Once you get to the house you can go to the Museum (which is interactive, but I found it a little lacking in the "super cool information" area). Andrew and I watched the little movie, which was pretty cool, but not as cool as George Washington's 4-D film. After the movie and museum our ticketed time for our house tour came up so we went to go to the shuttle to get to the house. One more quick comment before moving on to the house- there are no military discounts...what's with that? George Washington obviously cared more than Thomas Jefferson... or the people who came after them did...you know, whatever works.
So here's Andrew and I on the shuttle. We were having so much fun! (the shuttle sat there for like 10 minutes...)
We got off the shuttle and went up to the house. Thomas Jefferson was an inventor and liked architecture so his house was being remodeled for something like 25 years...he had a very loving wife who also wasn't home often, I assume...cause if we were remodeling for 25 years, there would be blood to cover up with our new tile.
His house is topped by a nifty little dome which is pretty neat because the dome at his monument in downtown DC is also domed. The man lives for the dome. He loves the dome. His statue is stuck in the dome forever. Hope he liked domes. Moving on...
The picture of the tree is of a tree which would probably be the most awesomely cool climbing tree ever. Its close to 100 years old and gives you better perspective of how old the house is. The first tour guide you see who tells you to get in line and checks your tickets gives a little 5 minute lecture on said tree. Good times. Our tour guide, who was a nice 70-something man, came down to get us and lead us up to the house. (You can see him in front of us). He did an excellent job pointing out different artifacts, paintings, and inventions throughout the house. He also told us this little factoid. When Thomas Jefferson died he was pretty deeply in debt and his relatives were forced to sell many of his belongings in order to settle the amount of money. Thomas Jefferson's niece (on direction of her aunt, as I understand it) went through the house and wrote descriptions of everything in the house and exactly where it was. Many silhouettes, paintings, clocks, etc. were able to be traced and placed in their original locations thanks to her efforts. So Go Thomas Jefferson's niece! Woot woot!
After going through the house our group was let go in order to see the gardens, slave quarters, and cemeteries, which interestingly are still being used by the Jefferson family. Many of the slave operations for the house (kitchen, wine cellar, meat cellar, etc.) are set up under the house which makes Monticello "look" not only more efficient, but it takes away all of the things the visitor at that time would rather not see (like a slave running with a slab of meat from the cellar to the kitchen in another building in the back yard).
The gardens are beautiful, extensive, and still upkept by the people that run Monticello. They have like 12 kinds of beans, vegetables I haven't heard of, and a winery. Andrew's favorite part was this cute little building that was maybe a couch-width across square and had huge windows that you could look out onto Jefferson's land holdings (more than 20 miles), his garden, and across the hills. Andrew wants one when we grow up and inherit land from that rich uncle we don't know about yet...
Here are some pictures of the garden and the view from the top of the garden down to Jefferson's lands. My favorite picture is the one of the golden tree- you can't really tell from the picture, but that tree was the most perfect shade of yellow I have ever seen- absolutely beautiful. It was so bright and cheery, not a single leaf was anything but that golden yellow.
Funny story time, in 2007 just before I graduated from college, when Caleb and Marion were just wee ones, the family took a trip cross-country on what we dubbed our "Prophets and Presidents" tour. We saw Nauvoo, Independence, Liberty Jail, President Truman's library and house, President Lincoln's museum (so awesome-worth 3 blog posts-go, just go) and house, Kirkland, Ohio, and DC. While in DC we also went to Monticello and Mount Vernon. When we went on the Monticello tour we saw the "fish pond" which of course was to keep fish alive until such time as Jefferson ate them so he would have fresh fish. Anyway, when we went in 2007 there was a dead fish going belly up aka dead in the water. When Andrew and I went, Dad asked us to look into the fish pond to make sure there weren't any dead fish... There weren't and here is the photographic evidence.
After Monticello we started for home, we were going to go to Red Robin in Fredricksburg, but we got hungry. The first thing we passed was this cute little tavern so we stopped. Everyone there was dressed up in colonial garb (adorable) and they served homemade food. Potatoes, pulled pork, beets (fortunately served with no pancakes) and lots of beans. Apparently beans were the way to go back in the day. We ate off of tin plates, drank out of tin cups, and had delicious food. We ate until we were a little bloated and drove happily home.
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