Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

Dateline: Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia
November 9, 2007

Oh My God! That is about all we can say. Never have we seen such an awesome display of intellect, science, architecture and American History as we were treated to today.

Per the suggestion of Carol’s brother-in-law (thanks again Freddie!!), we were up bright and early, loaded up, Starbucked up, and on the road by 0900 today, as we wanted to spend as much time as possible going through President Thomas Jefferson’s home, museum, science collection, and library, and we were not disappointed in the least.

This is our next-to-last travel day, and we are happy that we are going to be settling in for a few weeks in Washington D.C. Traveling is a lot of fun, but living out of a bag for 32 days can get a little old. We have changed our clothes in airports, railway cars, ferries, cars, airplanes and cruise ships, so if any one needs any advice on being a quick-change or “how to change in a closet” artist, we’re your source!

We traveled all the way across Virginia on Highway 64, and if you have never lived or visited this area of the country, the colors of the fall trees cannot be described. Steve has tried his best to capture the colors with his camera, but it is truly difficult to describe the vibrant and rich variety of greens, reds, oranges and yellows we were treated to along the freeway this morning. If you can think of the boredom of I-5 running down the middle of California, try to picture lush forests full of all of the above colored trees, along both sides of the freeway, as well as along the median, for as many miles as you drive! We are going to drive Shenandoah National park tomorrow morning and we have been led to believe it is even more beautiful. We’ll let you know in our next update.

Monticello is just an amazing tribute to early America. Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, Governor of Virginia, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Third President of the United States, scientist, architect, classical scholar, founder of the University of Virginia, plantation owner/operator, and “alleged” father of numerous bastard children with his wife’s household slave (we were told today that the DNA tests proved it was ‘Jefferson blood lines,’ but could have been he or any of his male offspring), but he indeed was a man of many talents and pursuits. I guess all one can say is that if he were alive today, he probably would have invented Microsoft, invented nuclear medicine, designed skyscrapers, hiked the Pacific Crest and Appalachian Trails, and studied with an electron microscope. And to top it off, he died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years to the day after he signed the Declaration of Independence.

Jefferson was a very close friend of future President James Monroe, who moved in just “down the road” about 2.5 miles from Monticello. His place is called Ah Lawn-Highland, and it is a 535-acre estate, but it paled next to Monticello.

Please checkout the photos of all we were allowed to take photos of at Monticello Album on Google Picasa. As usual, Steve bent a few rules to sneak some (no invasive to the historical artifacts of course!) photos of his amazing collection of all kinds of neat stuff.

We walked the grounds, visited Jefferson’s grave, and then headed down the hill to Michie’s a tavern that has been in continuous business since 1784. It was a pretty cool place. They served local Virginia-style southern food and we ate family style at long tables. We then headed to the indoor museum of Jefferson artifacts, and spent another three hours looking at all of his numerous inventions and other items of his life.

We experienced our first rain of the vacation today, but it was nice. Not a hard rain, but an on-and-off light rain, but you do know you are on the East Coast, as the high today was about 45 degrees, and they are calling for light snow in Shenandoah Park tonight, which will make our drive tomorrow fun! However, there has been so little precipitation in this area all year; the people are REALLY hoping we get some wet weather for awhile. We are hoping they get their wish, as soon as we arrive in Washington and get moved in!

Until then, stay in touch….