As Inauguration day approaches the Washington metro area is preparing for the estimated four million or so visitors that will be attending the event. It’s going to be quite a celebration. After the celebration you may want to end your vacation in D.C. on a historic note. How about taking the family on a short road trip to learn about the first president of the United States?

The first inauguration at the Federal Hall in New York

George Washington gave our countries first inaugural address on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York on April 30, 1789. After serving two terms as president of the United States he returned to his home in Mount Vernon where he lived the final two years of his life. Mount Vernon is probably the most famous home of George Washington, but if you have ever wondered about the other places George Washington called home, here are two often overlooked nearby locations.

Popes Creek Plantation, Westmoreland County, Virginia

A quiet spot at Popes Creek Plantation

George Washington was born at Popes Creek Plantation in Westmoreland County Virginia. I’ve visited this location on several occasions and it’s a tranquil, slow moving kind of place. Of all the historic locations I’ve visited, this one feels the most authentic. It’s not as grand as Monticello and it’s not as forced as Colonial Williamsburg but it has charm. You can walk in the quiet along the river or through trails and imagine what was when our country was just beginning. The future paleontologist in the family will enjoy searching for fossilized sharks’ teeth in the sandy river shore. Future graffiti artists can use a stick to carve designs into the clay cliffs. Just be careful of the wildlife when you go. The squirrels at the picnic area will shamelessly steal your Cheetos and the turkeys are a little mean.

Ferry Farm, Fredericksburg, Virginia

Known as George Washington’s boyhood home, Ferry Farm isn’t a re-created historical site as much as an active learning location. They have a beautiful colonial style garden and some trails along the Rappahanock River but that’s not why we visit. We go for the fun, well thought out summer educational programs. In addition to the civil war workshops and gardening programs they can “Dig George” and become junior archaeologists or learn about the “First Virginians”, the Powhatan Indians. They have also created a touch box program that enables the blind and visually impaired to enjoy history with touchable artifacts, Braille maps and text, and large print brochures.

Ferry Farm is located just outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia about 50 minutes from Mount Vernon. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. George Washington’s birthplace is an easy 60 minute drive from Ferry Farm. Admission is $4 for adults and no fee for children. They’re both worth a visit.

Photo Credits : Federal Hall from the public domain. Popes Creek Plantation by Ken Lund

‘Tis the season for holiday decorations. From the most outrageous light displays to the basic red bows and candles I look forward to seeing them all. We’ll pack the kids in the car and drive for hours visiting all the homemade displays in our area. The creativity, or maybe OCD, on display during this time of year can’t be matched. I wouldn’t want to miss any of it. If there wasn’t YouTube, what other time of the year would we get to see a light display that flashes in time with Christmas techno music?

To the other extreme, there are many displays that take a much more organic approach to the holidays. The best example of this may be at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Along with Jamestown and Yorktown, Colonial Williamsburg is one of three locations in the historic triangle that attempts to preserve the past by living in it. While not a true representation of a Colonial Era Christmas, Williamsburg offers a beautiful and unique display of natural decorations that are sure to catch your eye.

Williamsburg offers many seasonal programs that will capture the attention of every member of the family. You can take in a musical performance designed for children, dine with George Washington, or enjoy a candlelit ghost tour.You can get more information on these and other events in the Holiday Planner.

At $37 for adults and $18 for children over six, general admission to Colonial Williamsburg can be a bit steep for a family visit. However, many local hotels offer reduced rates passes and there are many vacations packages to choose from.

Photo Credits: Restroom sign photo from the public domain. Wreath photo derived from original photo by Tonamel

Winchester Mystery House

The story goes that when a grieving Sarah L. Winchester, widow to legendary rifle industrialist, William Winchester, met with a medium in 1884 she was told the following:

• Thousands of people have died as a result of her husband’s creations.
• Their spirits are angry and seeking vengeance
• To appease them she must build a home for herself and the spirits, however there was one catch: she could never stop building the house or she would die.

Hence began what would eventually become a $5.5 million dollar (nearly $70 million by today’s standards) construction project that went on for 38 years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until Sarah’s death on September 5, 1922 at the age of 82.

