Presidents Day

Okay, so it wasn't actually Presidents Day. Not in the traditional sense because that's like in February or something, and not in the sense that I had originally meant it, because my plan was to stop at James Madison's house, Montpelier, as well as Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville. But I was told that Montpelier was not worth the $20 admission fee because while I'm sure it's interesting, it's small and compared to Monticello, rather lackluster. So I didn't see two presidents' houses. I saw one president's house. So maybe today was just President Day.

As I was leaving Baltimore this morning, I stopped to take some photos. This is right outside Stephanie's building. Isn't it lovely?? I really do enjoy Baltimore. 

That's her building behind the dolphin fountain. 

Shaping up to be a beautiful day! Her friends last night were so excited that it was going to be a mere 80 degrees on Tuesday. And frankly, I don't blame them. It will feel amazing after all this 100+ heat. It rained quite a bit last night so hopefully that cut the heat a little more today. 

I stopped here at the Target and was on full lookout for spies. I even endangered my life trying to get this photo, speeding down the highway at 65 mph. I am quite the patriot.

I didn't take 95 to Charlottesville because there were several traffic delays when I was leaving in the morning, so I ended up on a lot of back roads like this. I loved it so, so much. This is my ideal road trip, driving down these country roads, looking at all the beautiful farmland, the huge, absolutely gorgeous horse farms, and vineyards along the way. Just so lovely and peaceful, and I was so happy. I kept thinking, I love our country. And I do love this country. It's so beautiful and diverse, and the people are just generally friendly and kind. Sure, there are a bunch of idiots on the road who think it's some sort of personal insult to let you pass them (my cruise control is on, people, I am literally going the same speed. You're the one slowing down and speeding up like it's some kind of race), but wherever I go, people always smile and say hello, offer to help if you're struggling with a grocery cart, or hold the door open for you. Often we take that for granted, I think, but it's not always that way in other countries, and I think it's a really wonderful part of being American. 

Hey! I did it!! I texted my mom this photo right away because she is so crazy about Thomas Jefferson and has been to Monticello more than once. It's my first time here though, so yay me! 

Lovely Virginia roads. 

I bought a house tour for 3:15 pm, but arrived closer to 1:30, so I hit up the gift shop first.

So later, on the tour, I learned that Jefferson had 6,500 and some odd books, and he gave 6,000 of them to congress after the war of 1812 because their collection was destroyed. (Josh has a song about how the Canadians burned the White House down but the Americans won't admit it.) But then he regretted his decision and bought 1,000 more to reboot his collection because he couldn't live without his books. I mean, I get it. 

I said, "Is this how tall he really was?" and the guide said, "Yes, 6'2"." He doesn't look 6'2" in this statue, but when you stand next to it, he really is. 

So you take a shuttle from the guest area up the mountain to the house. It's really not far, but he does actually live on a mountain. (I'm talking like he's still alive. You know what I mean.)  It's so, so lovely up there. There was such a cool breeze and so much shade it didn't even feel like it was 95 degrees. Seriously. He made the right choice, building on that mountain. 

I was kind of obsessed with these butterflies. 

I mean, how lovely. 

But not nearly as obsessed as I was with this tree. 

I wanted a picture with the tree, but man, I look sad. I can promise you that I was not actually sad, just the sun was in my eyes and I wasn't really sure if I was even in the photo due to the reflection on my cellphone screen. But yay! I did it!

Beautiful grounds. 

More butterflies! 

Again with the trees. I'm just crackers about trees! 

The house. Pretty impressive, really. 

One of his original carriages. 

These are the cellars. There were privies down there, which are very close to modern day toilets, because Jefferson was a great inventor and all up on the cutting edge stuff. And there were several wine and beer cellars. After he came back from France where he served as ambassador for 4 years, his taste changed more towards rose and white wines, from the original fashionable madeira wines that were popular in the US. See, I learned stuff. 

The kitchens underneath the house. At this point, I went on the tour of the house, but we weren't allowed to take photos inside the house, so I don't have any. Sad face. 

Look at that amazing view!! 

The kitchen gardens, which my mother is crazy about.  I mean, she's crazy about all of it, but she loves loves loves the vegetable garden. 

Kitchen gardens, part II. 

WHAT. Kitchen gardens, part III. 

This is his grave. There is a small family plot on the lands, which the shuttle stops at on its loop around the grounds. You can get out and walk around it a bit. 

All members of Jefferson's extended family. 

