Monticello and Shenandoah

We spent Friday night in Charlottesville, VA.  This is where the University of Virginia is.  It is a very nice campus.  Thomas Jefferson founded it.  His home of Monticello sits just a few miles outside.  Sarah wanted to see the fall colors (which were NOT in full force) and Jeremy wanted to see the house.  We spent part of Saturday doing this.

This is Allison at the Kids Discovery Room at the Visitor's Center.  She is using the "polygraph," sitting in a chair that can be found in Thomas Jefferson's library, which is one step out of bed.  He could step out the other way into his actual bedroom.

We came up the back of the house, walked down one side, and viewed the gardens.

We took the "family friendly" tour.  We knew Parker wouldn't tolerate the regular one.  No picture taking of the inside is allowed.  The tour we took explained more about the way of life, particularly the grandchildren who lived there than it did of the house.

So, we took more pictures of the outside, the ones you would recognize.

We were finished by mid-afternoon.  We grabbed lunch at the cafe' at the Visitor's Center.  It was NOT good, but did run into some members from our church!

We then decided to drive up Skyline Drive.  The southern end of this starts about 20 miles to the west of Charlottesville, where the Blue Ridge Skyway ends. It continues north through the Shenandoah National Forest along the Blue Ridge mountain crest for about 105 miles.  It lets out about an hour to the northeast of where we live.