Cheesy Tourist Photos

Today, my mom, my sister, J, and I went to see Mount Vernon - George Washington's home in Virginia. It's a wonderful place and I hadn't been there since I was a little girl (when all I "knew" about George was something about wooden teeth and a cherry tree). Since we have all read up recently on 1776 and His Excellency, we wanted to revisit. The addition of a brand new, beautiful, museum made the trip an even better experience. I was very pleased to see that George Washington and I have similar ascthetic tastes when it comes to color palette and paint choices. His dining room is a vivid green and many other shades of green and blue and sea colors were all around the house.

I have to confess a certain fondness for the "cheesy tourist photo" so I made us take turns posing. When forced, I hate these shots, but when done with just the right amount of "oh well the hell", "it'll be fun", "let's get our picture taken", and just a dash of irony (and add in a little creative post processing) you get some of my favorite shots for the family album.

p.s. I was surprised to see that J is a little bit taller than my sister (but she may not be standing up straight)
p.p.s. I hate being so short!
p.p.p.s. In the second picture, my mom and I have the exact same smile!