But Sarah was not only trying to appease the spirits, she was also bent on confusing them. Under her orders, carpenters built stairways that led nowhere, doors that open into solid walls or in one case a 10-foot drop to the ground below. She slept in a different room every night and spent her time spying on servants from various hidey-holes around the mansion.

Today the Winchester Mystery House offers three different tours as well as The Winchester Firearms Museum. The Mansion Tour offers up 110 of the 160-room architectural behemoth for viewing.  Also available is The Garden Tour; magnificent Victorian gardens restored to the days when Sarah Winchester’s full time staff of eight gardeners tended its beauty.

For those who like to dig a little deeper, The Winchester Mystery House offers a special Behind-the-Scenes, hard hats only tour, which takes guests “into areas which had been unexplored for over 75 years.” For safety reasons these tours are limited to guests ten years of age and older.

Be sure to check out the famous Winchester Firearms Museum, home to one of the largest collections of  Winchester Rifles on the West Coast, the “Gun that Won the West,” as well as many rare antiques manufactured by Winchester Products Company, a subsidiary to the legendary arms manufacturer.

For tour hours, pricing and special packages, visit their website at: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

Photo: Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, CA.

I’ve lived over twenty years of my life in Connecticut, but there are still quite a few historic places I haven’t seen even in this small state. That’s because there are so many of them. Living in New England, it’s hard not to drive by something historic almost every day. There are the big attractions of course—places like Plymouth Rock or the Old State House for those who live in Boston. But there are also hundreds of lesser known attractions like Revolutionary War sites, historic buildings, and homes of famous Americans built in the seventeenth, eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.

All within five miles in and around Hartford, Connecticut, are former homes of Mark Twain (1835-1910), Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), and Noah Webster (1758-1843).  For anyone interested in vacations packed with visits to historic sites, this area has no shortage.  This past summer, my daughter and I took in a few of them.

The Mark Twain House

The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford threatened to close earlier this year because of a lack of funding. I had never been there, and I figured I should do my part to keep open the home of arguably America’s greatest writer and humorist. Twain is better known for growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, but he lived in Hartford from 1874 through 1891. It was here that he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and several other of his great novels. To add to the history, the home was decorated by Louis Comfort Tiffany.  In addition to the home, the grounds include a recently built Education and Visitors Center which displays exhibits about Twain’s life and the Industrial and Victorian Ages in America, as well a short biopic of Twain by award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns.  There, you’ll learn lesser known facts, such as Twain helping to form a Confederate militia during the Civil War, but giving up on it after only two weeks.  Hours and admission fees are available at the website.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Immediately next to the Mark Twain House is the Harriet Beecher Stowe House and Library, home of the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and one of the most famous American women of the nineteenth century.  Stowe lived there from 1873 until her death in 1896.  That’s right, for several years, Stowe and Twain were neighbors.  Like the Twain home, the Stowe site includes educational exhibits in an adjacent building and a Visitors Center—this one in an 1873 carriage house.  Both the Twain House and the Stowe House also offer special holiday tours.  Even better for families, the Stowe home schedules Child’s Tours specifically directed at children ages 5 through 12.  Admission for that tour is only $5 for children and $4 for accompanying adults and teenagers.  Additional admission fees and hours are available at the website.

The Noah Webster House

One town away in West Hartford is the 1758 birthplace of another famous American writer.  Noah Webster didn’t write novels, but almost every student in America has read his book.  (Most of us in an updated version, I’m sure.)  Unlike the Victorian “cottages” of Twain and Stowe, the Webster House is a New England farmhouse built in the mid-eighteenth century.  It’s also a great educational resource and its staff has designed tours and Colonial-era activities specifically for kids that are held on the first Saturday of each month.  Again, updated hours and admission fees are available at the website.

At first, visits to historic homes don’t sound like a real thrill for families with young kids.  Each of these sites however really makes an effort to include children or to offer them special programs or activities.  Each of them also has great grounds and gardens for getting some outside time in nice weather.  And, if my daughter is like other kids, the Gift Shops are always a favorite too.  Your kids might even learn some history without realizing it.