Christmas at Mount Vernon

As our time in Washington DC winds down, the girls expressed a desire to see George Washington's Mt Vernon estate one last time before we leave for Paris. So a few days before Christmas, the girls and I (James) spent a day at the estate. Pia was very keen to see the museum and there was also a special Christmas program put on for the festive season - including a special introduction to the making of hot chocolate (a Washington family favourite apparently), a gingerbread Mt Vernon made by the former pastry chef for the White House, a Camel brought in for the occasion (named Aladdin - Washington also had an interest in exotic animals), Christmas decorations throughout the house and also the Turkey that Obama had spared on Thanksgiving. That lucky beast (he was enormous for a bird) would spend the rest of his days at Mount Vernon. In addition, Pia and Ella visited the kids' "Hands on History" room where they did a puzzle of Washington as a 'pioneer farmer' (yes, he is the American 'everyman') and dressed up as little Martha Washingtons.











The estate looked a treat with the light snow covering, and a male and female cardinal completed the picture. We also visited the rarely seen 3rd floor of the mansion (which is only open at this time of year), the blacksmith's workshop and the gardens. After 2 previous visits it was surprising just how much we saw that was new.









In the museum we enjoyed a short movie about the revolutionary war - complete with moving seats, pyrotechnic cannon fire and fake snow (meaning 2 little girls hugging their dad extremely tightly) - which reenacted the battles of Boston, Trenton and Yorktown. The last theatre was entitled 'legacy' and featured a number of prominent Americans talking about Washington's values and their resonance today - all very patriotic, inspiring stuff: complete with choirs of schoolchildren singing 'America the Beautiful' and the Star Spangled Banner. Very different to the President's House in Philadelphia.

But the highlight was meeting Lady Washington, who converses with tourists in a specially appointed building on the property. For Pia and Ella, Martha Washington has assumed something of a cult status during this trip (they actually act out games where one of them is Martha, the other George: frequently they fall in love and get married. When there are disputes as to who plays Martha, one plays Martha Jefferson instead), so to see her in the flesh - and to talk to her - was a big thrill for the girls. They also asked her a question about how hard she found it being away from her husband for so long (when he was fighting for independence) and their question was met with a response which, while somewhat florid, was genuinely meant: "Oh, my little dears, my mother always told me that to ask of others' welfare was the very essence of civility. How kind of you to ask!". The girls were quite taken with all this. Martha also taught them a little rhyme which was, she said, the secret to lifelong happiness, and she made us all repeat it 3 times so that we wouldn't forget. Three days later when I asked Ella what it was she responded straight away: 'Be Busy as a Bee, Cheerful as a Cricket, and Steady as a clock".



The only sour note to the day was the sight of a huge falcon sitting on a branch near the Washington's outdoor toilet, clutching in one talon his prey: an eastern gray squirrel. From a distance we could see a general hubbub around this tree, and tourists gawking in amazement at the bird and its catch. But it was not clear just what the bird had caught - all we could see at first was a carcass and bushy tail swinging in the gentle breeze. The bird, you would swear, was enjoying the attention and showing off. Pia was understandably distressed at the sight but very quickly appreciated that this was nature and that was how nature worked. But it was a grizzly sight - all that remained of the squirrel was a head, skeleton and the tail.



But all in all, the girls enjoyed their day. Mt Vernon has bracketed our time in Washington DC. And the result? The girls have become unabashed republicans - they can't stand the sight of the Union Jack, detest any talk of 'Great Britain" and "taxes" and swear that they will not set foot anywhere near the palace in London. We will have a job getting them on board a flight to the UK, and they are most happy to be flying over it en route to France....Now for the next revolution and another history.... This will be our last post from Washington DC as we leave for Paris on Wednesday, and then return to Australia on January 15. We will try and post some of our photos in Paris for you all to see. Thank you for following along in all our Washington adventures and we hope you have enjoyed reading about them as much as we have enjoyed every minute of our 6 months here.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas from here in Washington DC. We paid a visit to the National Christmas tree at the Ellipse yesterday, just outside the White House. The tree is surrounded by miniature trains as well as smaller trees representing each state and district of the US.



The girls also visited Santa's Workshop, where they had their photo taken with Santa, as well as Mrs Claus. Notice the 'niceness' meter on the wall behind them!




We enjoyed a Christmas Eve dinner at our friends Ben and John's and then it was home to leave out food, drink and drawings for Santa,as well as the reindeer food.

Reindeer food - always popular with reindeers at Christmas!

We had a lovely day today, even though it was much quieter than usual, and colder! The girls loved opening their Santa sacks, presents from mummy and daddy and their cousins.









We were all so excited to watch snow starting to fall as we ate breakfast this morning, and then on our way down to Christmas mass at St. Peter's we were treated to more snowflakes falling - they were tiny but as they landed on you we could see some tiny little, intricate patterns in each flake. They were beautiful!

