Day Five--Monticello

Nov 20 2008--Mathew finally got his encounter with Thomas Jefferson--his hero. Mathew, Mom & Dad, and his Grandma went to Monticello for the day. We arrived at the brand spanking new visitor center (a vast improvement over the old one) and took the shuttle to the main grounds. We had about 40 minutes to "kill" and so toured the gardens and orchards. There were peach trees, apple trees, cherry trees, and a vineyard. The vines still had some grapes on them which we tasted copiously. Ironically, when last Mike dined in Berkeley, California we were served some Zinfandel grapes with a dessert fruit plate--horrendous tasting things--but the Cabernet grapes we tried were great fresh eating fruit. Now they aren't table grapes, but they were good and a real treat. We wandered up to the veggie garden and tried some very pungent arugula, very hot Texas Bird peppers, and a few other things--lambsquarter, rosemary, etc.

By now it was time to tour the house. Having been through the house many times over the years, much of the tour was familiar to us. But Mathew was amazed by all of the things he had only read about--the clock, the dumbwaiter, his library (Tom loved books), his study, his instruments, on and on. The one thing they didn't really go into was Tom's culinary contributions the states, so Mathew chimed in and made sure everyone knew that Jefferson had brought Love Apples, Ice Cream, and Macaroni and Cheese back from France. What are Love apple? Why they are tomatoes! Most Americans didn't eat tomatoes because they were associated with death (they are in the solanaceous crop family, same as skullcap.)

After the indoor tour, we headed back outside to tour the outdoors some more and the house's underground outbuildings--kitchen, wine cellar, smokehouse, etc. Then we headed to the family grave site to see Tom's grave stone and then to the visitor center cafe for a quick bite to eat. Then we took a spin up Carter Mountain Orchard to show Mathew where his Dad lived and worked 20 years ago, and to pick up some apple cider.

Tomorrow, we're going to take a tour of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia, and Saturday we're off to Charleston, SC.