Finally, the day has arrived.

A day I had been looking forward to for quite some time, and a bit of a surprise for me, bestowed by my wonderful grandparents.

Your post today is written by Granddaughter #1; the following is a description of some of the events which transpired during our little vacation to the grand Monticello.

After arriving from an extended but very peaceful drive, we had a bit of a problem looking for a good place to park. That wasn’t difficult for me though because of a little tradition I have for each time I travel. I find it very interesting to try and record every license plate I find (I also feel somewhat proud that people come from all over the country to visit my state, ahaha) and there were a lot of nice ones to see. Unfortunately, I was not able to record all of them, as I had nothing with which to write; however, I can tell you that many of them were from quite far away (Nevada, Oklahoma, and Washington State).

Following this, we were taken on a shuttle bus to the top of the mountain, where the tour would soon begin. However, I (rather foolishly) forgot that at high altitudes, it’s freezing, even in the summer. We walked all over and tried to keep warm, but it was not very effective, so we took to trying to record how beautiful the view was instead. This turned into some interesting “games”, as you can see below.

No, Granddaughter! No picture this time!

No, Granddad! No picture this time!

When we were finally able to begin the tour, it was slightly unnerving, as some of our fellow visitors seemed a bit dour. There was one boy who apparently was there with his parents for the benefit of his education; it seemed he was required to ask a certain number of questions of the tour guide.  One time, I heard him mutter to his mother, “I’ve already asked 3 questions … ” I felt bad for him, as there was a chance he already understood everything and did not need to ask any additional questions. However, it was a bit amusing, to say the least.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph the interior of Monticello, but I can tell you that it was absolutely stunning. Thomas Jefferson, though not an inventor, was certainly a very intuitive and reflective man, and came up with many ways to make his home not only visually appealing, but also as efficient as was possible at the time.

The garden tour came next. However, a tour had already begun, and it was really too late to join in on the next tour, so we ended up seeing everything ourselves. In my humble opinion, it was all for the better, as the experience I was most looking forward to at Monticello was photographing all of the flowers and vegetables. I love photography, especially still life, as it’s the only kind I’m very good at. I only had my phone, but had a nice time and was very satisfied with the photos I took.

Look at the beautiful view!

I leave you with some of the exquisite sights from the garden, including some rarely seen “potato pumpkins” and giant okra. Except for the cock’s comb, I took all the pictures of the flowers seen, including that lovely, giant, white, rather energetic and adorable flower with the cute face … hehehe.

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