Monticello

It is warm and muggy here in the hills around Monticello in central Virginia a few miles out of Charlottesville, so Mia and I made a point of being at the visitors center just before they opened at 8:30 am.  Since we had Honey with us we had to take different times for our tours of Thomas Jefferson's favorite place.  Once we had tickets, Mia took the shuttle to the top of the mountain and I took Honey and hiked up a trail to the cemetery and on up to the gardens and then the house.

Jefferson wanted to be remembered for three things:  The father of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.  He was a very highly educated individual who made it his life long pursuit to educate himself on everything from botany to architecture.  The place he went to learn, read and sometimes run the country was Monticello.  A beautiful 5,000 acre property in some of the most picturesque countryside in the nation.

Tomorrow I need to get up early and head in to Charlottesville to get the truck serviced for our trip home.  We leave here Thursday for College Park, Maryland where we hope to meet up with Mia's niece as well as our son and his family.  Oh, we need to insert a visit to George Washington's Mt. Vernon.

Hope all is well and thanks for dropping by.