Authors Note: I had prepared the below post about our trip
to Virginia this past weekend when we felt the Richmond, VA.
earthquake tremor all the way up here in NY this afternoon!
Sitting at my desk at work at 1:50 pm this afternoon I thought for
a moment that my vertigo had returned, but it turns out that it
was the earth shaking, not my inner ear!
As soon as I got over my naive, northeasterner's shock,
I immediately tried to contact my friend in VA, whom
we had just left only 48 hours earlier, to make sure she and
her family were okay. No answer at her office.
It took my other friend to intercept the text message
that confirmed that all were well in spite of the scare.
They are fine, just shaken up and wondering how the heck
the California earthquakes they had left behind over a year
ago had followed them back here to the east coast!
¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨°º♥º°¨¨¨¨
In my last post I mentioned that my son and I would be
joining
his godmother and her daughter on a road trip to Virginia to stay
with
our childhood friend and her family.
It was great seeing them for an extended period of time
because
they had lived in CA for eight years and we did not see them often
at
all. Now that they are back on the east coast (where all NYers
belong,) we had
the opportunity to catch up and reminisce over
our girlhood memories.
When we three actually manage to get together it always feels
like we were
never separated, picking up where we last left off.
That is how it should be
between life-long friends.
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| View of Washington's Home on the Potomac |
I was quite happy that we were able to make a day trip to
Mount
Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington. The three of
us have always
loved history and wanted to bring the kids
somewhere educational, as well as
fun.
 |
| Mount Vernon |
I must say that it was extremely hot, though. We were only
too
glad that there were several air-conditioned buildings to
escape from the
heat when necessary.
 |
| Mt. Vernon's Kitchen |
The Washington’s mansion was smaller than I had expected,
but beautiful. I took many photos of the outbuildings (no photos
of the
mansion’s interior was permitted.) I loved learning how
they cooked, cleaned
and entertained themselves.
The views from the back veranda were breathtaking.
 |
| Back Veranda of Mt. Vernon Overlooking the Potomac |
George and Martha had a wonderful marriage,
enduring so
much to make this country what it is today.
All Americans owe these two the greatest amount of gratitude
for what they sacrificed. George could have been a king, but
chose to step
aside. Not many men in power would have
done that.
 |
| George and Martha Washington |
I am now inspired to paint a
portrait of George and Martha in
their early years, when their life together
was filled with endless
possibility, before they were separated by war and
duty.
More on that later.
