Those of you who know me, might realize that one of my hero's in life is Thomas Jefferson. Of all the founding fathers, he embodies the best that era in American history had to offer. He was also a true Renaissance man, and a lover of learning of all subjects. I have been an avid listener of the Thomas Jefferson hour for over 2 years now, and have always wanted to see Monticello, and walk the grounds which are often referred to week after week in my Ipod programs.
Sam and I got a chance to do that this past weekend. We fell in love with the Virginia countryside. Driving through its many horse farms and historical towns, we found our way down to Charlottsville. We were able to stay at a friend's house one night, which helped save on the overall cost of the trip. (Thanks Andy)
The mountain behind us in this picture is the larger mountain that overlooks Monticello. In the background is a sloped path that leads down to Jefferson's grave. They wouldn't allow us to take pictures inside the house, so most of my pics are around the outside grounds area. In addition to Monticello, we also toured the University of Virginia which was also very impressive.
After lunch, we also got a chance to travel along the Skyline drive National Park, and saw some breath taking views of the Shenandoah river valley. The road was quite long and winding, but well worth the trip. We only saw about 1/4th of its length, since it would take an entire day to drive and we were running short on time. Here are some other pictures.
Sunday morning we woke up and toured Harper's Ferry, which has many park museums and little town houses that are open to the public. The river valley is quite beautiful. It was the location of John Brown's raid, which basically led to the US Civil War.Thanks especially goes out to Mom & Dad for watching our kids for the weekend. Despite Tristan running away and hiding inside the car, there were no major problems and the kids had a great time spending the weekend with their grandparents.
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