Mount Vernon School Trip 2019

We visited Mount Vernon as a family last year. My son's fifth grade class went on a field trip this year and I was selected to be a chaperon. We saw a lot of the same stuff but also some new things. Here's some new stuff!

I was in charge of a group of five boys (including my son). We walked around for a bit visiting the blacksmith shop and other outer buildings before we had to go on the mansion tour. The tour featured some construction but was basically the same.

Outside construction too!

Somehow we went through early (i.e. before the rest of the class) and had the opportunity to sit on the back porch of the main house, enjoying the view of the Potomac. One of the docents said that George Washington claimed this was the most beautiful spot in all the country.

Potomac view

We walked down the hill to the Washingtons' tomb. We saw the old tomb on the way, which is basically a mound with a brick entrance overlooking the river. In George's will, he directed that a larger tomb be built for the family. It took several years to complete, so the family used the old tomb before they moved into the new tomb.

Tomb of Washington

We had a special tour later in the day that took our whole group back to the tomb for a wreath-laying ceremony. Jacob's best friend was selected to help with the ceremony. They brought out a wreath and then led the class in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Wreath-laying ceremony

The boys in my group chatted with our tour guide about the slavery memorial and burial ground. It's not far from Washington's tomb, so she offered to take us there. The memorial in the middle was set up by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, with a design by student from Howard University.

She also showed us the excavations on the site where archeologists have been looking for graves. They dig down to the level roughly equivalent to Washington's time and look for signs. The most obvious sign is a rectangular yellowish patch of soil. When someone is buried, the dirt is taken out and put back in, causing the color to change slightly from the surrounding, undisturbed dirt. The archeologists are only locating graves, not removing the contents.

Hard to see the yellow dirt on this picture, but it was definitely there

They've found eighty graves so far and have been marking them with stone piles. Unfortunately, the most obvious piles were hidden by a fallen tree limb. Also, I was fairly reluctant to take pictures since I was on chaperone duty.

As we headed back for the shelter of the air-conditioned museum (which has plenty of videos to watch), we heard a fife-player walking to a corner of the bowling green. We followed the musician as if he were the Pied Piper. He had a nice presentation on music from the time of George Washington, focusing mostly on military songs. Then he drafted a bunch of the kids to carry flags and wooden rifles. They practiced marching in regular and quick time. He used his drum to make sure they'd march to the beat.

Leading the march

After one round of marching, he recruited a parent who knew how to drum. A second march ensued with fife and drum leading the way.

Increasing the ranks

Marching at us

He then asked if the soldiers get paid. People actually had different answers about that. The musician said he had good news and bad news. The good news was that soldiers did get paid. The bad news was that today was not payday! He relented pretty quickly and handed out fake, oversized one dollar bills to each of the kids.

As we walked back to the museum, one of the boys conveniently remembered that he forgot his water bottle at the fife and drum/marching demonstration. We walked back to get it. Then he jumped in for another round of marching, which meant another dollar of pay!

We finally returned to the visitor center/museum to watch a few of the films and take one last bathroom break before getting back on the buses.

The day was long but very informative. My daughter will be a fifth-grader next year, so I may get to go again.