We toured the home where George and Martha had lived and died. He had been a fourth generation American; his great-grandfather had originally purchased the land and built the original house. It had passed down thru his family with him buying it from his older brother’s widow when he was only 22 years old. He added onto the house increasing its size by about 3 times what the original had been. It looks like a stone house, but it was made of wood, the boards were each about 2 feet long
and painted with a heavy white paint then sprayed with sand to look like stone.
They had beautiful flower gardens and as well as large vegetable gardens similar to what it was like when the Washington’s had lived there. They stressed how Washington’s favorite occupation had been as a farmer, even his very formal dining room had decorations featuring farming tools formed into the plaster ceiling and over the doors.
In the afternoon we went to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, VA. They had displays of all types of airplanes from some of the very earliest to the spaceships still in use. It was interesting, but I guess I need to let Larry tell about it. I was wearing down by then and just wanting to sit somewhere.
Highlights from the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center are the Lockheed SR-71, B-29 Superfortress (Enola Gay), the Space Shuttle, Concorde, and many more. The pretty well cover everything, Pre-1920 Aviation, Simulators, Military and Civilian aircraft and Space Satellites and Rockets (including Skylab). Except for some of the space hanger displays (a lot tend to only go up and not come back) the displays are the actual items. - Larry
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