Monticello

So my in-laws came into town a couple days after school let out, so Doug and I went on vacation with them.  They were staying in Richmond with Doug's Aunt Leslie so they could visit with grandma as well.  Doug's grandma has had a tough time with her chemo, so she's been staying with Aunt Leslie, who happens to have a husband who is a doctor and is a nurse herself.  She's been taking EXCELLENT care of grandma.  Doug and I went ahead a got a room at the Marriott down the street to escape the crowd at Leslie's.

Here's a picture of me and my pal, TJ at the visitor center.

On Monday, our first day in Richmond, we drove to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.  I thought the price was a little steep at $22, but I guess it may be worth it if you're a history buff.  We started our tour at a pretty nice visitor center located down the hill a ways from the actual house.  We watched a little 15 minute movie about Jefferson, browsed the shop, and then jumped on the bus to the house for our tour.

We took a tour of the actual house first, then the garden, and then went UNDER the house for a tour. It was a little lame that we couldn't take pictures inside the house because "not all of the objects in the house are owned by the historical society, blah, blah, blah." but the tour was pretty informative.  I will try NOT to give you a history lesson, but I learned a few cool things.  Thomas Jefferson designed and redesigned Monticello himself.  He was not a professionally trained architect, but he did read a lot of books on architecture.  It took him over 40 years to build his house because he kept on changing things.  Many of his ideas came from his trips to Europe as an ambassador for the United States.

Doug's sisters posing under the house.

As we we continued around the property, I decided that Jefferson PREACHED a lot of really good ideas, but didn't really LIVE them.  For one, he was a REALLY bad spender and was in terrible debt.  He loved books and had quite the collection, but sold them all to the Library of Congress to get out of debt.  He then decided that he "could not live without books" so he went into debt again buying more.  When he died, his family had to sell Monticello and all of his things to pay for his many debts.

Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom that was the basis for the first amendment of the Bill of Rights which gives us freedom of religion.  I had always assumed that Thomas Jefferson was a religious man, but that was not really the case.  He was a free-thinker though and believed that religion should be a choice.

The garden tour was okay.  There was this lady telling what seemed like exciting stories, but I had hit my mid afternoon nap time and was dozing off a bit as she told stories and walked us around the grounds.  Jefferson himself said that he was opposed to slavery, but he had over 200 slaves that ran his property at Monticello.  He actually fathered a couple children with one of his slaves. 

The part of the house that I actually enjoyed the most was UNDERNEATH it.  There is actually a big tunnel the runs under the house with rooms off of it.  Here Jefferson's slaves were able to take care of the happenings of the house above from below.  There were actually dumb waiters from under the house that brought up food and beverages.

After taking all of the different tours, we took some pictures around the outside of the house.  We focused on the side of Monticello that is featured on the back of both the two dollar bill and the nickel.

Here is a picture of me at the reflecting pool with Monticello in the background.

Here is a picture of Doug and I at Monticello.

To be completely honest, I wasn't exactly THRILLED about touring an old house during my vacation time, but now I'm actually glad that I did.  It was a cool experience and now I'm just THAT much smarter.