Day 11 was our 2nd day of exploring the homes of our past presidents. We know that there were many options to choose from, but in the end, we decided on George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. We picked Mount Vernon because we had recently studied George Washington and his role in the French-Indian War and in the Revolution. And when my husband was a boy, he vacationed down in Virginia with his family, and the two places he loved the most were Williamsburg and Monticello, so they also made there way on our must do list.
When you arrive in the parking lot for Monticello, you buy your ticket and then wait for the shuttle to bring you up the hill to Thomas Jefferson's home. We opted not to bring our stroller with us, because while there were areas that were accessible for strollers and wheelchairs, the loading and unloading it onto the shuttle, and knowing that most of the area was rough, we decided to skip the stroller. I think it was a good call on our part. It would have been a bother trying to push the stroller through many of the areas.
Now, I know George Washington went on and on about the views from his house, but I'm sorry - Thomas Jefferson has got him beat. The area was flat out gorgeous.
Near the orchard
It looks like one big hill in the picture, but it's not. It was like a giant staircase garden. Pretty neat!
Staircase gardening!
Ken carried a sleeping Felix on the guided tour of the gardens, while I stayed with the other children. They wanted to explore the gardens on their own. They were much more interested in the birds that were roosting in the trees, butterflies that were going from flower to flower and bugs that were crawling around the garden plants than in a historical tour of the garden.
After Ken finished the tour, he took me and the children around and shared what he had learned.
The chimney from one of the original buildings.
After spending time in the gardens, we headed over to the main house because it was time for the tour.
After having failed attempts at home tours in Shirley and Mount Vernon, I decided to sit this one out with Felix. We had just finished up learning about Lewis and Clark, so I thought for sure that the children would want to go inside on the tour and see all the things that they brought back, which we knew were on display inside. Ainsley and Ephraim decided to "play in Thomas Jefferson's backyard." Nathaniel was REALLY torn on what he wanted to do. He finally decided that he would stay with me, and then proceeded to lament that decision the entire time. He was able to join his Papa towards the end of the tour when they made an appearance outside.
Once Ken and Nathaniel had come back from their tour, we walked the path and looked at the flowers blooming everywhere. The kids found a little pond filled with tadpoles. They were amazed. It was their first time seeing a tadpole in real life.
Discovering Tadpoles
I can't exactly remember the original purpose of the next area that we toured, but it was a basement of sorts. It now houses many hands on examples of Thomas Jefferson's inventions. The kids had fun in this area.
Just outside the hands-on area for inventions
After spending some time in this area, we were starting to get hungry, so we took the shuttle back to our car and headed for our destination for lunch: Michie Tavern!
Michie Tavern (pronounce like the mouse - MIC-KEY-MOUSE) offers both a buffet meal and a tour of the house and grounds. You can either just have lunch, just do the tour, or do both. We chose to do both. It is also VERY close to Monticello. Maybe a 5 minute drive, if that.
Lunch at Michie Tavern
We enjoyed our lunch here, but if I had to choose between the Mount Vernon Inn or Michie Tavern, the Mount Vernon Inn would win hands down. The food there was better, and we paid less for our lunch in Mount Vernon than in Michie Tavern. Adults are $17 each, and children over 6 were $7. One child under 6 per adult eats free.
Now don't get me wrong, the food WAS very good. And the staff here was great. They had mashed potatoes and gravy that was amazing. I ate way more of those than I should have, because I adore mashed potatoes and gravy. They had Fried chicken, baked chicken and pulled pork, cornbread (which my husband loved), biscuits (which my children loved), and a few different veggies that most of my children were unwilling to try. (Things like beets and stewed tomatoes.) For dessert, there was ice cream, fresh fruit and peach cobbler. You can see the full menu here.
After lunch, we went over to take a tour of the tavern. We had a lot of fun here, even though we had the only kids on the tour. My kids loved learning the Virginian Reel. Ken sat out with Felix during the dance because I had sat out during the house tour. I think in reality, he just didn't want to dance!!
After a tour of the house, we were allowed to explore the yard. We had two favorite parts. The first one was the outhouse. Yup, the outhouse. Here is why:
Sign hanging in the outhouse
Notice: If ye bottom falls through seat, do not call proprieters. Use ye rope to pull ye out.
Mrs. Michie
Obviously, not true, but didn't stop us from laughing hysterically!
