NPF ‘09 Gallery NPF ‘09 Itinerary

Read yesterday’s post here.

Day Thirteen: Across Borders, Past the Gum Barrel, and Through Well Duh!

(I love that phrase, it’s so silly!)

So today I took a cruise from DC to Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington (and his tomb actually). The cruise itself isn’t run by the Mount Vernon heritage people, but a cruise liner company and includes the entrance fee to the location. I thought this would be a nice way to ‘finish’ my trip (I have some of tomorrow still to do things, just the morning though), as I love taking boat trips and especially find them calming whilst travelling.

To get there in time - 8.15am - I rushed out and took the train directly to the pier. I would have gotten there early, but for the fact that I stupidly bought the wrong ticket for the train; a daily pass which actually only works after 9.30am. :crazy: What kind of dumbass system is that? So I had to buy another ticket… and was really glad I went to the ATM before heading to the train.

The cruise took about 1.5 hours to get to Mount Vernon, and on the way the captain - or whoever it was - gave a guide to the sights along the way. Many things involved colonial buildings, which were very nice; also navy and army stuff and parks.

Mount Vernon itself is huge, with the main buildings on the top of a hill. There’s lots of parks and gardens, the main house and servants’ quarters, lots of servants work areas and other stuff. I didn’t look at most of it, as I spent most of my time standing in line for the main house tour (worth it, but totally ridiculously long lines: tip, if you go, avoid the school groups as they cause the lines to take as much as 2 or 3 hours long - for a 20 minute tour!).  There’s more pics on Flickr.

The destination wasn’t the point for me today, so I didn’t care as much about wandering around and catching every single exhibition. I really just wanted to find a nice quiet place to sit and read. But actually, when I got there and saw the beautiful view from the main house, and was amazed. It would make a really fantastic home, and anyone these days would spend a good $50 million or more on something similar. In particular, the wooden chairs on the front porch (if there was a zoom function on the photo above you’d see them) made me want to sit there with a fan and read my book until sunset hit.

Well, before long it was time to go back - only three hours there, I’d recommend more as there’s lots to see - and the second half of the cruise was really nice and relaxing. I’m having an early dinner tonight, repacking my suitcases, and then tomorrow I’ll be trying to go to the Air and Space Museum before leaving for the airport. 

So this will be the last you hear from me for a few days: I may leave on the 25th, but I’ll be arriving in Melbourne on the 27th. When I get home I’ll upload the last of the photos from tomorrow if there are any, a festival round-up, and a collation of review ratings.

See you on the other side! … Oh hey, you’re probably wondering about the title of this post: I crossed state borders to get to Mount Vernon (from DC to Virginia and also Maryland I think); there was a ‘gum barrel’ - literally - at Mount Vernon for people chewing gum, before they entered the main house; and the captain on the cruise explained what Titanic was… is there anyone who doesn’t know by now?

Read last diary post here.