Lindsey DurieWhen planning a trip of this magnitude, some things are going to go your way and some thing are not. Saturday was one of those days that swung in our favor. Originally, I had planned to take the kids by myself to Mount Vernon during the week while Daniel was working but when I went online to buy our tickets, I discovered that Mount Vernon was having a special event on the weekend – Revolutionary War Days! There would be soldiers in uniform, battle reenactments, special shopping opportunities and of course, fun food! We decided this was worth moving our schedule around since we were originally leaving on Saturday.
Lots of other people thought this was a good idea too, judging by the line to enter the estate. Daniel took one for the team and let me and the kids out while he went to find parking (which ended up being about a mile away!). Once we finally got through the ticket line, we went straight to the battlefield where a reenactment was already underway. This was our first war reenactment so I was glad that they had speakers set up and an announcer letting us know what was taking place as well as other interesting Revolutionary War tidbits. We were able to see a good portion of the battle as well as each army march off the field. We had fun encouraging the kids to cheer the militia and Continental Army and boo the redcoats! Only a little though! All of these men and women are truly incredible and dedicated to their craft. Each of them pay for their own uniforms, attend practices, and fund their own travel to these events.
After the battle was over, we strolled through the army camps to meet with the soldiers and learn about the different positions in the camp. We met the medic who showed us all of his tools. The kids even got to use his giant tweezers to try their hand at picking up musket balls.
We met a militia man from South Carolina. He told us how South Carolina and it’s militia are what really bled Cornwallis dry. He also said loyalty was not strong amongst militia men. Men would change sides just to have the opportunity to shoot at a neighbor they were quarreling with!
After the army camps, we strolled over to the Bowling Green to check out the Sutlers. (Sutlers are people who followed an army and sold provisions to the soldiers). We really enjoyed browsing through the 18th century items and it was especially fun to see the toys and shoes children of that time would use. Haddie likes to say she was born in the wrong century! She has talked nonstop about her ideas for dressing like a colonial woman since we left Williamsburg. And speaking of, there were many people who were all decked out in their colonial garb! Some were so detailed that I wasn’t sure at first if they worked at the estate or not!
The shop that really got the kid’s attention (especially Colin’s) was the pottery shop. Erich Steinhagen has been spinning pottery since he was fifteen and his work is truly impressive. He and his wife make items together – he spins and she does the intricate decorating of the traditional redware pottery. He was so kind and patient in allowing our children to help with some spinning and educated all of us on the process and terminology of pottery making. I also picked up a beautiful teapot as an early Mother’s Day present! Check out their work here.
After shopping, we grabbed some lunch from the onsite food truck before heading towards the main house. While we did luck out in securing tickets to Revolutionary War weekend, we were not able to get tickets to tour inside the house. We decided this trade-off was acceptable since you can only tour the first floor anyway and the welcome center has a very good open model of all three floors. The estate does provide complimentary audio tour devices and our kids were so into it. Probably because it seems a lot like having your own phone! Whatever the reason, they happily synced their devices around the property and listened intently to the narrations.
When we were visiting Colonial Williamsburg, the weaver there told us about how the British government banned the export of sheep to the Americas in order to remove any threat to the wool trade in the British Isles. George Washington at one point had about 500 “illegal” sheep!
Before leaving, we stopped by the bakery tent to pick up some cookies for the ride home. I am so glad that this day worked out the way it did. With Daniel still working full time, we know that there are things he is going to miss – and we had planned for him to miss Mount Vernon – but it really was one of those near-perfect days.
