Visiting George Washington's Mount Vernon

My son and I took our first trip to Mount Vernon in August. What an incredible way to spend a day! If you ever come to Washington, D.C. to tour the Smithsonian Museums and other sites, I'd highly suggest adding a day at Mount Vernon to your schedule. It's a day well spent!

The first thing you should do is visit the Mount Vernon website. Check out their calendar of events to see if anything is happening the day you're planning to visit. Check as soon as you decide to plan the trip because their events fill up rather quickly. The next thing you need to do is pick out a time to tour the mansion. It's part of your ticket, but you don't want to show up and realize you don't have a time set up.

Before you purchase your ticket, be sure to check out their social media. Facebook and Instagram will show you if they have any promo codes you can enter. I used their code "SMF2019" to get 20% off the regular ticket price. Also, if you're military you receive $6 off the adult ticket. If you have a Purple Heart entry is free year round!

The drive to Mount Vernon is beautiful. It's a partially wooded drive as you cruise along the Potomac River. When you arrive, parking is free! You'll start your day (more than likely) at the Ford Orientation Center and enter the grounds from there.

We passed by the slaves quarters, shoemaker's shop, and stove room. I don't know about you, but looking through these rooms is very difficult. A brief glance into what their lives looked like is a harsh reminder of our history, a place we never want to return to. They received 2 shirts and 1 pair of pants... for a YEAR!

From there we walked around the path until we made it to the mansion entry line. We learned so much about the mansion from the volunteers! It started off being owned by George Washington's father and it was only 1 1/2 stories. Seriously, they couldn't have picked a more picturesque location!

The tour of the mansion was delightful. I think I was most fascinated with the beds we saw and the study. It would be amazing to have a bed like the one in the Blue Room or Lafayette's Bedchamber. The plaster decoration on the ceiling is stunning and the carving on the marble mantle piece is spectacular. They point out how George Washington paid homage to his heritage of working the land with the intricate designs above the doors and on the mantle.

After we completed the tour we saw a fife and drum band from Michigan dressed up in period apparel getting ready to play period music. It was awesome! Next to the Bowling Green is the Upper Garden. You know I had to walk through there. Oh, you have no idea how much I loved it! The flowers and the garden are wonderful. What's fantastic is, they harvest the seeds from the plants AND sell them in Lady Washington's shop as well as the larger shop at the front of the grounds. They have a sunflower that I absolutely MUST get my hands on next spring or summer.

My son and I decided to have lunch after the tour. Since we didn't have reservations at the restaurant we went to the food court. We should've checked with the restaurant. I would say in comparison to what you'll spend at the food court, it's worth your while to eat at the restaurant. I'll share more about my experience enjoying their food in a future blog post.

After lunch we wanted to check out Washington's tomb. Thankfully since we were full, we took a shuttle down to the wharf and then walked up to the tomb. We passed by the pioneer farm, but we didn't see any activity down there. What I didn't realize was, there's also a slave memorial & cemetery. It's a beautiful area on the grounds just past Washington's tomb.

We wandered the grounds some more passing by the coach house, stable and lower garden. We didn't spend much time because it was getting late in the day. I was bummed we didn't take time to walk through the Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center. I did take time to walk through the two big shops. My daughter would love the smaller one as they have an entire Christmas section! In the larger shop they have some amazing creations made from wood that was found on the grounds. There are also books galore!

Trust me, this is one visit you won't want to miss! You come to VA or Washington, D.C. It's well worth your time and you will thank me later! My next visit I hope will be by candlelight during the holidays!

InvadR At Busch Gardens

When you're invited to ride a brand new roller coaster by Busch Gardens, how can you say, "no"? I took them up on their offer to visit the park and test out InvadR, their first wooden coaster. Well, except for the fact that I don't really care for roller coasters. I figured I'd take my boys along with me and THEY could ride the roller coaster.

Eventually I searched YouTube and found videos on how they built it, and got a look at how the ride actually was. The one thing I found, mmmmmm as a nudge, to get me to ride it was when the park Sea Director, Design and Engineering said that it's meant to be a family ride. Hmmmm so maybe kids could ride it? If kids can then I could right? Also, the part that sealed the deal that I'd give it a try was when they said it didn't ride like a typical wooden roller coaster, that was much smoother!

I kind of ended up having to go on the ride because I forgot to have my oldest take the day off from work so he couldn't even go with us. Sheesh, that was a big mom fail. My youngest was able to go down, so we got a hotel room the night before, and found out our ride time was at 7:45 AM...ay em! We had to be there by 7:15 so that meant an early rise time for me and the kid.

We got to Busch Gardens right on time only to find out it was SO cold that InvadR wasn't thrilled to be running. Let me tell you, it was stinking cold! We thought it was going to be in the high 60s. Yea, no, it was around 45º! By the time we arrived they were running about an hour behind. The plus was they had food and drinks for all of the people riding. There were a few porch heaters running, but not enough to keep all of us warm. Whatdaya do, eh?

When it finally came to our turn, we got there with a family whose mom didn't like roller coasters either. hahahaha We were bonding over our fears. This was one of those times I wish I had a GoPro! If you had a GoPro, they'd strap it to the front of the coaster for your own personal POV video. Of course I wouldn't have wanted to be in the front seat. HA!

