Bowman West

Fall at Monticello
**Please excuse the formatting. I'm too lazy to fix it right now.

Last Saturday our buds, The Specks, came from DC and we visited Monticello and The Lawn. We had such a great time, and I especially loved snuggling on Bennett! Our boys greatly exceeded expectations (at least I know mine did!) as we dragged them around for hours to learn about the amazing Mr. Jefferson. It was the perfect Fall day and the perfect visit with friends!

























Jefferson's grave reads:
Here was buried THOMAS JEFFERSON author of the DECLARATION of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE of the STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM and father of the UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

It's pretty amazing that out of all his accomplishments those are the three that are listed. He loved this place and this university. So do we. :)

The Fall leaves here are ridiculous! I've never seen trees this color. To be fair, I've hardly seen trees at all in the last eight years in Lubbock so it's quite a difference being here.
This is a photo of the back of Monticello. It's on the nickel.























This might seem random, but bear with me. I took this photo from one of the porticoes at Monticello (which means "little mountain"). We are looking down onto the town of Charlottesville from about three miles away. In the center of this photo is a circular break in the trees. In the center of that is a dash of white, about 2 mm in size. That's the Rotunda at UVA. Jefferson designed the Rotunda and Lawn at the University to look like Monticello, which is clear when you've visited both places. The impressive fact about this photo is that I was standing in the only place on earth where a person can view two UNESCO World Heritage Sites -- Monticello and UVA -- at once. Cool.

The leaves on this tree were deep orange so we took a picture.
























I could have roamed around the gardens all day. I really wanted to fill up a bag with all of the herbs, vegetables, fruit, etc. that were growing and pretend that I was going to later cook with them, but really they'd just go bad in my fridge.
























We posed at the back of Monticello with our buds Travis, Kelly & Bennett. A guy with some really expensive camera equipment took this photo for us, smirking and asking "Just push this button?" Um, yes. I wanted to explain that if we both fell into a lake I would swim around and snap away with my awesome tiny waterproof camera while he sank to the bottom with his heavy, ruined Canon EOS (or whatever it was). Gah! Ok, so maybe I'm a little jealous. Anyway, Charlie and Bennett we perfectly behaved the whole time even though they were food & napless. I think we all just fell under Jefferson's spell. They even enjoyed the house tour. Bennett jabbered and giggled the whole way through. Apparently he's a history nerd. Charlie just asked "why" the whole time as usual. I'm glad he didn't spot the painting of a naked Mary Magdalene. How do you answer "why" on that one?
Fact: 95% of the interior of Monticello is original. Incredible.
I stood in the room where Thomas Jefferson lived and died. I wanted to crawl up in his bed and soak in his genius. Imagine if I ever get to go to The Holy Land and walk where Jesus walked. I don't think I could stand it. Not that I'm comparing Jefferson to Jesus. I'm just sayin'...

I didn't even know these colors existed in nature, and here they are in a pile on the ground. If you're interested, I can gather up some pretty leaves and ship them to you. $20 per envelope. Think about it and get back to me.

Texas Bird Peppers in the garden. Just needed to take a picture of the one thing that said "Texas."

Of course we needed to check the football scores while waiting in line for the tour. Charlie wasn't impressed. He's more into the World Series right now...that is, until Saturday when we get his love for college football back on track. He loves the Red Raiders. Wreck 'Em Tech!

This is the ice house. Can you imagine running out for a bag of ice with these requirements??

This daddy long legs was as big as my hand. I have no idea why I felt the need to put my hand that close to it. Yes, I know I need a manicure.

I thought is was ingenious for Jefferson to put this Vitamin Water machine overlooking the garden outside the Hemings home. Every parent knows hydration is important for a child's health. Fact: Sally Hemings was Martha Jefferson's half-sister. I had no idea. Thomas and Martha were only married for 10 years, during which time they had six children with only two surviving childhood. One of the two remaining daughters died in her early twenties. Can you even imagine the heartache Jefferson faced in his lifetime? Can you imagine how spoiled his son-in-law and grandkids were?!

My boy. He's been really precious lately. He says I'm his best friend. Duh!