Birthday Trip Pt 3 ~ Downtown Charlottesville

That last post was really long, wasn't it?

Well, this one will be shorter, I promise. :)

After I was reluctantly dragged away from Monticello, Chuck and I went back to the hotel to get ready for a nice dinner and a stroll through the Historic Downtown Mall.



The Mall is a strip of shops, restaurants, galleries and theaters downtown (for my readers in Edmonton, it's just like Whyte Ave). A spot where all the artsy people hang out. Well, before 10pm anyway. After that it seems to change and be overrun by gaggles of crazy girls in spandex minidresses and stripper heels heading for the clubs.

The road running down the center of the Mall used to be a highly used route wayyyyy back in the day of horse and carriage. Now it's open to foot traffic only. The center of the road is filled with outdoor seating for various restaurants along the strip (you can see their red umbrellas in the pic above). The street is a lot wider than it looks in my photos.

As we were meandering along, we would see posters for all sorts of awesome bands that come and play in Charlottesville. They play here in this outdoor amphitheater:



And here in this cool old theater:


The smells wafting out of the restaurants were DELICIOUS. After 4 hours of walking around in the hot sun, I was starving.

But what to choose to eat?? There were so many awesome looking places, I didn't want to be an idiot and choose the wrong one. I made like Toucan Sam, and followed my nose...

We finally chose Bashir's Taverna, which was mostly Mediterranean cuisine. Anytime I get a chance to eat in a restaurant with Mediterranean food, I take it. Jacksonville is so devoid of fine restaurants it's ridiculous. It's all fast food and buffets.

Bashir's was the right choice. Most of the patrons were sitting outside, but I LOVED the inside. The atmosphere was awesome, it was warm and inviting, and made me want to eat.

Here's a blurry picture.



Chuck and I both ordered Moussaka, which is an eggplant and meat [lasagna-esque] dish. We started off with soup (I had cucumber dill cream, and Chuck had gazpacho), and had a Greek salad.

My compliments to Bashir (who does exist, we thanked him before we left)! The meal was perfect. Not a piece of lettuce out of place. The service was awesome.



Afterwards, we just walked around to work off all the food we ate, enjoying the night life.



The bright looking marquee in the photo is the Paramount Theater, which was built in 1931 during the Depression. It thrived and still operates today, as you can see by the blazing lights. I just realized that I took this photo, and the one above, in almost exactly the same spot. I didn't mean to do that. Cool :D

Out of the corner of my eye I saw this establishment. Which appeared to my brain as 'Salon DrunkKyna'.



Which of course made us feel like having a pint, so we found a bar/restaurant with table and chairs out in the middle of the lane.

We watched all the crazies,*cough*, I mean people go by....ahh. What fun. My favourite was a woman not wearing a bra that REALLY needed to be...every time she took a step it looked like piglets were fighting under her shirt.



That was the exact look I had on my face, by the way. I'm so subtle.

An Asian antique store (whose name I won't mention) was open very late, so Chuck and I stopped in to check it out. Very neat stuff, but I've seen enough 'Antiques Roadshow' to notice that every piece of furniture had a tag that said '18thC' on it. And looked very new. And more than one piece looked the same. Even though it was from the 18thC. Hmm...:P

I loved Charlottesville very much. I just wish I had been there a week to see more of it, and try more tasty restaurants.

Told ya this would be short. Next up, the fourth and final installment!

Did I hear a few sighs of relief?

On Sunday we went to James Madison's 'Montpelier' plantation. Quite different experience from Monticello, but just as cool!

Birthday Trip Pt 2~Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

I can't say I've always wanted to visit Monticello. That would imply I've known about it since the time I was a coherent enough child to know that it existed. American nickels float through Canada, so I'm sure I'd seen it when I was a kid and had no idea how damn cool it was.



Throughout my education in Canada, I was forced to learn a ton of American History. Does forced sound harsh? It would probably sound better if I said 'coerced enlightenment'.



Although I rolled my eyes in school wondering why I'd ever need to know which President was which, or what the capital of Vermont was, now I'm very glad that I learned as much as I did from both school and Comedy Central.

In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I would ever live here in the United States of America. I was a very happy Canadian, living in my happy (slightly frosty) Canadian world.

Then I met Chuckwagon. And suddenly, I had a use for all this American knowledge! I had someone to impress!

And impressed he was. I'm married to him now, aren't I? And knowing that there are nine Supreme Court Justices will come in handy on that pesky Citizenship test. Thank you Mr. Stewart!



Somewhere along the line I became fascinated with the American Revolution. I learned everything I could learn about the first four Presidents. I became particularly interested in John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Both as individuals, and in their long, rocky friendship.

As I said in my last post, Monticello is my Graceland. I think I was doing this exact dance while I was waiting on the steps for the tour to begin.



Our tour began at 2pm, but we arrived early to stroll the grounds and gardens. It was a beautiful day.

