The Father of our Country, victor of the Revolution, the first President… join me on a ramble across the fields and creeks of Tidewater Virginia, exploring the places that formed our first national hero. You have been to Mount Vernon, now learn the rest of the story.

I will pick you up at your D.C. area hotel or an agreed meeting place, and we begin by venturing deep into Virginia’s Northern Neck, to a reconstruction of Washington’s 1732 birthplace, a tobacco plantation along the Potomac River, which includes the Washington family cemetery, colonial-era gardens and a working farm.

We continue to Ferry Farm, Washington’s boyhood home near Fredericksburg, and the home of his eccentric mother, Mary Ball Washington, until her death in 1789. An on-site museum features items excavated on the site and a reconstruction of the Washington family home, which is associated with colorful legends of the future President’s formative years.

We cross the Rappahannock River into historic Fredericksburg for lunch (at the traveler’s expense) and a quick tour of the historic downtown, including a stop at Meditation Rock, Mary Ball Washington’s likely burial place.

We head back toward the city named for Washington, stopping first at the Weems-Botts Museum in Dumfries, Virginia, once the home of Parson Mason Lock Weems, an early American clergyman, whose moralistic biography played an important role in creating the myths that made Washington a national hero

Next it’s on to Pohick Episcopal Church in Lorton. Washington’s family was associated with the congregation from the 1730’s, and the future president himself served as a member of the vestry (church council) for more than 30 years, and played an important role in the selection of its current site, and may even have helped design the building, which was completed in 1774.

The church, which is also associated with George Mason, the father of the Bill of Rights, is largely unaltered. It includes colonial-era box pews and the simple Neoclassical interior decoration typical of early American Episcopal churches.

We finish with a walking tour of George Washington’s Alexandria. One of Washington’s first projects as a young surveyor was plotting the city’s plan in 1748. We will visit several spots associated with his life in the city, including his town home, the Presbyterian meeting house where his funeral was held, the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary, which filled numerous prescriptions for him and his family, and Gadsby’s Tavern, a famed hostelry that hosted balls celebrating his birthday. We finish at Christ Church, whose construction he supported, a place where he and Martha often worshipped.

We finish the day by returning to your hotel or a previously agreed meeting place.

Cost:

·       $1100 (up to 3 persons)

·       $1400 (up to 10 persons)

Includes admission to all museums. Please contact to arrange for rambles for larger groups. .