Our 4th the American History Part

After arriving at the Resort in Virgina, we were looking for something local to do on Monday to fill the history requirement for the weekend. Low and behold Monticello was 45 minutes away! The rear one not like our visit to Montpelier, the non-Madison one. As a general rule we avoid tourist destination on weekends and always on holidays but this was too good to pass up. So we braved the 95 degree heat and crowds to see the place where Thomas Jefferson called home. Below you will see the final resting place of Thomas Jefferson and many generations of his family.

We couldn’t take pictures inside the home but this is a weathervane on the porch ceiling. Jefferson had tons of inventive items like this designed to be showy and convenient This weathervane is connected to the one of the roof so that Jefferson could see out the front door what the weather was doing. We had a nice tour, it was fast and crowed but it was nice. I really was looking forward to seeing his library. Jefferson sold his lifelong collection to the struggling Library of Congress to help pay his debts. Most of those books were lost in a fire. In the remaining years of his he collected more than 3,000 more volumes. There were still a handful of those original books at the house. That was very special for us. Due to Jefferson’s immaculate record keeping not only was the estate able to reassemble his late collection after many were sold to by debt, but the LoC has been able to restore what the fire destroyed.

Here is a fun shot of Josh in the underground passageway of the house. It was an accident but I liked it better than the real shot.

In that underground passage you see the cellars and store rooms that kept the house running. There is a dumbwaiter that runs from the wine cellar to the parlor. It is concealed in the side panel of the fireplace.