We're on the back of the nickel!

A couple of weeks ago we went down to Charlottesville, VA to see Monticello, the home of one of our greatest Presidents, Barrack Hussein Obama… wait, wait… I mean Thomas Jefferson. Sorry… they’re easily confused. Anyway, Jefferson grew up on a large piece of country down in central Virginia, and as a boy decided he was going to build his house someday on a hill on his father’s property. He named it, Monticello, which means “little mountain” in Italian, or as we figured out, “steep hillside that you don’t want to climb in the humidity.” Thankfully, it was a little cooler that day, but in Virginia the water in the air always seems to be thick. But we climbed the path to the house, and it was quite a set up that Tom had back in the day. It took nearly 200 people to operate the plantation at one time. Jefferson himself was away most of the time up in Washington and didn’t get to spend a whole lot of his life there until he retired. It’s a beautiful house, and if you’re into such historical things (which of course, I am not, which is why I never drag my family to these places) it was an interesting place to visit.

So that's the main house, and if you've ever had five cents in your pocket, you've seen it. He was very interested in European architecture, so he spent a considerable amount of time designing and redesigning the house, working on it most of his life. The crazy thing was how many people it took to keep the place going. But he had cheap labor I guess, even though he was a big supporter of abolishing slavery.

The boys are probably too young to appreciate all these things, so for now, there are always trees to sit in.

Oh brother, Adam is quite a fan of Paul, if you hadn't noticed.

And there they are, waiting in line to check out the house. Adam was great all day until the moment we went into the house, so Becky missed out on the tour. Paul and I told her all about it though. Otherwise, it was a great trip, and one more thing to check off our list. Next up... well, not really sure... but there's gotta be a few more things to see around here!