|
WASHINGTON’S BIRTHPLACE, Va. – The ruddy bark of cedars glows as morning light strikes their trunks. Solid and strong as the trees are, their amply spaced bodies form a delicate web whose roughly textured, orange-brown “strands” lace through fresh air, connecting emerald vaults to a grass carpet of similar hue. In the space between green, peace abounds.
The first president of the United States was not born at a spa, but you might think so from the tranquility and rejuvenation you’ll experience on a visit to his birthplace. This plantation situated along the Potomac River on the Northern Neck of Virginia appears as this week’s National Park Getaway as part of a series that helps people find new places to reconnect with nature, history, family, and friends. George Washington Birthplace National Monument, the 36th Getaway, works like a cucumber facial or a soothing massage. Come here to relax among the stately cedars while viewing trumpeter swans, ruddy ducks, and the array of migrating water fowl that escape winter here at Popes Creek.
Come here also to get away from life in 2010. Although the house in which George Washington was born is said to have burned in 1779, the Memorial House built in the early 1930s stands as an example of the home of a prosperous colonial planter and his family. Furnished in the style of the day with mid-18th century antiques, the house takes visitors back in time, as do the aromas of cornbread cooking in the Colonial Kitchen and the sights and sounds of wooden fences, tobacco plants, chickens, and Devon cows on the colonial farm. The analeptic (flashback) effect intensifies when special events bring guests in historical costumes to practice blacksmithing, cook 18th-century fare, play period music, and dance in the Memorial House hall.
George Washington’s birthplace makes a great destination for history-lovers, families, and anyone who could use the restorative effects offered by a scenic retreat. For further information about Washington’s birthplace and the society into which he was born, read this week’s National Park Getaway. To find other spots where you can unwind and enjoy America’s landscapes and heritage, check out previous Getaways at www.nps.gov/getaways.
|
locations throughout Virginia’s River Country
River Country News 
Comments