I LOVED the gardens. Obviously.

A view from above.


I somehow didn't picture any Yucca in the gardens, but here they were.


I loved all the tuteurs they had in the garden, to grow various types of bean.


Curly onions.


Some Leek Porn for IG.


LOVED all the French Mallow. This shot is probably my favourite flower shot...with a little bee rolling around in the pollen :D



The scent from the drifts of lavender was AWESOME. Lavender makes my brain happy.


I think that Monticello was the butterflies' Graceland too.


This is Cleome (Spider Lily), is it not?


Chuck kept walking around sniffing the air like he smelled something weird. He walked up to it, rubbed the leaves and sniffed his fingers. His eyebrows flew up and said, 'I knew I smelled pot! Kyna! This smells just like marijuana!' And then he smelled his fingers some more.

All I could do was sigh and shake my head. Here I was in awe of everything, and he's amazed that he found a plant that smells like weed. And is shouting about it. I think I walked away and pretended I wasn't married to Cheech and Chong.



This was from Mulberry Row, the road leading from the house where all the slave dwellings were. This seems to be the only thing left from that time. Sad and interesting at the same time.


There were many cool trees on the property. The guide said that none of them were from TJ's time though. Chuck bought me a book from the gift shop for my birthday, about the gardens of Monticello. It said that when he died, many of the rare plants and trees he had up there were looted or cut down. I liked these trees:





We also got some nice shots that were closer to the house.

This one's probably my favourite.


The woman in blue seemed to REALLY want to be in all my pictures. (the other woman in blue)


Side view.


Gardenias and Meyer lemon trees had some wonderful smelling blooms on this part of the deck...


View from the other side.


Chuck on the steps looking hot.


I'm sure this tree was from TJ's time.


It looks big with Chuck sitting on it, looks even bigger from up above with me sitting on it (like a doofus).


Saying goodbye to Monticello.


Stopped at the Jefferson cemetery on the walk back down to the visitor's center.


Almost impossible to get a shot of TJ's monument, there was crowd like you wouldn't believe.


Posing with TJ at the visitor's center. I was was proud of myself for not being too silly with it. I have a tendency to get silly with statues. Is that kind of creepy?



Some random fun things I learned on my summer vacation to Monticello:

~Thomas Jefferson played the violin. I didn't know that before, but I'm not surprised. That ended kind of early though, because he broke his wrist when he was in France, and it never healed properly. The story is that he broke it jumping over some hedges trying to impress a woman named Maria Cosway. Just like a man...


~TJ did not like to waste space when designing a building. That's the reason he didn't like stairways. There are only two in the house, and they're extremely skinny. I had this vision of myself trying to ascend, and getting wedged like Winnie The Pooh in Rabbit's hole.


Chuck completely missed this stairway because he was so focused on something else cool during the tour.After the house tour, we were resting on a bench near the back where the stairway was. Somehow this came up in a conversation with a tour guide that was waiting for another tour to pass so she could go in that door. She was AWESOME enough to take him back inside briefly to show him...being a guy that has a hand in building houses, Chuck was tickled :D.

Well, not literally. If she had tickled him, I would have punched her.

~ TJ loved making copies of everything.



He had an early sort of polygraph sitting on the desk in his study, two pens set up on one device in exactly the same position. He would write something out, and the other pen would mimic his penstrokes and thus a copy would be made.

People thought he was an inventor, but it was more appropriate to call him an 'improver'. The only thing he actually invented from scratch was a part for a plow. Everything else, he just made easier to use.

~ This next fact, I knew already. And I'm sure many others know it as well, but I think it's one of the greatest coincedences of all time.



Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were fast friends when they were young, when the new government of the US was being formed. They had a falling out later on, because of political differences. They actually got really nasty with each other during their competetive presidential campaign, and didn't speak for years and years. When they were old, and retired from politics, they reconnected as friends and wrote some of the most interesting letters to each other.

They both died on July 4th, 1826. The 50th anniversary of Independence Day. When John Adams died, his last words were reported to be 'Thomas Jefferson survives.' He had no idea that Jefferson had already died a few hours earlier.

Neat stuff. Hope you enjoyed! Sad I couldn't get pics from inside the house, but that's not allowed. And like a good little Canadian, I follow the rules :)

My next post will be a much smaller interlude between President's houses. We took a trip down to Charlottesville's historic Downtown Mall to get some dinner and soak up the atmosphere of a college town.

Birthday Trip Pt 1~University of Virginia

Chuck and I had a great time in Virginia for my 29th birthday excursion. Great's an understatement. I'm going to post the pictures in a few parts.

The trip up to Charlottesville was very nice, except for a few patches of rain.

I don't know if it was a good idea to travel after work on Friday though, Chuckles was pretty tired by the time we got there 6 hours later. And a little crabby.



