Fourth of July Weekend

Saturday, July 3—Day 6

We depart Washington, D.C., a little after 9:00 a.m. and make our way to Charlottesville, VA, to meet Uncle Paul and visit Monticello. The traffic on I-95 South is congested so it takes us almost three hours to reach Monticello. After meeting up with Paul we catch the shuttle bus from the visitor's center and head up the mountain to tour Monticello and the grounds. We are fortunate because the day is warm, but not too humid.

The house tour is so interesting. Although I've been to Monticello a few times, this is the first visit for Marshal, Hilary, Olivia, and Paul. As we enter the house we enter the Hall where Thomas Jefferson created a museum. He wanted to show that America could hold its own with Europe. Exhibited in the hall are early maps of the American colonies, European art, fossilized bones from a mastodon, and bones, skins, and horns from from extinct and living North American animals. Hanging from the walls and stair rails reproductions of Native American objects given to Jefferson by the Western tribes. Although most of the original Native American objects have disappeared many of the items have been recreated using notes that Jefferson made when he received the gifts and knowledge of the types of objects given to dignitaries during the time Jefferson was alive. The objects and display were put together to celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which Jefferson commissioned. Also in the Hall was a calendar that Jefferson designed that worked using a system of ball weights and pulleys. At 5:30 every Sunday morning he was at Monticello Jefferson reset the calendar weights.

The next room we enter is the Sitting Room used by Jefferson's daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, as her office and schoolroom for her children. Martha had 11 children and she and Jefferson tutored the children at Monticello. Jefferson felt that it was particularly important for children to learn foreign languages. He translated the Declaration of Independence into 5 languages and had the children translate them back into English to practice their language skills.

Next we enter Jefferson's Apartment, which contains the book room, outdoor porches, a greenhouse containing an aviary, the cabinet (study), and the bedroom. Jefferson's bed is in an alcove that connects the bedroom with the book room and was an idea he discovered when he lived in France. In the book room Jefferson read, wrote letters, used instruments for observing the weather and took measurements of weather changes, astronomy and nature. His library consisted of more than 7000 books. Jefferson was a prolific letter writer and over 19,000 of his letters remain today.

We leave Jefferson's Apartment and move into the Parlor where Jefferson, his family, and guests would read, talk, play games, and play musical instruments. Martha was the first woman in America to play the guitar. Jefferson kept a careful catalog of the items in his house and it listed 48 pieces of art in the Parlor, including portraits of his "trinity of the tree greatest men the world has ever produced," Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and John Locke.

From the Parlor we enter the Dining Room and Tea Room where breakfast and dinner were served each day. Dinner was traditionally served at 3:00 p.m. Jefferson's cook, James Hemings, accompanied him to France where he trained as a chef. The meals served at Monticello were a mix of French and Virginia cuisine. Jefferson loved vegetables and believed that the proper diet consisted many servings of vegetables and a small serving of meat as a "condiment." On either side of the fireplace were dumbwaiters to bring wine and ale from the cellar below.

The last room we enter in the bedroom of James and Dolly Madison. They were the only guests allowed to visit and stay without advanced notice. Their bedroom is shaped as an octagon with the bed in an alcove on one side and the remaining sides used for windows, doors, and furniture. The windows in the bedroom are in three sections to allow breezes to flow through in the summer and to open as a door to the patio.

Jefferson considered himself a farmer first, a diplomat second. Throughout his life he listed his occupation as "farmer." His garden was 1000 feet long and produced most of the food consumed at Monticello. He also planted fruit trees and experimented with plants and trees from other parts of the colonies, the west, and the world. For example he brought in 90 sugar maple trees from upstate New York because he felt that it was in the best interest of the nation to promote renewable food resources. He wanted to break the dependence on cane sugar and believed that maple trees could produce the sugar and syrup the nation needed. Alas, Jefferson's maple trees did not do well in the Virginia climate and never produced sap for syrup because the weather conditions were not cold enough. In Jefferson's journal about a decade after planting the trees he noted that only 7 of the 90 trees remained alive.