The second part that we loved was the fact that they used a spring in the back yard to refrigerate perishables. It just amazed us how inventive people were when they didn't have the modern inventions of today! If I was suddenly stranded on a deserted island, I'm not so sure I would have thought of this without reading about it first!
old fashioned refrigeration
We finally wandered down to the gift shop, and if you do nothing else here, you should visit the gift shop. My children didn't know which way to turn first. It is filled with tons of old fashioned gifts for old and young alike. After a lot of hemming and hawing over what souvenir they wanted, Nathaniel finally decided on a pocket knife that had Michie Tavern etched on the side and Ainsley decided on a crocheting set. We allowed the children to pick one souvenir each for each area we were - so one pick in southern Virginia, one in northern Virginia, and one in Baltimore. We reserved the right to say no to anything too pricy or foolish - we did not need another stuffed animal laying around!
After our enjoyable break over at Michie Tavern, we headed back to Monticello. There were still areas we hadn't explored that we wanted to. Mainly the Mountain Top Hands-On Kids Center!
For any kid, hands-on equals fun, and this place was no exception! We spent the rest of the afternoon here. There was blocks to build with, checkers to play, and a little house to show kids how the slaves lived.
Cooking up a meal in the slave's quarters
Playing blocks with another homeschooler
Playing with the blocks
I lost. He won.
We left as the museum was closing. We had a good day here, but I don't think a full day would be necessary if we didn't leave and spend a few hours over at Michie Tavern. We left again feeling like it was good that we went, and that we had fun, but that we wouldn't necessarily visit again if we were in the area. Mount Vernon and Monticello both fell under the "once is enough" category for us.
So for our tenth day of vacation, we went over to George Washington's home, Mount Vernon. We hadn't even made it out of the parking lot before the kids found their first adventure of the day - squirrels.
The kids were munching on a breakfast snack of peaches in the stroller while Ken and I were unloading the car, when I hear a whispered voice calling me. I turn around to see Nathaniel wide eyed and making the "shhhhh" sign and motioning me to come over to them. So I quietly walked over to see this:
Super friendly squirrel
A little tiny squirrel trying to figure out to convince the kids to share their peaches. And of course, the kids were all over this. Nothing George Washington could offer them could possibly come close to feeding a squirrel peaches!
It wasn't this one squirrel that was over friendly - ALL the squirrels were. I was glad we had made plans to eat at the Mount Vernon Inn for lunch instead of doing a picnic. I'm pretty sure the squirrels would have joined us for lunch if we had.
After the squirrel grew bored with us, the children permitted us to go ahead to the Mount Vernon entrance!
While Ken bought tickets, we of course spent the time taking photos!
We bought the basic package with the audio tour because we had enjoyed the audio tour of Luray Caverns so much. The audio tour cost $6 per audio device. We got one for Ainsley, and one for Nathaniel.
It was early in the day, and the movie "We Fight to be Free" was just about to start, so we piled into the mostly empty theater to watch the movie. We all LOVED the movie. It was very well done, and it was chuck full of action, which of course my boys loved. (Nothing gory or inappropriate).
Then we moved onto the mansion tour, which Felix once again caused me to leave early. Ainsley volunteered to come with me, and so the 3 of us headed to George Washington's backyard. I had a seat in one of the rocking chairs and I watched Ainsley and Felix play on the lawn. I was a little nervous of them getting too close to the edge of the hill and falling Princess Bride style down into the river, but thankfully, that didn't happen!
Can you see the drop off of the hill behind them?
By the time we finished the movie and the mansion tour, we were actually starting to get hungry. We also thought that since there were plenty of people around, we should get to lunch BEFORE the lunch crowd hit! So we got to the Mount Vernon Inn just after 11, and waited for our table to be ready. We had fun wandering around the gift shop area, looking at the different books, jewelry and toys while we waited.
I was glad we went early, because by the time our table was ready, we were STARVING! I have no idea why we were so hungry that day! We had breakfast and a snack before we started our tour, and yet, here it was, not even noon, and we felt like we hadn't eaten all day!
I don't have many pictures from inside the restaurant, because I didn't want to be the weird lady who takes a million pictures of her families food in a restaurant. So here are the two pictures I have from our lunch. The first one I did not take. Ephraim took that picture. I would prefer to be the weird lady taking pictures of her food as opposed to the weird lady taking pictures of other people eating.
Ignore the people eating - cute place, right?
This is the only other picture we have from inside the restaurant. :) And I took that because I was hoping that maybe the people Ephraim took a picture of wouldn't have noticed and hopefully thought the flash was due to me taking pictures of my kids!
