George's Home: Mount Vernon

Riddle me this: who doesn't like our first president? Basically nobody except people who are prejudiced because they were named after him and have had to live in his shadow all of their life. I feel bad for those people, but as my name is Jessica and not George I do not fall into this category. Instead I am in the category of people who enjoy that man very much. I mean, I guess he did some pretty important stuff or whatever. I particularly enjoyed the stop we made on our trip at Mount Vernon. There is something great about the green-ness of his home and how it is far enough outside of the city to make it a well-connected paradise (meaning that I can hit up an H&M and then horseback ride in my new clothes across my extensive holdings). I wish every day that when I grow up I will be able to have the kind of home that George Washington did, bright green walls and everything.

I can remember visiting Mount Vernon once before and loving it. I used to live in North Carolina when I was a young chap (what is the feminine version of chap?) and once (twice? three times? sixteen times? never?) we visited the DC area and, obviously, stopped by Mount Vernon. This stop is one of the only ones I remember from that childhood trip(s). I distinctly remember walking through an open walkway from one part of the house to another and thinking it was the coolest thing, and that I wanted it in my house. When I re-walked through it this time around I (being wiser) thought, this is the coolest thing and I want it in my house. Can you believe that I am still the same person that I was sixteen(?) twelve(?) three(?) years ago? It is always so interesting to me what things I remember from my little kid days and what things I have no memory of. The only other place I remember seeing on that trip(s) was Ford Theatre where Abe Lincoln was shot and the chair in the apartment across the street.  Clearly I had/have a thing for important presidents and places important to their life stories.

In summary, conclusion and wrapping up, I would just like to proclaim that one day I will live in a house similar to Mount Vernon. It will have an open walkway, a riverside view and bright walls. However it will only be a hundred years old as I have a secret fear of termite damage in those three hundred year old houses. Plus, I am not planning on having a threshing barn, no matter how hard the tour tried to impress the greatness of it upon me. I just don't have any use for that sort of an invention and would rather just stick to the open walkway.

Lancaster County, PA

We took a quick drive through Amish country when we visited the East Coast in June. It was very quick, meaning that I had to take pictures out the window. What did I take pictures of? Laundry! Why did I think it was the coolest thing in the whole world that they hang their laundry outside to dry? Nobody knows, and probably nobody else that has visited Amish country has taken so many pictures of laundry. Forget the horse and buggy thing, I'm going to photograph the laundry through my car window.

Oh yes, and I did take one picture of a man in a field. It's almost as cool as my attempts at the laundry.

the race across america

annapolis, my new favorite city. naval academy anyone?

recently, meaning a month ago, I travelled across the country with my mother, brother and sister. we flew to new york, visited the smith family farm and then stopped in gettsyburg to fulfill the dreams of our resident civil war buff. continuing our trip we drove through lancaster county and frantically took pictures of the Amish people we passed on the road (sorry!) then we spent some time in dc fulfilling my own dreams before stopping over in annapolis.

recap:  palmyra, ny; gettysburg, pa; lancaster county, pa; washington dc; annapolis, md.

while we were doing all of these things (in the space of a week) my father was biking across the country. yes, he was biking.across.america. the entire country. the race is 3000 miles and this year started in oceanside and ended in annapolis. he was on a team with 8 men and a sizable crew. we arrived at the finish line in annapolis at 2 am to meet him at the end of his 6 day 11 hour and 21 minute race. turns out he didn't actually arrive until 5 am, but despite staying up most of the night it was the happiest thing to see him cross that finish line.
one of his teammates crashed on that last day (rough transition and a broken chain and 40 mph) and he sat with us as we waited. we asked him about the race and how it worked. he began to look at the list of checkpoints and pointed out one in particular. it was somewhere in arizona, still at the beginning of the race. he looked at it and said, "this was where I started thinking, 'I can do hard things, I can do hard things.'" this blew my mind. I know that riding a bike across america isn't be the easiest thing, but I kind of thought that they were all superman and it would be a cinch for them. but talking with him, and hearing my dad describe it, I realized that it was a hard thing. but they did it. and that's what amazes me and gives me just a little hope. I've kind of taken this to be my mantra and I think it will be for awhile (thanks, chris). it may be cheesy, but I can do hard things, I can do hard things.

crossing the finish line, 5 am

sunrise

the bike of all bikes: it's pretty stylish

we were sleepless. the one in the middle especially.

 dad and chris, look at their medals!
ps dad, you impress me all the time. I hope that some of that ability to ride 3000 miles was passed on to me. not that I'll ever try and find out...