So I texted my mom to tell her that I know TJ's grandson. I don't know how. I saw his portrait in the house, in the gallery, but the tour guide didn't tell us who was in that portrait, which I thought was weird because he said who everyone else was. There were lots of paintings of famous people, Madison (who was his good friend and lived close by), Washington, Locke, Newton, Franklin. So I thought, oh, that must be Descarte or someone famous because I definitely know that face. But then the tour guide said nothing and when I asked him who it was he said it was Thomas Jefferson Randall, his grandson. So I have no idea how I know him, but I do. Here is his gravesite. 

I took a picture of some of the postcards I purchased in the shops so you could see the inside of his house a bit. On the top is Jefferson's personal sitting room, which was attached to his bed. Not just his bedroom, mind you, but his actual bed that was built into a little alcove, so he could get up in the middle of the night and go write letters on his polygraph or whatever. I loved that sitting room. I want one of my own. Below is the dining room, which was also rather lovely, with a quaint little sunny sunroom attached. What lucky person gets these postcards?? If you provided me with your address, it could be you! 

After, I made my way down the mountain to my dear friend Allison's sister, Julie's place. I had stopped on one of the aforementioned country roads to buy her some produce from a stand. I wasn't sure what her diet was like, but I thought, well, everyone eats fruits and vegetables, right? So I texted Allison and turns out I was correct, she's a vegetarian and I made the right choice. Phew!

While Julie was at at work, I went to Marco and Luca Dumplings downtown in the mall, as was recommended to me by Katie and Dan last night. (Katie is a native of Charlottesville.) 

Pretty cute little street, right? 

My company at dinner. 

And my faithful friend. 

It was pretty good! I finally got my veggie bun (on the right), peanut sesame noodles (middle), and hot and sour soup (left). I sat a the window counter (see above) to people watch, but it started to rain really hard and the power went off. So a guy sat down next to me because he didn't want to go out into the rain, obviously. He started talking to me and was a pretty nice guy, which was good because I would have been really annoyed if he wasn't. Turns out he was the city manager, haha. So we chatted for a while, and then when I tried to awkwardly exit from the conversation (because I never know how to do this sort of thing), I discovered we were locked in the building because the doors were electric and the power had gone out. City Manager comes out and we stand there trying to figure out what to do. We walked to the back of the indoor shopping plaza, and he figured out how to open the door back there, because it was not self-evident. Then we ended up walking in the same direction for several blocks, meeting a crazy woman who was walking around just straight up cursing to herself, and me thinking, good lord, does he think I'm following him? Is he following me? because that's the kind of person I am. But thankfully he was just going that way and eventually when I got the coffee shop that I wanted to go to and saw it was closed he just said good luck and I turned around and went back to my car. PHEW. 

Some shots of the mall. 

On my way back to the car, I saw this bookstore, and as you may have already guessed based on previous posts, I'm a little in love with bookstores. I had to go in. 

This bookstore was everything a bookstore should be. It had maps and tons of old, leather bound books, and they were playing classical music. 

Stephanie would have lost her mind. 

So now I am back at Julie's freaking adorable little apartment, just getting ready to sleep and waiting for her to come home from work. Can I just say how grateful I am for GPS? When I was a kid, we had to use paper maps that would not tell you, and I repeat, not tell you which way had the most accidents/traffic and was therefore, slower (such as taking 95 vs taking the backroads), and wouldn't automatically redirect you when you needed to take a detour around fallen trees and wires, which happened to me on my way back to Julie's from dinner tonight. (I guess that storm was really something. Way worse than it looked from the counter at the dumpling place.) Anyway, all I have to do now is type in the address to where I'm going, plug in my phone, and everything's taken care of. I can get to wherever I'm going, no problem, no worries. I don't have to endanger any lives by looking at a piece of paper while driving, and I am completely calm and trusting that I will get to where I need to go, even if I take a wrong turn. This is perhaps especially important to me because I absolutely loathe getting lost. I hate it more than anything. I will freak out and yell at anyone in the vicinity, which is exceptionally unfortunate for anyone actually riding in the car with me. 

Tomorrow I head to Louisville, KY, which is going to be a bit of a haul. It's about 7.5 hours from here, so I will be driving most of the day, but that's okay because I'm really looking forward to seeing my friend Linn there! I've never been to Kentucky, so I'm looking forward to crossing another one state off the list! I've got to get one of those scratch-off-the-states maps.