Popes Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia....

After a mighty long delay, I am officially back in business! I apologize, and have learned my lesson. NEVER take a 3-credit course that is part of your degree program in 4-weeks! Holy moses, talk about a TON of work!! At any rate, I am successfully finished with that course and happily writing on my new Macbook.

So, on to the remainder of our trip to King George:

This was the day I was very much looking forward to. The trip to Popes Creek. Why was looking forward to this, and what is it, you ask? Easy, easy answer: I was looking forward to it because I am a student of all things George Washington. He and his life (flaws and all) completely fascinate me! And this was where he was born.

My goofy little nephew, JT, decided he wanted to join Gramma, Grampa, Luke and me on this trip, so we all piled into my big brother's mini-van and made the quick trip toward the coast to visit this wonderful place. Have I mentioned just how much I love the Virginia countryside? Seriously! It pretty much doesn't matter if it's a 5-minute ride, or a couple of hours, it always passes quickly and is enjoyable because of the beauty and history in this place. Approximately 30-minutes later we were at our destination.

This place is now part of the National Parks system, yet so few seem to know about it. The parking lot was all but deserted when we arrived. I think one other vehicle was there and 3 school busses were pulling out. Wow, that's kind of sad. Hey, that meant we had more time to just ourselves!! So off we went.

Luke and JT were the typical little kids: they were ready to run, run, run! Thankfully they listened and only ran around when we let them in areas they'd be safe and not hurt anything. We started up the trail to the house. It's a bit of a surprise, though, since the house isn't accurate. Archeological excavation has shown the house that was built for tourists to see is actually on the foundation of an outbuilding. A barn, or something. Oh well, it has some cool stuff (Augustine Washington's wine bottle, now over 300 years old!) and is a very good representation of the houses of that time!

The grounds have been restored and kept beautifully. I don't think the garden had much done with it this year, but sometimes that happens, especially in years of recession. One can't complain too much. The asparagus was very much in seed, but there was one stalk that was perfect for picking & eating. Guess what I did? Yup, I snapped it up! That one stalk somehow lasted through the remainder of the trip, survived the plane trip, and the drive home from Denver without being refrigerated! Not something I would typically do, but....We ate it a few days later with some fresh wild asparagus from our area.

We were able to wander the grounds, see the animals, look inside all of the out buildings, slave quarters, kitchen....everything that was open. It was so lush, green, and gorgeous! And the view looking over Popes Creek to the Potomac starting its flow into the Atlantic Ocean? Oh my...what a fantastic thing to see! That's something one could sit on their porch and peer at each day, for sure!

The highlight of these grounds for me was the foundation of the house George Washington was born in. When he was born the house was still a 2-room home (later expanded to 4-rooms). You can walk on the foundation outline, step inside what would've been the house (grass inside the outline), and just imagine what it was like for Mary Ball Washington to birth her first child (she was Augustine's second wife, making GW his 4th child, 3rd living). The house burned in 1779, long after the George Washington left the place (he was 3 when they moved), but the legacy was left. You used to be able to step INTO the foundation, see how it was built, and have a bigger experience, but tourists began stealing the rocks and bricks. How sad. The Park Service then filled the foundation in and made sure the artifacts would never be able to leave the property again (exception being archeological exploration, of course).

Being with an almost 3-yr-old and almost 4-yr-old prevented me from taking the time I wanted while exploring, but that was okay. The boys were having fun, and that made it worth it. We left for the gift shop (even if you don't buy, it's always a must...I'm a dork), spent a small amount of time looking at stuff, and made our way to the Potomac River and Washington Family Burial Plot.

Just down a dirt road at the entrance to Popes Creek is access to a lovely little beach (that occasionally gets crab pots washing up on it....despite them being small and for blue crab, that is PERFECT for this Deadliest Catch nutjob! Thanks to the park ranger for letting me know & see what he was carrying!) that we let the boys play on. That was part of this trip: I promised Luke the day prior that I'd let him play in some water, either the Atlantic or the Potomac. JT wanted to play, too, and I'm not one to say no to something like that! Well, with other parental permission, of course. Holy crikey, was that water COOOOOLD this time of year!! I knew it was cold, but it was even more shocking than I'd remembered! The boys didn't care, they wanted to go deeper. I do say no to that. Up to their butts was far enough. We played, threw rocks, searched for shells (found some GREAT ones!), and splashed around for about 30-minutes, then it started to rain. Time to get out of the water. Silly JT said "wait! I need to wet my hiney!" Huh? Okay. He proceeded to squat down to get his hiney wet, stood up and said "okay, we can go." I busted out laughing while he made his way to Gramma and Grampa waiting with towels. Leave it to my son, who had already started up the beach, to run back to the water and follow suit. What goofy kids!!

This was still on what was part of the farm. Well, actually not Augustine's, but a brother's place, now private property that's been kept open for the public to see. Just at the top of the beach and into the trees is the burial plot. Excavated in the early 1900's (I'm sorry, I don't remember the year!! Bad History Major), they actually were not able to identify all the members and placed them all in one tomb. They know the names of who was buried there, just not the identities of the remains. George Washington's parents are buried here. How reverent! Mom and I spent a little bit of time here while dad stayed with the boys in the mini-van. They were tired and wanted a movie. At such a young age, I can't say I blame them. It was time to head on home now.

This wasn't the end of the day, but this is a LONG post, so I'll break it in two. My big brother's party was this night, so I'll touch on it in a bit. For now, I'll leave everyone to ponder the first 3-years of George Washington's life. Bear in mind we really don't know much, if anything of his childhood! Who could've known what a figure he'd become, and there wasn't the recording means we have now. He did NOT chop down the cherry tree (that was made up for romantic notion by an author around the time of the Revolution), but I'm sure he did have offer some mischief. I'm sure we all know of children like that....