Day 1: Monticello, Michie's Tavern, and Ghost Tour

We left Helena at 7:00 AM on Saturday and arrived in Charlottesville, VA at about 8:00 PM. Our bus driver Jamie was fantastic and fun; Bus 3 adored him and I feel blessed that we got to spend the week with him. Oh, and that "rapidly advancing attack of the crud"? Yeah, it had progressed to the point that I had to leave school at 11:30 Friday to go to the doctor. By the time Saturday morning rolled around, I was feeling like something on the bottom of someone's shoe...just sayin'. The drive up really wasn't bad until we hit Virginia; the natives grew a little restless then. After driving across Virginia for 47 hours with a bunch of stir-crazy kids, we arrived at the hotel. The hotel's elevator was broken so we all had to haul our luggage up the stairs. After waiting in line for supper, making my nightly medicine rounds, and getting ready for bed, I was too wound up to sleep. I ended up with about 5 hours that night.

We headed out for Monticello that morning. I'm putting Monticello on my list of most beautiful places I've ever been. I want to live there. The house itself is fantastic (so much attention to detail), but I was more impressed with the grounds and the scenery. Thomas Jefferson had a good thing going! It was foggy and misty the day we were there, but the 70% chance of severe thunderstorms never materialized, thank goodness. I asked one student what his favorite part of Monticello was and he thought for a minute before answering, "Definitely the gift shop!" I know that made Thomas Jefferson happy :) We ate a fabulous lunch at Michie's Tavern...fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, coleslaw, green beans, stewed tomatoes (their specialty...I wasn't a huge fan), and peach cobbler. We hung around Michie's for a while and then departed for Williamsburg.

After a three hour journey to get there, we ate supper (more fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans) and set out for a ghost tour of Colonial Williamsburg. I split our bus into girls and boys, and spent the ghost tour with the girls. Our tour guide was Jody, and she was fantastic. The kids acted tough before the tour, but there were more than a few wide eyes when we walked back into the hotel :) Off to bed and ready for day 2!

storage for water or ice

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