Are you a huge history fan? Do you have a friend or friends that share the same passion? Thankfully, I do. Hopefully you are just as fortunate. We visited Williamsburg together, last year. This year, we took on Alexandria and Mount Vernon! This time we left our men at home with the kids and took a girls only trip!
We stayed in the Hampden Inn- Old Town. This was the same hotel that my family stayed in when we visited DC with my grandparents back in 2010. It has a great continental breakfast. It also has a roof top pool but we didn’t use it because of the hours it was open. It is right near the Metro (however this was closed for construction. We were considering going to DC).
We recommend going to the Ramsay House/Alexandria Visitor Center located at 221 King Street (if you are staying at the Hampden Inn it’s straight downtown towards the Wharf area) and purchasing a Key to the City for $15 (a $44 value and gets you 40% off at Mount Vernon)
First, we checked out the Carlyle house which has some (depending on where you read, I think it’s because he was so close the border) Scottish merchant history. I was happy to see the Outlander Kitchen Cookbook in the gift shop and talked to the nice gift shop attendant who happened to be an Outlander fan as well!
We walked down to the wharf and then stopped in a Starbucks (click for link to an article about the neat building) that was in an old building with stone walls inside. There is a cute little bookstore next store as well.
We went back to our hotel and vegged out. Hey, we didn’t have any kids to tend to. We wanted to rest and watch what we wanted to watch.
The next day, we went to Mount Vernon. This was the highlight of our trip. We drove down the parkway which was very nice seeing all the neat homes along the way.
We decided to pay for the National Treasure: Book of Secrets tour. It was an extra $10. We scheduled it for 3pm. We figured it would give us plenty of time to tour the rest of the grounds. It took us into the basement and some other places that are usually locked. It was fun to watch the movie through a different lens.
I recommend taking plenty of snacks and a bottle of water, especially if you are there in the summer. Janelle took her Rtic water bottle (I have since bought one myself) and that stayed cold for her all day.
My husband and I took a river tour to Mount Vernon back in 2011. I definitely recommend taking one of those if you have time and money.
We also went over to the Mount Vernon Distillery which my husband and I totally missed back in 2011.
It was really neat. The grist mill demonstration was really cool.
After dinner at a pub in Alexandria, we took a walk and went past the Spite House. The blue building is 7 feet wide. It is 25 feet deep and encompasses a total of 325 sq ft. It was built in 1830 by Brickmaker and council member to keep horse-drawn wagons and loud loiterers out of his alley. Wagon wheels had carved gouges into the sides of both homes. These are still visible on the living room walls. Such a neat piece of history!
On our last morning, we took a walk up to George Washington’s Masonic Monument. This is located past the Metro station and opposite the Wharf. You can tour the museum which is an additional cost from your ‘Key to the City’ pass but it does get you access to the observation deck to view the city and you can see all the way to DC!
It was great to get away. It is so important to get a break as a mom. Check out my blog post about moms needing to get away that I posted earlier this year.
Is there a historical place you like to get away to or is there a place you and your girlfriends like to get away to?
Have a great weekend!
