Monticello

Friday morning, we drove southwest into Virginia to Charlottesville where the University of Virginia is and where Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, is located just outside of the city. Traffic on the interstate was really slow but the drive through the countryside was beautiful - rolling green hills and a lots of trees. We ate lunch at the 'tavern' near Monticello where they had a buffet with more traditional foods. We drank our apple cider out of tankards and the servers were dressed in period costumes.

Our tickets to visit the inside of Monticello weren't until later in the afternoon so we headed into town to check out the U of V campus. We went inside the rotunda that Jefferson had designed. It was a neat space; he was certainly an inventive man. The campus was lovely and felt very southern. Edgar Allen Poe had attended school there for a semester so we also got to look inside the room he stayed in. Kind of funny that they would put a stuffed raven in a room that he barely lived in..but they did.

Back at Monticello, we arrived at the house a few minutes before our tour. It was a beautiful home and really reminded me of places in Europe. Which makes sense when you consider that Jefferson was really influenced by Paris; he even had his cook go to France to learn French cooking. Lexi managed to stay fairly calm on the tour so that was good as well. The grounds of the house were well maintained and we walked around them a bit before heading back towards the car. The views from the terraces looking over the landscape were more of the rolling green hills; quite picturesque. On the walk down the 'mountain' (they called it a mountain but it didn't seem that tall to me), we saw Jefferson's grave. There is a small sized cemetery not far from the house with several family members buried there.

We stayed overnight in Charlottesville and left early the next morning to drive back to DC to attend an organ concert with an Independence theme at the National Cathedral. Going to Monticello was a nice 4th of July weekend activity; it seemed quite appropriate considering that Jefferson died on the 4th of July.