A Dream Come True!

One item on my bucket list that I have dreamed of doing for a very long time is to see Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. It is so wonderful that Diana lives not far from it! She made my dream come true! She took Dave and I there on the 13th of July. Since we came all this way, we made it worth the trip and bought the ticket that takes you to all 3 floors. Totally worth it! I LOVED seeing everything! I have loved history and historic places for about as long as I can remember. Being in places where history happened or where historic people lived, takes me back in time and lets me see how things were. I enjoy looking at the past and trying to imagine living like they did. Monticello is Italian for "Little Mountain." Jefferson spent a lot of time in Paris and after he had started designing Monticello he came home from Paris and made changes copying the French style of things. The estate was being built and changed for over 40 years! The shuttle took us to the back of the estate. Beautiful! Our guide was very knowledgeable and told us a lot of fascinating things. I wish I could remember them all! Pictures are only allowed on the grounds and in one room. Guess I will have to buy a book with the pictures! 

 The Dome room is where they let you take pictures. Fascinating to hear how Jefferson designed everything and what an amazing feat it was to build this dome and it's windows. 

 At the back of the room is an opening into a little attic type space that his granddaughters played in and called it the "Cuddy" after a ship. 

 This is the front of Monticello. 

 Our wonderful host Diana!

 I have yet to understand what these little cubbies are under the house. Not a tunnel, doesn't go through anywhere. More research is needed! There were no guides on the grounds to answer questions.

 Self-explanatory!

 This is Mulberry Row...the houses for the slaves. A few foundations are left and this chimney.

 The Jefferson Cemetery...we couldn't go in, but it was fun to see as much as we could through the fence. I LOVE cemeteries!

 We spent such a lovely morning here. I loved every minute of it. I think Dave and Diana enjoyed it too. The rooms were colorful and full of great items. It made imagining their lifetimes and living styles more real. It is an amazing home with wonderful designs and inventions. The galley underneath the home where all the meals were made was interesting too. And of course they have just recently unearthed a part of the house that is supposed to be Sally Hemmings quarters. It had been covered up and restrooms put above it for tourists. Not sure how they came across that now. More research needed! Monticello.org has a virtual tour of the home and is fun to look at and reminisce our time there. I had gotten on there before we went on this trip and it made me even more excited to go! Thank you Diana for taking us and Dave for buying the better tickets so I could have this dream come true! What a fun day! We stopped at a cute restaurant on the way home and I had a delicious chicken pot pie soup! I need to learn to make this! 

Best Cemetery!

After touring the Stonewall Jackson house, we drove over to the cemetery where he is buried. WOW! What a great OLD cemetery! If you were making a haunted movie, this cemetery would be PERFECT! Huge old trees, plenty of old headstones of every shape and variety, some tomb looking buildings...all very cool! I wish we had a whole day to spend here! We loved looking at some of the headstones, even found a Plunkett. Dave has Plunketts in his line and they are from the east...We of course saw where Stonewall Jackson and other family members were buried. A beautiful and scenic cemetery. After driving through the Lexington area we headed back to Diana's for another scrumptious meal! Her and Craig sure can cook! 

Stonewall Jackson...

After our Grand Caverns tour, we went back to Diana's and she was ready to take us to Lexington. Oh all the beautiful old brick buildings up and down all the streets...I loved it! We drove past the Virginia Military Institute. We saw the Robert E. Lee Chapel and museum. He helped build it, worshiped there and is buried underneath the chapel. That had also already closed. We need to go back to Lexington! There is so much history here. We visited the Stonewall Jackson house which happened to be just across the street from The Red Hen. That little 26-seat restaurant had just been in the news the week before because the owner asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump's press secretary, to LEAVE because she didn't like her, who she works for and what she represents. WHAT? Wow. She was there with a party of 8 people. She and her husband left quietly and her party of 8 left as well. It was quite the incident! The restaurant has closed for a couple of weeks to let it all die down I guess. But there sure were people there taking pictures of it! Anyway, we toured the Jackson house. Historical old places always fascinate me. I love trying to imagine living in those houses and at that time. It is well preserved and our tour guide was very informative. We then went to the cemetery where Jackson is buried...next post! 

