As Alli put it in her blog, here in the East, if George Washington ever walked in a place, they make it into a park or national monument.  We’ve tried to take the girls to as many of these as we can and we’ve done pretty good so far.  The only big one we haven’t done is Mt. Vernon which I will definitely do before we leave the East. 

Washington was a great man and I love seeing so many of the places he walked and worked and sacrificed for his country.  It is remarkable to me that he never wanted to be in the lime light.  Never wanted to be President.  He simply wanted to go home and be the farmer he was.  He served his country out of civic virtue, not out of political ambition.  There is a quote I love by Benjamin Franklin that I don’t have with me right now (because I’m still sitting on that Turquoise beach, remember? tee hee), but it says something about how the best men to be in politics are the ones who don’t really want to be there.  The doctors and farmers and regular men who have no aspirations to be that powerful.  They are the best men for the job because they serve faithfully and then leave when they are done without corrupting the system.  Oh that we had always had men like George Washington running our country.   Well, here is Part I of our George Washington tour…

Washington Rock was the first place we went.  It is just 15 minutes from us here in New Jersey up in the Watchung hills, I mean Mountains. (They don’t really know what mountains are here in the East so we try not to make them feel bad when they call hills mountians.) It is where Washington watched the British troop movements down below in the valley  from a place of height and security.  It gave him enough strategic advantage that it allowed him to win some important battles.  Today it still provides a beautiful view down into the valley, though you look down on cities instead of farmland as GW did.
 
Allison plays George.

Our next stop on the GW tour was in New York City where we  saw the church where Washington prayed on his inauguration day (though I didn’t’ get to take the girls in because it was having some work done.) 
We also saw the place where Washington was inaugurated here on these steps.  This is actually right across the street from the NY Stock Exchange.

Next, in Philadelphia we saw where he sat and presided as the constitution was written.

On the way home from Philly we drove through Valley Forge.  This has to be one of my favorite places of all time.  It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful.  It had a sacred feel about it.  One walks through this place with reverence.




This arch was erected in honor of those who suffered here at Valley Forge.  The inscriptions are beautiful and give a powerful reminder of what took place here. 

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.”

In my opinion, we were on holy ground that day.  I’ll never forget it.