Happy Thanksgiving

Is Thanksgiving just about Being Thankful for family, football, friends, and food?  Well, I'm thankful for these things, but it is about something much bigger.  Thanksgiving is a day to thank, in the words of Lincoln, "the source from which they(blessings) come."  Please click below for Washington's first Thanksgiving proclamation as President.  I hope it will make your Thanksgiving that much richer.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Click Here for the document.

Shame on NBC

A new docudrama is on the drawing board for the life of George Washington.  To say in the most affectionate terms I can..... Shame on NBC.  Based on the wonderful book by Ron Chernow, Washington:A Life, the screenplay writer has instead decided to write his own version of history.   He has expressly stated that Washington had an adulterous affair.  Shameful.  Anyone with half a history credential knows that this allegation has been explored and never found to be true.  Chernow also examines this in this book.  His conclusion: not true.  I sincerely hope that NBC thinks better of this farce and doesn't try and sully the impeccable reputation of Mr Washington.  I implore you to boycott this docudrama when it comes out.  Here is the article if you are interested as to what I so strongly condemn.  Click here for the article.

Mount Vernon, Good-bye 11/2

For today's video click here

Gosh, the last day of Mount Vernon.  I remember sitting on the Piazza of Mount Vernon about three weeks ago and thinking, "this is amazing, we have tons of time to enjoy this!"  Well, the day has come and it's definitely bittersweet.  We are grateful to God for our lives back in CA.  We have also been grateful for our time here.  We are heading home tomorrow and will arrive in SF at 7:22 pm.  Please pray for no more cancellations and a safe flight!
How to sum up the last two days?  Yesterday was great!  One of my wife's dreams was to run the National Mall.  So, my daughter and I dropped off my wife and she started her run at the Lincoln Memorial and ran to the Capitol.  My daughter and I walked the Tidal Basin, FDR Monument and then picked up my wife.  She was on cloud nine.
Then, we headed off to Mount Vernon.  It was my day to assist Lady Washington.  What an honor.  She is an incredible lady.  As you know from a previous post, her name is Mary Wiseman.  She was the head character interpeter at Colonial Williamsburg, but found her way to Mount Vernon.  She has spoken all over the country; in fact several times in the Bay Area.  She told me, one of her favorite places is Half Moon Bay. Her ability to teach about Martha Washington, is astonishing.  Something I have found out here is that story is king. A great storyteller will always outshine the Ipad, Iphone, or other technology gizmos.  She entertained 2 year olds to 92 year olds.  Something special that happened yesterday:  Lady Washington was told by my boss that it was our second to last day at Mt. Vernon and most likely we wouldn't see her on our last day.  So, she wanted to make it special for our daughter.  In the middle of her speech to a crowd of guests, she stopped and called up my daughter.  She told her how special she was, and how much fun she had with her while we were visiting "her house."  At that moment she pulled out a little miniature Martha Washington doll and gave it to my daughter.  The smile on her face was amazing.  She has slept with her dolly Martha ever since.  Another amazing moment, was while managing the people coming into hear Lady Washington speak,  I was able to listen in on her presentation.  At one moment a man asked her, "How did Fanny die?"  Fanny was the daughter of George and Martha Washington and she died at 17 years old at Mount Vernon.  As Lady Washington conveyed the story, you could hear a pin drop.  People were moved to tears.  There were two guys in the crowd that looked a bit "tough"...these guys were mesmerized.  They were taking pictures of her and sat there for a long time listening.  Amazing.
Then we headed to Old Town Alexandria for dinner and our favorite homemade ice cream shop.  Yum!
Today, was our last day.  My wife got up, made a special breakfast, and we headed out.  We arrived at Mount Vernon and greeted my two bosses.  I'll be honest, I'm going to miss them.  Incredible people.  We bought flowers for them and my daughter presented them.  They are definitely going to miss her.  They both have a great bond with her.  I dressed up again in my colonial clothes and my boss drove me up to the Mansion.  It was a bittersweet ride.  We had a great talk about the great time we've had over the last month.  I conveyed the thankfulness I had for the time I've been able to spend at this amazing place.  It was a cold day here.  Wind chill was rough, but nevertheless Mount Vernon was packed with guests.  Thousands of students from all over were at the estate today.  Also, families and adults from all over the Union and World.  I had a great job today.  I was the Colonial Game Guy in front of the Mansion.  The best spot on the Estate.  I was in  charge of "Flying Circles".  It is a great game and all ages enjoyed it.  Little kids (my daughter digs it), teenagers, and adults.  There was never a dull moment.  My boss picked me up at the right moment.  I was starting to freeze and it was actually getting painful.  A guest was mad I was leaving because she wanted her kids to play longer, but he said, "He has been here long enough, and he's cold."  Nice.   I greeted the girls back at the Volunteer Center and we said our final good-byes.  Such a great time.  We then headed up to the Mansion to finish our good-byes.  I was able to say good-bye to some great people I met.  We decided to take one last tour of the Mansion and that was a good way to end our time.  We then headed over to see another guy I really grew to like.  He portrayed Mr. Shields, George Washington's Personal Servant after Billy Lee was injured.  He let me know that he would really like to have me watch him perform before I left.  So, we went to the garden greenhouse-his stage.  He is fantastic.  His video is on my phone and I'll get it posted after I figure out some formatting issues.
We then spent some time on the Piazza, a million dollar view.  My wife didn't want to leave.  That is a great compliment to this trip.  It really is a tremendous place and we didn't take any of it for granted.
We then headed down to the gift shop to finish our shopping.  For Christmas we decided to buy a painting we really wanted for our living room of Mount Vernon.  It is an oil reproduction of a 1792 painting of the Mount Vernon Estate.  It is tremendous and we can't wait to get it in the mail and hang it in our Quiet Lake Place Estate.  While we were placing our order, I recognized a lady in the shop.  It was the President and Head Regent of Mount Vernon Lady's Association.  The MVLA are the private owners of Mount Vernon.  I had just seen her in a video buying George Washington's personal copy of the Constitution on behalf of the MVLA for 9 millions dollars at an auction.  I wanted to thank her for the amazing experience we've had at the Estate.  So I walked over, and we had a wonderful conversation.  I was told she was an amazing lady, yet humble and gracious.  It is true.  I had my daughter with me.  She chatted with her for awhile and was so blown away that my daughter could name the whole Washington family, that she walked right over to a display, took off an autographed copy of a new children's book about General Washington and gave it to my daughter.  She said, "my treat."  She then met my wife and we thanked her again.  What a great way to end the trip at Mount Vernon.  We drove home...slowly.  It was the first time I drove below the speed limit on an expressway.  Now we are home, tired, but so grateful.
We are going to pack and soak in the day.
Will I continue to post blogs?  Not daily.  No need.  Believe it or not, I don't have that much to say!  So, as needed, I will post things about George Washington, but not on a consistent basis by any means.  Thanks to all of you for following along, I hope this blog brought you on the journey, and I hope you learned a ton about Washington.  We highly recommend you take a trip here soon.  If you do, I'd love to meet with you and talk about what to see!
Tomorrow, we are going to Arlington National Cemetery and DC, and then off to the Airport.  We will see a lot of you at Church Sunday and many others at school on Monday!!!!!!!

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No post!  I'm beat!  We went all day!  One more day