Charlottesville, VA - Two Days

The drive to Charlottesville, Virginia is spectacular.  We missed the peak fall time by just a week or two, but it was still breathtakingly beautiful with its rolling fields, historical farms, and vineyards.  We passed James Madison's home as well as several Civil War battlefields.  There was so much to see and too little time.

The first day we went to Monticello and admired Jefferson's endless abilities.  His home is full of gorgeous detail, much of it influenced from his years in France.  His gardens were different from Washington's but equally as organized and stunning.  We had a lot of good discussions about slavery from both the Northern and Southern points of view, and we marveled at our Founding Father's boundless energy, innovation, commitment and profound dedication to their families.

Tennie took this beautiful picture

As you can imagine we were all pretty exhausted at this point in our trip.  Sunday we slept in and had a lazy morning, went to church and then walked through the campus of University of Virginia.  Jefferson's architectural influence was prevalent.  After that we called it a day.