The Secret Mount Vernon

My parents have been here on a visit to see Pumpkin Girl’s ballet recital. Yesterday they suggested we go to Mount Vernon on their last day here. Our family really enjoys Mount Vernon, so of course we were happy to go. As luck would have it, another internet friend – Trish, who lives in Honduras – was also going to be there the same day, so I was hoping to meet up with her and one of my 7 Friends Named Jen there. She had mentioned that the basement area of Mount Vernon was also open and she thought she’d like to see it, too.

We arrived around 9:15 am and asked about the basement tour. Earlier in the year, a short tour of the basement was added to the regular tour of the mansion in response to the interest generated by “National Treasure 2.” We didn’t get a chance to get out there then which I thought was a bummer after we finally saw the movie just last week. What I didn’t know was that the basement was open again.

This time however, it’s not just tagged on to the end of the mansion tour. The “National Treasure Tour” as it’s now called is $5 a person, with a limit of 25 people in each group. It runs about 4 times a day.

The tour starts on the lawn behind the mansion where the presidential birthday party is held during the movie. The tour guide explained how the movie was filmed without damaging the historical property and without detracting from the authenticity with the movie making gear.

Then we moved into the basement through this locked door.

We saw the alcoves and a replica of the cornerstone that were depicted in the movie.

We were also able to see the area that was used as a kitchen and eating area for the white servants.

Then we moved to the ice house that can be seen in the movie when the Nicolas Cage character climbs up from the river. The ice house and its chute that leads to the Potomac River are the inspiration for the underground tunnel in the movie.

From the ice house we went down to the dock. We crossed a “No Visitors Beyond This Point” sign (ha!) and walked along the river. We saw where the ice house chute came out and George Washington’s dairy. Then we caught a great view of the mansion from below.

As a special non-related-to-the-movie treat, our guide showed us this 1936 Ford Fire Engine stored in a whiskey storage cave. Apparently, Henry Ford didn’t think Mount Vernon had enough fire engines in case of an emergency and donated this brand new fire truck.

The “National Treasure Tour” is running until October 31, 2008. If you have a chance to get there I highly recommend it! But see the movie before you go. The tour is about an hour and a half long. My 7 and 9 year olds both enjoyed it, but they are also really into history, especially the American Revolution. So much so that they took it upon themselves to memorize the whole paragraph of Thomas Paine’s letter about “these are the times that try men’s souls.” Our 2 year old wasn’t too into it. He was actually being kind of a pain. Not distracting to the others on the tour, just hard to manage. We had a stroller for him, but for about half of the tour, we couldn’t use. Thankfully it is light weight and has a strap to carry it over a shoulder. He would have been better in a backpack. The tour did not backtrack at all, so leaving the stroller somewhere was not a real option. Just something to note.

Also, it gets very hot and humid in DC during the summer. Bring lots of water, wear sunscreen and hats. A shuttle is available at the dock where the tour ends that returns you to the education center if you’ve had enough walking. We took the first tour of the day, then had an early lunch at the restaurant. After lunch we finished with the rest of our sightseeing.

Oh, I totally forgot to mention…we didn’t manage to meet up with my friend Trish as planned. We did find her and Jen right as they were leaving. Here’s a picture, just to prove that we were all there. Love the Giant Washington Head. Trish’s daughter got a great picture looking up his nose. Maybe she’ll put it on her blog.