We enjoyed a lunch of roast duck with cherry sauce, roast potatoes and green beans, with an apple crumble for dessert, all by our lovely fire. Ahh.... a winter Christmas!




It has not snowed much this afternoon, but they are predicting another big snowfall tomorrow. Lovely, but let's just hope now we can fly out of here on Wednesday to Paris and then back home in just under 3 weeks now!

Merry Christmas to everyone again! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

James in Philadelphia

The President's House

Followers of the blog will have already noticed that our trip to the United States has featured a number of key sites - or shrines - of American civic culture. With this in mind, and having visited Boston (with its 'Freedom Trail') Plymouth (with its Pilgrim's 'rock') the National Archives in Washington (where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution are housed in a temple-like structure - surely THE American tabernacle)I ventured to Philadelphia for a day. I took the train from Union Station and enjoyed a pleasant trip through the snow dappled countryside.

Anyhow - my focus for the day trip was Independence National Historic Park in the centre of town, a city square almost totally encased in American history - with the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall at one end, the National Constitution Center at the other, and Ben Franklin's grave on the side. Many of the guidebooks refer to this square as America's 'most historic mile' and although this is a frequently professed claim in this country (we have seen similar boasts -not without some justification - in Boston, New York, Washington DC, Colonial Williamsburg and so on) nevertheless here the claim is made with a greater degree of confidence. In succession I visited the Liberty Bell (described as an "international symbol of freedom"), Independence Hall (where the Declaration was adopted and later signed), Congress Hall - where the first Congress of the US met before moving to Washington DC over a decade later), the first Senate, and many other sites of note, including the Second Bank of the US - in classic Greek Revival style)Carpenters Hall, where the first Continental Congress met, and also the tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution. Independence Hall is world heritage listed but unfortunately was covered in scaffolding on the day I was there. Scaffolding, surely, is the tourist's curse. We were afflicted with it in Texas and it followed me all the way here.

Independence Hall, as it usually appears without the scaffolding!

The room where the Declaration of Independence was debated and adopted.

The first Senate.

However before getting to the part of the square that commemorates the deliberations over the declaration of independence, the framing of the constitution and the early deliberations of the US congress, visitors are now encouraged/directed to walk through a brand new (opened only 2 days before my arrival) but rather curious and odd monument to American political history - the President's House. This was the residence where both George Washington and John Adams lived in the early days of the Republic (1790-1800), before Washington became the national capital in 1800. It was here, for example, that Washington and Adams set the course for the office of the presidency: making treaties, receiving ambassadors, and setting out the functions of the executive branch. "I walk on untried ground" Washington said, "and everything I do sets a precedent for those who follow". What survives of this once grand house is only the outline and a few archaeological diggings, so some enterprising museum designers have tried to give a sense of the shape of the house and its original dimensions - see the photos. To say that this is a 'contested' public space would be something of an understatement: that the memorial has opened is testament to the agitation of many, particularly a group called the 'Avenging our Ancestors Coalition', who believed that for too many years tourists to Philadelphia were receiving a warped sense of history by visiting only the Liberty Bell museum. Indeed, they protested, in doing so tourists were walking over the remains of a house where African slaves had served the first President of the United States (Adams did not use slaves). The original house was torn down long ago, and the site was once the location of a public toilet - itself seemingly an anomaly in a country that is so reverential to its early history). Anyway, now they have erected this rather peculiar monument. The New York Times reviewed it on the Wednesday before I got there and gave it a complete caning, mocking (unfairly in my view) its attempt to say that 'History is messy and complex' and arguing that visitors left the site with little or no sense of what the President's House was meant to be about. Was it to mark the origins of executive government, or to commemorate the slaves who worked there?

The President's House- late afternoon

From my perspective however there seemed to be no ambivalence in the main message of the memorial: the legacy of slavery. Clearly what is happening here is that visitors to Independence Square are being directed to walk through this monument before visiting the Liberty Bell museum - and in so doing, are being confronted more directly with the central paradox at the heart of the American experience: that is how a nation dedicated to freedom and equality could maintain the institution of slavery. At the President's House, the purpose is very clear: to highlight the fact that George Washington had slaves here: in fact, that he used to rotate the slaves he brought from Mt Vernon every six months so as not to contravene Philadelphia state law, which held that slaves were to be set free after 6 months service. (Philadelphia of course was much more liberal than many of the other states on this issue). So there are headlines in the museum exhibit which point to the 'deceit of President Washington' and visitors are asked to remember that they 'walk not only on the ground of the founding fathers but also the enslaved'. It is the first time I have seen Washington criticised in so public a space.

