Which president? THE President?

During a quick trip to DC this weekend, my friend Michelle and I broke wildly with our typical habits and took the National Treasure 2 Tour of Mount Vernon.

Now, you may be expecting, as I was, that this would be simply a quick trip down the stairs to the legendary basement of Mount Vernon, perhaps with a few myth-debunking quips delivered by a smug brown-frocked tour guide. Not so. This was a full hour tour, beginning with the lawn where the movie crew pulled up and ending with the Potomac River where the water cameras were stationed. We were led along the way by a rather scattered guide, perhaps in her seventies, who distractedly shuffled laminated photos while gushing about the genuine Bruce Greenwood and the dashing Nicholas Cage (literally "dashing": his sprint from the riverbanks to the mansion were what seemed to impress her most).

Unlike the merely ordinary guests, we got to see the basement of Mount Vernon, complete with original bricks (of course! who re-bricks their basement on a whim?) and the very arched entrance to the supposed tunnel. We saw the cornerstone that inspired the secret door to the tunnel. But here's where it gets truly exciting. According to our tour guide, the tunnel wasn't going to be part of the movie until they got to Mount Vernon. What, exactly, it was going to be about I'm not certain, as our guide waved her hand airily and said it would involve the difficulties of throwing a birthday party for the President. Right. Anyhow, when Nicholas Cage saw the locked up door to the iceroom he had to see inside, and when he discovered a real, live spiderweb-filled room, complete with a tunnel, he said they had to work it into the movie. So they devised a secret tunnel and then used the iceroom as its exit.

The tour was fantastic and absolutely worth the little extra time, money, and time outside in the freezing rain. What was my favorite part? When our guide said, "Now, it rained all four weeks they were here filming, and it was freezing! All those women in the film, wearing their little cocktail dresses, they look like their having fun, but they're just acting!" Actresses acting: who would have guessed?