George Washington's Teacher's Institute

Two summers ago, I had the awesome opportunity to spend a week living on the grounds of Mount Vernon and studying the life of George Washington.  

Yes, living on the grounds.  A five minute walk from the mansion :)

As a history nerd, it was phenomenal to get to have breakfast on the lawn of Mount Vernon, watching the sun rise over the Potomac River.  As a tribute to General Washington, we also had several bottles of wine on the Piazza.  Hey, George & Martha entertained nightly and had a full bar, so it seemed the best way to honor his excellency :)

(In all honesty, we did have to let secret service/security know we were going out there at night...seeing how Mount Vernon is a national treasure and all...)

We had bald eagles fly over our end-of-institute dinner.  That was just a surreal experience!

We had private tours and got to see areas of the grounds that are normally closed to the public...like the basement!

We also engaged in historical role play and learned so much about George Washington as a private man.

The fact that George Washington had his own distillery and made his own whiskey makes me just respect him that much more!

On one of our first nights, we also had an outing to Washington DC where I got to see this for the first time:

(I've been to DC a few times, but this was one of my favorite trips!)

Our culminating experience was participating in a private wreath laying on his tomb:

It's a phenomenal experience and I highly encourage you to apply!