Summer Vacation - Day 4

We spent most of day four of our vacation at Thomas Jefferson's home - Monticello in Charleston, VA.  Its set back down a two lane road on top of a large hill.  We learned that he spent years leveling the top of the hill for his home and spent decades building the house, revising plans three times until he got it just right. 

We arrived around lunch time, so we stopped just before Monticello on that same two lane road at Miche's Tavern.




It was a country style buffet.  You went through the buffet line to get whatever you wanted, then grabbed a seat.  Then you had a waitress to get seconds, refills, dessert, etc.  The inside of the restaurant was nearly all original and had a really neat atmosphere.

 After lunch we continued on another 5 minutes to Monticello.  When you pull in, you're greeted by a large building that consists of a theater, museum, gift shop and cafe.  We made our way to the ticket counter and got our tickets for the house tour.  We had about an hour and a half to kill prior to our tour, so we watched the 'Jefferson's Monticello' movie, perused the gift shop and museum.  We hopped on the shuttle that took us down a winding road to the house.

But, we still had time to kill, so we looked around the grounds first.  There were outbuildings, a gift shop, Jefferson's grave, gardens, etc.  We started at the gardens.




You can tell why Jefferson picked this spot - it's absolutely gorgeous!  And since he excavated and flattened the top of the hill, it has views like this all the way around the house.  Originally, there were small sleeping quarters and shops along the garden, but they were built out of wood and have completely deteriorated.  Only plaques remain to tell us what was there.

 I love this picture of Samuel.  I have no idea what he was doing or thinking, but he wasn't nearly as bored as he looks in this picture.  He had a good time the whole day.  It was really hot this day, about 95, so we all took a break at the gift shop to get a drink.

 Time for the house tour!  Unfortunately, they don't allow pictures inside the house, so you'll have to venture there one day to see it.  Jefferson definitely had a creative mind.  He had unique features and ideas throughout the whole house - some were very grand and others were very modest.  He was very conscious of space and made sure the house was as efficient as it could be.

 It might be hard to see, but see the white railing and small brick buildings on either side of the lawn?  They attach to the house.  Above ground, it's a large deck that leads to those buildings.  But what's unique is under.  It's a basement area with many small rooms all the way around the house - much bigger than the footprint of the house itself.  Jefferson put anything that generated heat (kitchen and smoke house) in the basement to keep the heat out of the house, anything that needed to stay cool (wine) or just otherwise wasn't fitting to have in the main house (privy's for slaves and staff).  He also had a dumbwaiter that went from the basement to the dining room to get food, wine, etc to the house.



 Monticello was unique because it had 6 privy's - 3 of which were indoors.  One in the house and two in the basement area.  This was unheard of in Jefferson's time because indoor facilities were not considered a necessity.  If you look at the bottom left of the sign above, you can see the house in the middle and the basement 'tunnels' that extend out from the house.

This concluded our tour of Monticello.  Our hotel was about an hour away, so we headed back and found a local restaurant for dinner.  We had to get a good night sleep for our long day at the farm that followed!