Lunch was really good and reasonably priced. It wasn't super cheap, but it wasn't over priced either. The only thing that was "overpriced" were the drinks. And that was because they didn't have the normal Pepsi, Sprite etc. that most restaurants have for $1 or so. They had more specialty drinks. Some of us got the Sparkling Apple Cider, some of us had the root beer. Both were VERY good.
For our meals, the 3 younger split the Chicken Fingers, chips and fruit. My younger kids are very light eaters, so they usually split a kid's meal. We figured if one wasn't enough, we could always add another. But one was enough for them.
Nathaniel on the other hand, has switched from barely eating enough to keep a bird alive, to eating enough to feed a small army. He saw a Pulled Pork Sandwich on the menu and asked if he could get that. Someone near us had one, and I told him that I doubt he'd finish the whole thing, but Ken said he could order it, and take the leftovers home. The kid seriously must have a hollow wooden leg somewhere, because he ate the ENTIRE thing, and finished off what I didn't finish on my plate! So much for eating his leftovers later!!
I love Thanksgiving dinner, so I opted to go with the plantation chicken with stuffing and veggies. The stuffing was very good, but I'm kind of spoiled when it comes to stuffing. I make amazing stuffing. So this was good, but mine is better. :) All in all, mine was very good, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't swiped a bite or twelve of Ken's meal. He got the Duck and Sausage Cassolet. It was amazing. I wish I had ordered it! But my hubby let me swipe a few bites because he loves me. He was more than willing to save some room in his tummy for some Pecan Pie. That is his favorite. I'm a very good cook, but the Pecan Pie I have not mastered yet! The rest of us were too full for dessert! If you are interested, the lunch menu is here, the dinner menu is here, and the information on the restaurant is here. Obviously, we chose lunch for the prices!
After lunch, we started wandering around and listening to our audio tours. My children's favorite area for the audio tour hands down was the slave quarter area.
Listening to the audio tour
We enjoyed this audio tour, and it was very informative. They had a kid and adult version like in Luray.
They also had many farm animals, which all children love!
After touring around, it started to drizzle, so we headed to the inside part of the museum. There was a lot to take in, and the kids had fun in here. There was a hands on children section that closes earlier than the rest of the museum, but thankfully we did get to spend a few minutes in there.
Nathaniel and Ainsley as George and Martha
My kids love cut outs!
Dress up!
There was a break in the rain, and less than an hour left before the museum closed, so we decided to make a run for the van and head home for the night. We had a fun day at Mount Vernon. I'm not sure that it would be on the "must do" list with kids, but we did have fun!
We were packed and ready to go early in the morning, because we wanted to visit Lurray Caverns today. Luray Caverns and Skyline Drive were a little out of the way of where we were headed, so we figured that visiting on our drive to Lake Anna would be the best time to visit. Driving through Shenandoah National Park certainly wasn't the most straight forward way to Luray Caverns from Chippokes Plantation (the speed limit is 35mph), nor was it the cheapest way to go (you had to pay to enter the park) but we were glad we did it (sort of - I'll explain that in a bit).
The drive through Shenandoah was nothing short of BEAUTIFUL. Mid May is when many of the trees are in bloom, the colors everywhere are vivid and bright, and some spring flowers are making their appearance. The only other time that I could imagine it being equally as beautiful would be during Autumn.
Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park
The higher we drove, the more spectacular the views became. We pulled over at several overlooks along the way. It didn't matter if we driving or pulled over. The views were more beautiful than we could have imagined!
Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park
The higher we drove, the more foggy it became. It wasn't a rainy or cloudy day at the moment, it was just that we were so high! Make sure you bring gum or something to alleviate those popping ears!
The higher we went, the more foggy it became.
The drive was very fun and relaxing, until we had reached the top. Once we hit the top, we had to go down. And our van's breaks did NOT like that at all. While I am sure the drive down was just as beautiful as the ride up, I couldn't tell you if it was or was not. I spent most of that ride with my eyes shut in desperate prayer that He would allow us to make it down the mountain in one piece. Our brakes were smoking and making a burning smell, and all I could think was that our breaks would give out, and we would be hurtling over the side of the mountain at any moment. Thankfully, God protected us, and we made it down the mountain safely! But, needless to say, I'm not so sure we'd try that again unless we had a lighter load in our van and the breaks were brand new!!
Luray Singing Tower
We made it down to Luray around 1:30, and since the Luray Singing Tower would be singing at 2, we decided to set up our picnic lunch on the picnic tables there and enjoy the songs. I had seen a Singing Tower in New Olm, Minnesota when I was a girl and loved it. I was eager to see this one! If you are curious what to expect here, this video will give you a good idea.
