I am almost 30 years old. I have lived in Virginia for 20 years. I lived in Charlottesville and attended UVA for 4.5 of those years. My brothers lived and attended for 3 years before I even got there, resulting in 3 years of obligatory family visits.
And before today I had never been to Monticello.
...I KNOW!
But this weekend I visited Laura in Gordonsville, was driving back, and instead of saying, "I should..." I went.
It was beautiful. Of course. And it didn't hurt that it was 72 degrees.
As we all know, Thomas Jefferson was the man. Started building Monticello when he was 26, wrote the Declaration of Independence at 33, designed the greatest university on the planet, etc. Makes me feel incredibly unproductive and unaccomplished on the eve of my 30th, but maybe I should stick to comparing myself to people who were not past presidents and/or founders of prestigious universities.
First was a tour of his house...
Then we could walk around the gardens and surrounding grounds...
Vegetable gardens near the slave quarters...
Jefferson's grave...
And THEN there just so happened to be a great walking trail right at Monticello so of course I took full advantage...
Don't worry, there were lots of people!
I think I appreciate Charlottesville ten times more these days than I ever did in college.
Maybe I will live there again one day...
i've never been either!
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