Trip to Mount Vernon

We decided to take a trip to Washington DC. It took 3hr and 58 min to get there, and it took a little over 5 hours to get back because 1) we left in rush hour traffic 2) I had no idea how to get into the HOV lane. The first day we stopped at Mt. Vernon. It was fun to see George Washington's house. There was a distillery (did you know that G. Washington had a strong whiskey business?) and a Gristmill that we didn't have time to visit. When we visited George Washington's Mansion house, Nathan and Katie where everywhere and I had to duck out of the tour early because both of them were bored and getting into things.
Katie's favorite part about Mt Vernon was the rocks on the ground that she got to pick up and put on the bench. Katie also chased a bee for a while.
Nathan's favorite part was that he saw a lizard in the paint cellar of one of the houses. He was disappointed when we told him not to go over the ropes to try and catch it. He also saw a spider during the film.
Sarah's favorite part about Mt Vernon was when she (and the rest of her siblings) got to go into the kids room and play with dollies and try on clothes of that era.
Mark's favorite part was getting into the mansion of George Washington and getting to go up the stairs and see George Washington's bed. But the attic was closed, so he didnt get to go into the attic.
Noah's favorite part was the large movie theater at the beginning, and getting to go into the cellar during the tour.
Jocie's favorite part was going into the museum and learning about him, which I enjoyed also. Other favorite highlight was sitting in G. Washington's orchard, listening wistfully about how he experimented with various seeds and wrote down everything that he planted, and glanced over to see water dripping down Nathan's leg and hear the pronouncement, "I peed my pants and there's poop in my diaper!" (We forgot to take off Nathan's pull up [that is usually dry each morning] from the morning and he had wet through his outfit about 1/2 way into the tour. We took off his sweat pants and his pull up and put a diaper on him. So we had an almost 4 year old in diapers with us on our trip.)
My favorite part was not pushing the stroller up a steep hill with the hot sun hitting me. My favorite part was not worrying about the kids getting lost or breaking something. I really liked the view that the back yard of the mansion had. You could see the Potomac, and there were green hills with sparse big trees. (In this part of the country, mentioning sparse trees is equal to saying many trees in Arizona.) I liked the feeling of knowing that I might be stepping where George Washington stepped. I liked seeing his tomb, and I enjoyed the air-conditioned building.
We would like to go back again sometime.
As we were driving away, we asked the kids if they enjoyed seeing where George Washington lived. Nathan piped up "He didn't live there....he was dead there."