There is something almost quite eerie about the memorial - what is there is only the shell of the house, and DVDs play short movies that are mostly about the experience of the slaves who lived, worked and suffered there. Indeed, by directing the tourist to walk through this site before reaching the Liberty Bell, it is as if the visitor is being asked to go take a good dose of absolution before getting on with the task of social self-worship. This is not to say that the Liberty Bell museum is only dedicated to ringing the sonorous chimes of American nationalism - much is made of the huge crack in the bell - it was in the 1830s that anti-slavery grounds actually named it the "Liberty Bell" - and the official National Park guide to the site notes that 'its crack is a reminder that liberty is imperfect, hopefully evolving to include those who have been denied full participation in a democratic society'. But there is no doubt that this museum is more upbeat than the President's House - by the end of the walk through its exhibits one is greeted with the images of Nelson Mandela and others - thus sealing the Bell's appeal as an 'international symbol of freedom'. At one point a sign in the exhibit talks of it being 'America's gift to liberty around the world'. And I think this was the key message that comes through both here and at the National Constitution Center - where visitors are shepherded into a Shakespearean style Globe theatre for a multi-media extravaganza on the meaning of 'We the people'. That show begins with the Revolutionary war (lots of Union Jacks being sizzled) and leads all the way to the fall of the Berlin Wall. So the message is the same - these sites are not only of unique American value - but also of global significance.

The Liberty Bell

The Second Bank of the United States - now a portrait gallery.

I was also intrigued by the tomb of the Unknown soldier of the American revolution - I had not heard about this before - no doubt because it is overshadowed by the more famous 'unknowns' at Arlington Cemetery. But sure enough, just moments away from Independence Square, there he lies, with an eternal flame in front and a statue of Washington overhead. Independence Square was the site of a mass grave of American soldiers from the revolutionary war, and it is not clear when this tomb was establised. But very interesting nevertheless: 'beneath this stone rests an American soldier who gave his life for your liberty' it says (though I could barely read this through the snow). Still, yet another powerful message.

The tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolutionary War.

Before heading for the train station I took a short walk to Elfreth's Alley - apparently the oldest residential street in America. People still live there - and the place looks like a transplant from 18th century London - replete with Union Jack fluttering in the breeze. I'll let the photos tell the story here.









Anyway, that was enough for one day - jam packed with the founding fathers.

Our last few weeks in Washington DC

Our last few weeks in Washington have been flying by. Here is some of what we have been doing in the lead up to Christmas and our departure.

In the last few days that Jeannie and Sophie were here we were given a guided tour of the Capitol by a staffer to Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz from Florida. Among other things, we saw the amazing interior of the dome and the frieze around it, which tells the story of American history, the crypt room, where George Washington was supposed to have been buried (he did not want this however and was instead buried at his home in Mount Vernon. We also saw the room which first housed the US Supreme Court, before it was moved to the building across the road.











We also paid another visit to the wonderful Botanical Gardens for their annual Christmas display. There is a display of working miniature trains, which weave their way around a giant Christmas tree as well as sculptures of famous buildings from Washington and around the world. All the building are made from various parts of nature, such as acorns, bark, leaves, seed pods, twigs etc. It is amazing to see the work that has gone into them!


The train encircles the Christmas tree, which is flanked by models of miniature Capitol hill houses.


The girls loved the model of the Capitol. The detail in it was fantastic.

The Smithsonian Castle

Here comes Thomas!

In the gardens outside we were lucky enough to see a blue jay and a cardinal, which is pictured below. They are so beautiful and have become my favourite bird while we are here.


James continued his tour of Presidential houses by going to see President Lincoln's summer house, in Northern Washington DC.


The girls met their friend Elena and Aidan at Lincoln Park for a live nativity scene, complete with hot chocolate, candy canes and carols. They enjoyed patting and feeding the animals, which included a baby llama, only 3 weeks old! (I'm not sure if llamas were actually present at the birth of Jesus or not, but it was very cute!)


Pia and Ella finished off their art class and ballet class. Ella's ballet class gave a little performance on their last day. Here she is with some of her classmates and teacher, Miss Heidi.






And here, Pia, shows some of her creations from her Ceramic Safari class.

We have also been to the Kennedy Center to see The Washington Chorus give a performance of Christmas songs and carols. The Kennedy Center is the official memorial to President Kennedy and is beautiful inside. It is set on the banks of the Potomac River. We were amazed to see when we went onto the terrace that the river is currently frozen. It doesn't seem that long ago the girls and I were cruising on it when Mum and Dad were here.





On Sunday, Santa paid a visit to Eastern Market and the girls had their photo
taken with him and wrote down their Christmas wishes for him.




Earlier that day we went to church at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (it's quite a mouthful!). This is an amazing church, one of the 10 largest in the world. Apparently all the Catholic parishes in the United States contributed to its building fund. The mosaics inside it are beautiful and there are many shrines to Mary, as you would expect, given the name of the Basilica.


James has also been on a day trip to Philadelphia and just today took the girls for their third visit to Mount Vernon, which you may have read about before here. James is planning to do an update on those 2 visits soon, so stay tuned for his post!