When it comes to roller coasters, the thing that freaks me out are the big drops. I can go upside down or around fast corners, they don't bother me. Big drops...Aaaaaaah Watching the InvadR ride video, there was only one drop, and the rest were fast turns. I could totally do this!

The first time we rode, see how I said, "first time", I had my eyes closed with the drop. Sakes alive roller coasters freak me out. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that. lol For the rest of the ride they were partially opened. It turned out to be pretty amazing.

We were done with nothing to do since the park didn't open until 10am. We kind of stood around, went back to where the food was, stood there warming up for a little bit, and then headed back to the ride again. I realized then that people were going back on the ride! I asked my son if he wanted to go again and he was game. I told him this time I'd try to keep my eyes open. I tried. Probably for half the drop I kept my eyes open. heh heh heh It was a lot more fun the second time through.

I can see why they say it's a great family ride. It's extremely fast, and it's constant fun, but it's not scary at all! It's not rickety like a wooden roller coaster, which I've ridden before and are rather painful to be on. Here you get the fun of being on the wooden coaster with the sleek ride of a steel one. You can't beat that.

Around 10am I noticed a line of people who were being stopped from coming into the media section of the ride, which was right in front of it. By 11am the line was super deep and they were allowed to make a line closer to the ride. At 11:30 the park president addressed the media about InvadR opening. He spoke for about 15 minutes and the next thing we heard was a ruckus! The Vikings were coming with their entourage. The head Viking addressed the crowd and by noon the crowd was released to ride the newest roller coaster at Busch Gardens! I grabbed a shot with him and off we went to hang out with the rest of the park.

Since it was so cold out, we decided we'd only ride a few more rides before we headed home. We got on Verbolten, which I've ridden in the past, but this time I wasn't feeling it for some reason. hahahaha We got on it and I started shaking. The surprise part of this ride always gets me even though I know it's coming. hahahahaha

We road the Turkish Delight (tea cups) and The Tailwind where I totally squished my kid. Man, that ride makes us laugh probably more than any other one. Who doesn't like being able to squish the person sitting next to them?

I hope we can get down there a few more times this year. We love being able to go to Williamsburg not only for the park, but because we have family there, and they're always wonderful to spend time with.

What ride to you like at parks?

Out & About With Teens In Northern Virginia & Maryland

This past weekend, I had three teenagers at home. I spent most of the weekend painting the house, and decided on Monday to take a break and do something fun with the kids. The only issue was, I had no idea what to do. I mean, there are the typical things, but many of those "typical" things you do when it's nice out. We could've gone to Ocean City, but that would be a 3 hour drive, and honestly, at 43º I wasn't super interested in that.

We could've gone to Annapolis, but we've done that.

We could've gone to the National Mall, again, done that.

I decided to chat with my Maryland group on Facebook because most of those people have lived here longer than me. They came up with some great ideas, and while I didn't use any of them, I wanted to share those ideas with other people who might be trying to find something fun to do on a chilly winter day with teenagers.

Side note to why we didn't go do any of these things: I forgot my youngest had a dr appt on the early afternoon, and we couldn't cancel it.

The first suggestion was by Fadra Nally. She suggested the National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, Smithsonian. This is different than the one in D.C. This one is closer to Dulles in Virginia. The teenage girl wasn't really interested, but I think we'll plan a different time to go because every time I drive by the airport, I want to find time to visit. It's free aside from the $15 for parking. Not bad for a family.


The next suggestion was the National Cryptological Museum from Shelly Dixon. In fact, she had a few fun ideas! Sadly, it's closed on Federal Holidays so that was out, but the teenage girl was very interested in this one. Actually we all were. I had no idea it existed, but it sounds fascinating! They have artifacts about the cryptologic profession. There's so much I don't know about code making & code breaking! Another free place to visit!

She also suggested a place called Shadowland. From what I can tell from their website, it's laser tag on steroids. They refer to it as an "experience". There's obviously a cost for this, but the more people who go, the less expensive and the more fun it sounds like they will have. This would be fun if the kids got a bunch of their friends together to go do. It's also located in Maryland, in Columbia.

Pam Stultz suggested Sky Zone, which we all know kids love! My boys have been to them in Minnesota with their sisters. Who doesn't love a good trampoline bounce every once in a while? I'm sure on national holidays though, that place is probably packed!

Her suggestion reminded me of a place that we saw when we were visiting my brother and sister-in-law on New Years Day. It's a place called iFly. It's an indoor skydiving adventure. Now, this isn't for the faint of heart, and it's not cheap, but man, wouldn't that be a fun experience? It's the only way you'd ever find me flying. This would definitely be something to save up for. It's definitely cheaper if you bring a group of people! Since they're teens, they should have some spending money set aside right?

Now Open! Come fly with us! #nowopen #iflyloudoun #iFLY #indoorskydiving #bodyflight #adventure #comeflywithus

A photo posted by iFLY Loudoun (@iflyloudoun) on Apr 29, 2016 at 7:15am PDT

What do the teens in your area like to do?