The Potomac at Mount Vernon

In October the boat trip from Alexandria to Mount Vernon only runs on Saturday and Sunday but it would be a delightful way to arrive at the Estate - one to think about in the Spring.   On the day we visited there were no pleasure cruises running from Mount Vernon either so the jetty was closed.

The walkway at the edge of the Potomac is very beautiful.  George Washington's 'Pioneer Farm' is close by at water level but we did not have a chance to visit this time.

One rather sad aspect of the waterside was that there was a little beach which was covered with dead wood which had presumably been carried downriver and also hundreds of what I originally thought were empty shells...

In fact it was quite smelly nearby and it turned out that these shells were not empty but their owners were dead.  I am not sure of the reason for this.  I think the Potomac at this point must be partly tidal, at least a little salty but perhaps prone to pollution due to the size of its watershed in the Washington area.

Leaving the waterside behind, it is a little climb up some wooden stairs to the path back to the garden.

This is the view looking back down the steps to the river.

There are several of these very large Sycamore trees with very white bark - we had seen them in January at Riverbend Park and had thought that they were dead trees but here they were still in full leaf.

Walking back to the house we passed the tomb of George Washington and his wife, Martha.  Their remains were re- interred here from a large family crypt.

Nearby there is a memorial to enslaved workers at Mount Vernon at the site of their burial ground.  As at Monticello, work is underway to determine the precise number and nature of the burials which were unmarked and largely unrecorded.

Back on the 'East Lawn' near the house it was possible to see the colonnaded 'back' of the house, facing the river and, by turning around, the view over the grass to the water..