Charlottesville and Richmond, VA - Sept16

The first thing we did today was tour Monticello - the home of Thomas Jefferson.  The grounds and home are beautiful.  I first toured Monticello in the late 1970s and there have been some changes.  A beautiful visitor center has been added which house a large gift shop, a theater and a museum.

As we are touring historic homes, we have learned that taking pictures inside these homes is not allowed as a lot of the artifacts are on loan and they do not have permission for picture taking.  This is disappointing because there are so many interesting things I would have loved to share via photos.  We were allowed to take pictures outside the house and those are in our Monticello photo album.  Strolling around the grounds we encountered a few peacocks that have free reign.  The gardens are lovely and I've included quite a few pictures of the flowers.  In this picture, the very large tree in front of the house is a tulip poplar.  We've learned this is a common tree in the South and live a long time.  In the photo album, you'll see a tree stump of a tulip poplar that was cut down in recent years.

When we left Monticello, we went down the road a short distance to Michie Tavern (pronounced Mickie) for lunch.  There are tours of the Tavern, which we did not do in the interest of time, but probably worth the visit.  Inside the inn, they were serving a colonial buffet lunch and we don't recommend it.  

From there we headed north to Fredericksburg to my cousin's house - we arrived about 7:00 pm.  Several important battles were fought in Fredericksburg during the civil war so there is lots to see and do there.  It is also where George Washington's mother Mary lived in her final years.  We didn't do any sightseeing in Fredericksburg on this trip as our timetable only allowed us to focus on DC.  Visiting with Janet and her family was a treat.