We went down the Potomac today and stopped at Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington.

It was nice because Mt. Vernon has a very good quality deep water dock on the Potomac River where the tour boats from Washington and Alexandria land. If there's room, they'll let private boats dock there and there was room. We could walk Daisy and then go tour Mt. Vernon for 3 hours or so and leave Nonchalance at their dock.

The buildings and grounds were in incredibly original condition and well restored as required, with many pieces of George and Martha's furniture, the chair he used as President, which he brought back to Mt. Vernon to use in his study, the bed he slept in and died upon and much more. Unfortunately, they will not allow any pictures to be taken in the mansion.

One of the most interesting things to me was the original black walnut handrails for the staircases, which you were allowed to use as you went up and down the stairs. These were the same handrails that George Washington's hands held hundreds of times as he lived at Mt. Vernon. With today's concern about preservation of everything like this, it's really neat that they specifically let you touch these pieces of American history.

The slave quarters were also restored to as they were in Washington's days. It looks meager, but by any comparison it was high quality living arrangements for slaves in the 18th century. The other end of the house has a fireplace and table and chairs. George Washington understood the dichotomy between the new United States and slave labor, treated his slaves well and he freed his slaves when he died in 1799.

His tomb and that of Martha plus many more recent family members are buried here. George's remains are in the marble sarcophagus on the right. In his will, he required that his body lay in state in their dining room for 3 days, however the real reason for this request was a fear that he had after hearing of people being thought dead and then buried only to wake up alive.

We're staying the night at Belhaven Harbor along the Potomac River and will go to the mouth of the Potomac tomorrow and then into the Chesapeake again Tuesday.