I was kind of worried about what the motel would be like. Hotel/motel stays there are quite expensive, even for the 'cheapies'. This one was about 30 dollars cheaper than the next cheapest...I was prepared for it to be in Cracktown.

I was surprised, it wasn't in a bad area. Aside from very dated decor, it was great! The bed was so comfortable, best sleep I've had in a hotel I think. Who cares about old decor when you're only in the place to sleep and shower anyway?

We were unloading the car at about 10:30pm...Chuckles reaches in the backseat and says, 'Where's my bag?'

Yep. He forgot ALL his clothes and toiletries at home. I had his shoes in a bag with mine, and his shampoo. That's it. I think he was very close to blaming me for forgetting his things, until I reminded him that his clothes are his responsibility. And besides, my toothbrush was in HIS bag. The bastard forgot my toothbrush! I should have been outraged!

:P

So our first official outing in Charlottesville was to the Wal-Mart!


We picked up a few clothing items and a couple of toothbrushes. Then it was on to the University of Virginia.

Well almost. Charlottesville is kind of weird to get around. I come from a city with a grid system. If you're on 87th Street, you know that if you walk to the next one it'll be 88th Street. Charlottesville just didn't want to cooperate! Even with a map (we're old school, no GPS for us!) it was still trial and error. But we got there.



Thomas Jefferson was the founder of this distinguished institution. He was also behind all the interesting architecture.

Many of the walls behind the living quarters are in a very cool serpentine shape. Only a brick thick, but this is a very sturdy design. And aesthetically pleasing, I might add.



The grounds around the famous Rotunda are very beautiful. We walked up the multitude of stairs and explored the perimeter first.


The rear view of the Rotunda from the courtyard.


The inside of the Rotunda was just as beautiful. There was a major fire there at one point, and so it had to be restored. The restoration results were amazing.

The rooms on the lower floor are oval. This was beautifully decorated I think..,very warm, inviting tones. Almost expected TJ to be sitting on the settee with wine in hand. And maybe a couple of girls.


The dome room was amazing. Bookshelves were set into window alcoves all around the circumference. If you stood in the very center of the room, you couldn't see any of them. Which TJ designed deliberately, of course.





This window looked out over the courtyard behind the Rotunda. Apparently it was one of TJ's favourite spots to contemplate.




Lining the courtyard, are ten 'Pavillions'. These are filled with rooms where the students lived. Each Pavillion was similar, but not exactly the same.





The rooms are EXTREMELY tiny. Students still live in them. I'm sure that would be fun for about a week, and after that I'd have to have some more room. And as a good friend of mine told me (who was a graduate student there), it was REALLY fun to go outside in the wintertime in pajamas just to get to a bathroom. Case and point:



You may be thinking that by taking the picture that way, I've cut off parts of the room. Newp. The room is only inches wider than the frame shows. The only thing you can't see is a small fireplace to the left. Each room has one. "I get a fireplace in my room, but no toilet??" Even in a prison cell you get a toilet. But I guess it's part of the ambience of staying on this campus!

We toured the grounds for two or three hours. The weather was a little iffy that morning, I thought we were going to get rained on a few times. But we ended up getting some sunshine. And the clouds lifted enough to see patches of the Blue Ridge Mountains.


Here are a few other random things we saw during the rest of our visit:

An old school Ancient Greek-style amphitheater


A neat old building. Not sure what's held here, but neat all the same.


Cocke Hall. Hehe. Cocke. I'm so glad that wasn't Chuck's last name. I'd be snickering everytime they called my name at the doctor's office.


A really cool sculpture. The young man portrayed is pretty hot. Too bad he's hanging out with that creepy old man.



What's that you say? He's just getting an education from that scholarly old fellow? Hmph. The boy's naked and holding horns. I'll bet he's getting an education all right...

We saw this pretty old church, but I didn't get too close. There was a wedding going on as you can sorta see. I should have just pretended I didn't notice and wandered into the wedding pictures...


And the post wouldn't be complete without a picture of a squirrel. We actually came upon this one as it was digging in that planter, with a pencil in it's mouth. I don't know what it thought it was going to use the pencil for...writing his little squirrel memoirs? He buried the pencil, and then looked at us with that menacing little squirrel grin...I thought he was going to fly into Chuck's face if we got too close.


During our visit, I also saw something in the window of the University Bookstore that I had to have as a birthday present.

In 1826, Edgar Allan Poe enrolled in the University of Virginia. He dropped out after one year, thus allowing for the best college merchandise of all time.

This bag rocks my socks.


We travelled straight on to Monticello after this. Which I will post about in my next installment.

I hope the post won't be too ho-hum. The place is amazing, and has been posted about many times by more renowned Blotanists than I. Most recently this week.

But do those other blogs have pictures of me leaping through flaming hoops in my underwear, screaming "Thomas Jefferson LIVES!!"???

No???

Well. This one won't either. But I wish it did. Because that would be awesome.