worked out ok. There were LOTS of people. And for a Saturday, there were groups and groups and GROUPS of middle school and high school aged kids. Usually, visitors come from the parking lot through the visitors center, or they come on a passenger ferry at the wharf, and have tickets to tour the mansion when they get onto the property. We had nothing. We walked around a bit and finally asked someone where to get a ticket. It took awhile, but we finally found the visitors center and paid our way. It really is an honor system coming in by private boat to go find someone to give your money to! It wasn’t easy! I was surprised to learn that George did not have any children of his own. Martha was a widow with two young children (son & daughter) which he adopted.
The mansion is cool. It was originally just the middle section, and one story tall when George Washington’s father built it. The door and two windows on each side of the door were the original home. George added a second story, then added the wing on the right, then finally the wing on the left. I was just amazed that they added a second story to an existing house – back in the mid 1700’s! This expansive “bolling green” was very unusual in the 1700’s. Lawns were expensive to plant and required a lot of labor to maintain.
The house is actually built of wood, which had been carefully treated to look like stone. The pine boards were cut and beveled to resemble stone. Paint was applied, then sand was thrown on the wet surface to create a stone-like texture. It looked more expensive than wood and the treatment protected the wood.
I found this one spot where the wood shows through the stone looking mask.
This is a picture of the New Room that I’m sharing from the brochure. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. It is the entire north wing – the last addition made. One of it’s grandest statements was the windows. Most homes did not have large windows because they were so expensive. Large windows were generally only found in churches.
This is looking at the home from the river side. The building on the left was the kitchen. It was accessed by this covered walkway to the main house.
This was the outside breezeway to the kitchen.
The home is set on quite a hill above the river, hence the Mount Vernon name. George Washington actually owned 8000 acres here. Here is a view of the Potomac River from the front porch.
Look! There is a nice looking Bayliner at anchor out there on the Potomac!
George was an avid lover of plants, gardens, and forests. There are huge gardens on the grounds around the home that showcase his talent has a landscape designer, and they are beautifully cared for today. There are flowers mixed with vegetables, along with ornate shrubs.
There are some trees on the property that were planted by George! This is a Tulip Poplar, planted in 1785. (I don’t know how they know that.) It was way big, and there were others around the estate that were way big too!
We hopped onto a shuttle that took us 3 miles away to Washington’s Gristmill and Distillery! Yes, really! These are fully functioning reconstructed buildings that use 1700’s technology to produce corn meal and whiskey! I really enjoyed this. They first explained the water flow, canals, and flumes constructed to facilitate the grain grinding. This grinding wheel shows how the stones are scored.
Water powered the Grist Mill and the Distillery. The water was directed by these gates that could be lifted. Water flowed into the gristmill to power the water wheel, which turned the gears, which turned the grinding stones, which ground the grain. I LOVE IT! Apparently I am just a manufacturing equipment geek from all of my years working for Weyerhaeuser Company. This fascinated me.
This is the upper floor, where the grain flows into the grinding wheels. There are two stones that spin to grind the grain. The texture – fine to course – could be adjusted. The grinder person (I don’t know what he was called) could tell by smell (keeping his nose to the grindstone) if the grain was being ground too fine because if it was, it would smell just a little bit burnt.
I love the huge gear wheels made of wood. The gentleman explaining the process to us said that the gears are currently lubricated with beeswax. Back in the day, they were lubricated with animal fat – which can be quite distasteful to smell all day long. The picture is kind of warped from doing a panoramic picture so close – but it shows the water paddle wheel on the right which would start turning as soon as the water dike was opened to let the water in. A big shaft comes through the wall to the big gears on the left which attached to a shaft to turn the grinding stones. The grinding stones are actually on the floor above, And the grain comes out a wooden chute to the far left. They actually grind grain and sell the corn meal here!
Next we walked down to the distillery. This is craft distilling if I’ve ever seen it! Notice the piles of wood outside the building. Apparently George built the grist mill, and after some time, someone suggested that he had all the makings for a distillery. This was after he had served as President, and he wasn’t looking for any new ventures to get involved in. However, they gave it a shot, and it was quite successful!
There are five wood fired distilling pots inside! We have seen bourbon distilleries in Kentucky, but this is so old school cool! They feed wood to the fires and the copper pots are built into the brick. Somehow they get the fire temperature just right to boil the liquor steam off! The steam goes through a ‘worm’ to cool and condense into a liquid liquor, and is captured in another barrel.
This is what the pot inside the bricks look like. And the curly worm thing is what the liquor steam goes down through. The worm sits inside of a barrel which has cold stream water running into it to cool and condense the steam into liquid. Cool, huh? They actually still make rye whiskey here, using this method. It is pretty expensive, and can only be purchased from the gift shop here or at Mount Vernon. Captain bought a little souvenir bottle to try, but hasn’t opened it yet.
Our time was up. There was still a chance for some gusty wind today – in fact, there was a small craft advisory for 2-6pm. So we headed back to Mount Vernon and down to the boat. And then we discovered that we had to get Stuart out of the ROCKS! 😬 The river actually has up to a 2 foot tidal change here, and it went out! The prop got a little beat up on the rocks – hopefully just the paint. Back out to Island Girl, and on our way! It was hard to capture it all in a picture as we drove away. The house on the hill has a large white tent on the lawn – they were preparing for an annual wine festival. The big ferry boat on the left is where the wharf was. There were ferry boats coming and going from Washington DC all day long. It was a huge estate and there was so much more that we didn’t take time to see, but I’m glad we stopped!
As we went up the river, we saw Fort Washington on the Maryland side of the river. It was quite impressive – very large!
We went past Alexandria. This was the waterfront and marina that looks kind of fun.
This was the city view of Alexandria. It is a much larger city than I expected.
And then we saw this guy. He was like watching an aerial water jet ballet! He was really good!
We arrived at Capital Yacht Club on the Wharf in Washington DC around 3:30. Their dockhand was ready for us and was such a nice young man! The Yacht Club only has a few transient spaces available, so I am glad I made reservations last week! What a nice place! We are able to use all of the club facilities, and everyone here is so friendly. They all know each other, so they know that we don’t “belong”, but they are all very welcoming. We walked several blocks to Safeway to pick up a few things. I thought we were going to melt into a puddle of sweat. We didn’t notice the heat today until we got off the boat and out of the breeze. It was in the mid 90’s here today. WHAT?! We came back to the boat and just hung out in the A/C and tried to cool down. WOW! Saturday night brought out all the beautiful people to the wharf and this place was hopping! The wharf has recently been rejuvenated and is a very happening place to be! Lot of restaurants and outdoor spaces. I’ll try to capture some of it while we’re here, but it’s hard to get the vibe into a blog. I wonder if it is always this energized, or if it’s because its 90 degrees and Saturday night. The waterway here has been non stop with water taxis and dinner cruises and ferries. At least we’re in a no wake zone that is strictly enforced.