We have, however, seen a lot of parks and gone camping three times. So that's something.
Recently I reconnected with a good friend from high school who is now living in Richmond. It turns out that she also has five children, all about the same ages as mine. We almost got the same gender mix, only getting out of sync on the last children, who were born within two weeks of each other. And since she homeschools her children (with the same curriculum we use) we decided that a reunion/field trip would be in order as soon as we recovered from the babies.
So a few weeks ago I got to play tourist and meet up with her and her own five children at Mt. Vernon. I think that perhaps I could hear George Washington rolling over in his grave when we all showed up.
Thankfully, my friend's mom was in town so we had three adults versus ten children eight and under, which was a slightly better ratio. I was very grateful that most of the day was outside and the weather was cloudy so that there were much fewer people to give our rowdy children the stink-eye as they tore around the estate.
We didn't help much because we were too busy catching up and comparing notes. It's funny how you can not see some friends in over a decade and pretty much catch up right where you left off. We were of similar mindsets and temperaments in high school and it was pretty obvious that things hadn't changed very much.
I don't remember that much about the actual historical side, but I do remember having a great time and being surrounded by a continual swirl of motion and chaos that drifted around us as we strolled through the grounds. Like I said, it was a good thing we came on a cloudy October weekday.
By the end of seven or eight hours together (we only left because it was closing), we decided that we had to do it again before I took off to the other side of the world. Hooray for friends and hooray for history!
