Thomas Jefferson is our friend & scared silly

After spending twelve hours of April 30th on the bus (after waking at the frightful time of 3:30 AM), we arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia. We set out bright and early on May 1st to visit Monticello. Monticello is one of my favorite places on the planet. So much history there. The grounds and the views of the mountains are ridiculously beautiful. I also learned that 95% of the windows and 98% of the floors at Monticello are original. It amazes me how well-built many of these old houses are. I asked one of the boys in my group what he'd learned at Monticello and he said, "I learned that Thomas Jefferson is our friend." I'm not sure where he came up with that, but I like to think that Thomas Jefferson would be pleased!

{We learned that a Jefferson descendant was buried in this cemetery two weeks earlier.}

After touring the Jefferson homestead, we ate lunch 1/2 mile down the road at Michie Tavern. If you're ever in the area and don't eat at Michie Tavern, you might as well pack up and go home. The fried chicken there is absolutely to die for. It's hands-down the best I've ever had, and growing up in the South, that's a lot. We partook of the fried chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy, black-eyed peas, biscuits, a peach cobbler that was so good I wanted to cry, and apple cider out of tin mugs. So, SO worth the stop.

We then loaded up the buses and made the journey further upstate to Williamsburg. That night, we went on a ghost tour of Colonial Willamsburg. The "whatever...I'm not scared" attitude of my group of boys changed drastically by the time darkness fell. We all stayed reeeeeaaaally close together on that walk back to the bus!

{I love this shot of the Bruton Parish Church with the single lantern glowing in the window. Martha Washington's great-grandfather was the first rector at this church, and she attended services here when she visited family in Williamsburg.}