Unfortunately for us, a thunderstorm rolled it's way into Luray in the middle of the show, so we packed up our cooler and went back to Luray Caverns before the rain started.
Luray Singing Tower
You can't safely walk to the tower and back with kids, but the drive is super short. If the road wasn't so busy, you wouldn't even need to drive. You can see the singing tower from the cavern's parking lot.
Luray Caverns
We made it inside Luray Caverns to buy tickets just in time. We walked through the door, and the skies opened up!
Luray Caverns
The caverns were mind blowing. The are so large and so beautiful that you can barely comprehend it! I have a million pictures from inside the caverns, but I'll only post a few.
Wishing Well
Wishing Well in Luray Caverns
Luray Caverns
Luray Caverns
Listening to the recordings about history of the caverns
Enjoying our time in the caverns
Dream Lake
Luray Cavern
Luray Cavern
Ephraim
We decided to get one adult audio tour and 2 children's audio tours. Ken and I shared one, and the 3 kids (Felix could care less) shared the 2 children's audio tour. It took a little bit longer to go through the area that way, but it was cheaper, and I don't think we would have been finished looking at each area when the tour on the section was finished. So for us it worked well.
You can see in the pictures above that it came with headphones so that you could listen without disturbing other people (or so that people couldn't get a guided tour without paying, depending on how you look at it). There was a device that was similar to a large remote control that you put around your neck. When you got to a certain part of the cave, there would be a sign telling you what number to dial on your device so you could listen to the correct portion of the tour. The adult tour was interesting, but I listened to the children's tour most of the way. I found it more interesting than the adult tour! :)
It was cool in the caverns, but no one in our group found it cold. We brought light jackets in case, but it wasn't needed. Also, the cavern is cavern friendly, but there are a few parts that are VERY steep. The kids and I almost went for a ride downhill in the caverns at one point because my foot slipped on a wet spot!!
The stalacpipe organ was also something that was very neat in the caverns.
Stalacpipe Organ
The organ plays "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" by having mallets hit different stalactites and stalagmites in the caverns. Each one makes a different note. We all loved this section. We had been studying "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" for hymn study, so we all familiar with the hymn. It was very interesting to hear it played in such a different way! It was the first time any of us had heard music played on stones!
If you haven't heard the hymn before, here are 2 of our favorite versions:
Yes, that's right. "A Might Fortress" is the theme song to Davey and Goliath.
When we finished with the caverns, we walked along and explored the shops. There were many cute novielty stores between the caverns and the garden maze. And of course, when the last store was an ice cream shop with some of our favorite ice cream bars, could we say no? Of course not!
After our ice cream break, we went over the the garden maze.
Luray Garden Maze
We had a blast here. We let the kids lead the way, and it took us about an hour to find our way through.
Ready to escape the maze
Found a robbin's egg on the ground
Looking down from the lookout tower
Everyone got a ticket - you had to find the 4 hidden spots in the garden
Found the "secret garden"
The kids REALLY wanted to take a 2nd run through the maze, but it was getting late, so we said no. It was an hour and a half to Lake Anna, and we knew we would need to stop along the way for dinner. We stopped by at a KFC along the way and ate dinner there. They happened to be having a Sunday Family Meal Deal where you got a bucket of chicken, a few sides, some drinks and a cake for a very decent price. I LOVE KFC, but we don't eat here often, so getting to have dinner here was a special treat for all of us.
By the time we made it to Lake Anna, it was dark out. Exploring the outside would need to wait until tomorrow, but for now we could explore our new home away from home!
We were spoiled by Chippokes, and while Lake Anna was nice, we preferred the Chippokes house over the Lake Anna house. The Living Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen were all open concept, and that made it extremely echo-y. Also, the furniture was not nearly as comfortable. The dining table had 2 chairs and 2 benches. There was no TV in the family area at all, nor was the cabin stocked with books and games like Chippokes had been. It felt very cold as opposed to the "welcome home" feeling of Chippokes. We were glad that we had spent a week in Chippokes instead of at Lake Anna.
The one thing that Lake Anna had that Chippokes did not have was a fire place. That was nice to have.
Living Room/Dining Room
Living Room with Fireplace and fold out bed/couch
Kitchen - not as well stocked as Chippokes
The children's room was nicely set up, and had 2 twin beds in it.
Kids room - 2 twin beds
The master bedroom had a queen sized bed, and it was quiet comfortable. Each bedroom had a dresser along with a closest.
Queen bed in Master Bedroom
We pulled in all our suitcases and food from the car, threw the kids in PJ's and called it a night! We were tired after a long day!
