monticello

Okay, now I'm really done catching up from the past month because this is a post about our anniversary (which was in... June). Robbie was traveling back from Kosovo on our actual anniversary and was supposed to arrive later that night, but stupid weather and stupid Newark Airport (the embodiment of hell, I'm certain) meant that his 9 pm arrival in DC was delayed, then canceled, then rebooked, then delayed, then canceled, until at midnight I got a call from Robbie who said he didn't think he'd be able to make it home that night. We were both really bummed because I hadn't seen him in over a week, and because he had some super secret plan up his sleeve for our anniversary celebration that probably wouldn't happen. And then about thirty seconds into the conversation, he was like "wait a minute, I'm like a four hour drive from DC. So I'm going to rent a car and come home right now." And he DID!! My sweet jet-lagged husband who had been awake and traveling for 30 hours drove into the wee hours of the morning so that he could meet me at a hotel and our weekend could commence as planned. Anyway, I'm just really still blown away by that because it was probably the best anniversary present I've ever gotten.

So yeah, we went south to Monticello the next day and my mind was blown again.

Let me just preface this by saying that I kind of sort of hate historic houses. I'm generally interested in the history of old houses but colonial historic houses are just not interesting to me because sometimes they're just old houses without anything of interest in it other than quaint colonial architectural details. But Monticello! Jefferson was just as kooky as Frank Lloyd Wright (and also had questionable personal conduct in some ways) but he was such a GENIUS. I have a new appreciation for the man after our visit for sure. 

First of all, the grounds are amazing—as you can tell from my pictures I was a little smitten by the flora, and it was a beautiful day with like zero humidity so it was a perfect day to be outside and enjoy nature. And we learned that though TJ fancied himself a farmer, he was horrible at it and ended up going into debt from the time and energy he invested into poor crop planning, which kind of makes me laugh. But the gardens still have many plants that are descendants of the original crops that TJ planted, which is pretty amazing! I really want to go back in the fall so that we can be there for the beautiful changing leaves—the view of the valley below is really breathtaking so I can only imagine that it's ten times more breathtaking when the leaves are different colors.

The house itself is also just really different from other historic homes I've visited from that era. From the moment you walk in you can tell that a man was in charge of all of the design elements. Haha. The foyer is covered in maps and animal pelts and random paintings and fossils, and then there's this highly elaborate seven-day clock that TJ designed himself that takes up half of a wall. Anyway, it was all put there because he wanted people to have something to look at and talk about while he made them wait for three hours in his foyer before he had time to entertain them. Then of course there are guest rooms, a library, and elaborate heating and cooling systems that he designed in his rooms that are pretty innovative for the time period. It was just a cool house.

I think that my enthusiasm also stems from the fact that our tour guide was amazing. We had some intern from UVA who couldn't have been more than twenty years old and who sounded like he still hadn't gone through puberty, but he was really funny and genuinely LOVED TJ. I feel like most people who are interested in US history and the Founding Fathers really love TJ the most because it's hard to not love him, but this guy really took the cake. Plus, I wanted to adopt him as my son because he looked twelve.

So, two thumbs up, Monticello! Even if it took us a little while to adjust to pronouncing it correctly after six years of exposure to the incorrect pronunciation (Monti-CHELL-o, and not Monti-SELL-o as Utahans would have you believe).