Monticello is an impressive house today. In the late 1700s and early to mid-1800s it was a marvel of architecture and design. The design and construction of Monticello took over 40 years. Unfortunately, Jefferson's expenses building the house and the assumption of debts from other family members left his estate in debt when he died. His estate was sold to pay his debts. In 1831 Commodore Uriah Levy, a Jewish U.S. Navy officer, bought Monticello because of his tremendous respect for Jefferson. Jefferson instituted a change in the U.S. military code to allow men of all faiths to serve as officers. Levy died in 1862 and the house fell into disrepair during the Civil War. In 1923 the Thomas Jefferson Foundation purchased the house from the Levy family.

After touring the house and grounds at Monticello we return to the visitor's center and watch a 20 minute movie about Jefferson and then the girls head to the Discovery Center to design their own "Monticello" and explore the colonial kitchen and some of Jefferson's inventions.

We have dinner with Paul in Charlottesville and check in at the hotel. Marshal and the girls go to bed and I do a load of laundry before going to sleep. Tomorrow we're off to Ash Lawn and Michie Tavern.

Sunday, July 4—Day 7

We sleep in until 8:30 this morning and then have breakfast at the hotel before meeting Paul for our visit to Ash Lawn and Michie Tavern. The day is warm and humid. We drive the short distance to Ash Lawn, President James Monroe's home. Ash Lawn is much smaller than Monticello because Monroe and his wife were middle class and did not have the resources to build a larger home. However, Ash Lawn is considerably larger than the average Virginia home of the period. Most Virginia homes were approximately 10 feet by 15 feet and had one room and a loft for storage and sleeping. Ash Lawn has two floors and five rooms, a kitchen, and a storage area. There are also two outbuildings—the household slave's quarters and a small one-room house for the overseer.

Before he was president, James Monroe served in several diplomatic positions and as ambassador to France. He was also a key negotiator in the Louisiana Purchase. From the time they were married, he and his wife traveled together. Their home has many pieces of furniture and art from their travels in Europe. There are only two bedrooms in the house, so when guests would visit everyone would share the two bedrooms. So different from today! After Monroe served as president Mrs. Monroe had half of the slaves' quarters converted to a guesthouse to accommodate visitors. In contrast to Monticello where many of the items we see are reproductions or examples of period pieces, most of the items in Ash Lawn belonged to the Monroe's.

The grounds at Ash Lawn are neatly tended and we take some time to walk through the garden before sitting on the porch to drink some ice water and enjoy the shade and the cooling breeze.

After Ash Lawn we head to Michie (pronounced Micky) Tavern for a colonial meal and a tour of the buildings. Lunch is delicious! We have fried chicken, pulled pork, mashed potatoes, green beans, cooked beets, cooked tomatoes, corn bread or biscuits, and peach cobbler or old fashioned ice cream sandwich for dessert. It was traditional in colonial times to eat dinner, largest meal of the day, around 3:00 p.m. and in the evening have a cold meal from the dinner leftovers.

When we finish lunch we tour the tavern. Hilary and Olivia dress up in colonial dresses and caps. During the tour the girls play the games in

the tavern and we all learn to dance the Virginia Reel. The woman who leads our tour has a wonderful sense of humor and has the girls demonstrate many of the games and other daily activities as she explained them.

We finish looking around Michie Tavern about 3:00 and head back to the hotel to let the girls swim. By now the heat is intense. When we have had a swim and rested we meet Paul and head to McIntyre Park to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. At

the park Hilary and Olivia make friends with a group of children and play for an hour before the fireworks start. Once the sun goes down the temperature drops to a comfortable level and the fireworks display is beautiful!

We say our farewells to Paul because we leave for West Virginia in the morning to visit Aunt Betty and Uncle Winthrop. We are so glad that we got to spend the weekend with Paul.