Day 4- Jefferson's house and Madison's house

Today I got up early and ate some delicious Hampton Inn waffles. Gotta love waffles :) 

Monticello was the most beautiful house that I have ever seen. Jefferson was a great innovator and inventor. Seeing the different things that he added to his house was amazing. He was such a great scientist and farmer.  It's hard to picture a scientist in the 18th century. But it seems to me that he really did revolutionize a lot of technology.  It was kind of humorous that they called him a benevolent slave holder, as if there was such a thing. "He found whipping his slaves to be degrading and only did it when it was absolutely necessary," they said.  Having my toenails cut off was absolutely necessary, but it was still just as painful! So I think that statement is silly. Slavery was their way of life, but it still didn't make it right to make someone property.  

Here is Monticello, which belonged to the Jefferson family. Really ahead of it's time, but definitely uppity.

Jefferson had a state of the art French style kitchen underneath his house. It was such a good idea to have those burners on the left there.

Jefferson had some very good rules to live by, but apparently he himself couldn't follow his own rules. He died poor with most of his slaves mortgaged out. OOOOOPSSSSSSSSSS!

Jefferson's grave is surrounded by a huge iron fence, that I had to stick my camera through. It really seems he or his family felt they were too good to have people just walk into his cemetery.

Me posing with TJ,

To run a house this big, Dolly Madison certainly a big job for anyone.  I really liked the ground of Jame's Madison's house, but I really liked Jefferson's House.

                                        

Look Sara...it's a Zebra.A very flat zebra.

 Now we switch gears to Montpelier. It was a really interesting place, but didn't start off great. I asked if there was a teacher discount at the gift shop because most places have one.  I was told no, except for teachers who were attending the Constitutional Convention Workshop. So I said we were in the morning and this elderly lady wanted to see my badge. What is it with people and these badges? I don't need no stinking badges. But I left because whatever. It's their giftshop and I would just wait till tomorrow when I got the badge. Then  I found out that the discount was given to the much older looking folks in my group, so I marched back up to the desk and requested that I get treated the same as any other teacher, despite my outward youthful appearance. So I received and apology and my discount. :) Needless to say I got my Virginia Penny.

James, Dolly and I looking over some notes. Maybe the constitution.

I asked before I sat down in this historic period chair. The sign said I could, so you know I was going to try it out. It was pretty awesome. It ranked up there with the oooooooooold key and lock that I turned about seven times, because...well I just have a thing for old keys/locks.

James Madison and Dolly Madison's graves, you can get really close to and are only behind a metal chair. So these graves are more accessible than the Jefferson's were.  I mean c'mon. I could walk up and touch Tyler's grave, why not these guys?  This leads me to believe that Madison or his family were much more modest, but the Jefferson were a lot more showy.