Grand Caverns...

Our first adventure in Virginia was the Grand Caverns. This was day two in Virginia. July 12. The first day we just visited and had wonderful meals by Craig and Diana. YUM! We laughed when Diana asked us at 4 p.m. if we wanted her to order some pizza. Um, no, we can wait for dinner. Well, they do have LATE dinners because Craig gets home so late. It was about 7 p.m. but it was great and worth the wait! And we really weren't starving. Anyway, some friends of ours had said you HAVE to go see some underground caverns there (there are a LOT!) so we looked up the ones closest to Diana. She let us use her car and we took off. We always thought Timpanogos caves were so cool and amazing (and they are!) but they don't hold a candle to these! Massive caverns! So tall and so big, it was amazing! There was one room that back in the late 1800's they held dances in there! With the band and everything. WOW. So many cool formations and things to see. At the end of our tour we saw a place where Confederate AND Union soldiers had signed their names WITH PENCIL on the same day! And they still show to this day because the weather never changes underground. How both sides signed on the same day is a big mystery. But they signed and dated! Somewhere in the caverns it is said that Thomas Jefferson signed his name too, but either no one has found it, or it is somewhere out of the way of the regular tour route. Anyway, it was amazing to be there and we were so glad we went! Also glad the Diana loaned us jackets as it was quite cool underground. We bought some smashed pennies and souvenirs and then went back to Diana's. Driving out of the parking lot of the Grand Caverns was a neat little OLD cemetery. Anyone that knows me knows I have a fettish for cemeteries, especially OLD ones! I had to take a picture as we drove off.

 This is just one part of the room where they held dances...

Vacay! Off to Virginia!

Dave and I headed off on a red-eye flight to Richmond, Virginia. It was a loooong night! Thankfully I wore my compression socks, the cute polka dotted ones. We left at almost midnight on the 10th and arrived in Virginia about 9:30 a.m. on the 11th. I did not sleep well (at all) on the planes. We were pretty tired by the time Diana and Auntie Adona picked us up at the airport. At our layover to change planes, the sun was just coming up. It was a huge round ball and looked so beautiful! The picture doesn't do it justice AT ALL. But everyone was taking pictures of it.  It was an amazing sight as it rose. A perfect sunrise.  When we landed in Richmond, we saw some antiques. Pay phones! Didn't know they had those anymore. Ha! Anyway, it was a 2 hour drive back to Diana's place in Fishersville. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for some breakfast. I LOVE Cracker Barrel! If I wasn't flying and had room to take stuff back, there were things I would have bought in that cute store! I am glad to know we have a Cracker Barrel in Springville and we will need to go there! Anyway, we got to Diana's lovely home. Such a beautiful setting! Looking over fields and horses off her back porch...and looking down the lane to where other people live, but not right next door. It was beautiful! We did lay down and sleep for a couple of hours just to get over the rough night. We have decided we will NOT be taking red-eyes anymore. And we will rent a car next time so they don't have to drive so far to get us! We dearly loved the taxi service and the visiting time though. Auntie seemed to recognize us and gave us hugs, but she didn't say much during the drive back. We were excited to be there and to have a fun few days! 

Annie!

When our favorite little theater put on Annie, we HAD to go! It was another wonderful performance!  Those little girls were amazing...and Daddy Warbucks and Miss Hannigan were pretty awesome too! We sat on the front row. Amanda and the kids loved it, but I felt like we were going to get our feet stomped on by dancing little girls! ha ha. We really had fun going to see it. We love our Hale Center Theater in Orem. We look forward to many more plays! And I just have to show Lilly's artwork. I showed her a "How to draw a panda" thing and she drew it right up!  Followed each step and it looks just like the original! What talent that girl has!