Monticello

This past weekend, we went with the Smiths to Monticello- the house of Thomas Jefferson. We were very entertained with the differences of the actual house to the back of the nickel. It was also interesting to learn of some of the inconsistencies in Thomas Jefferson's ("TJ") life.

First, TJ wrote the Declaration of Independence which declares "all men are created equal." He also thought slavery was evil, but owned slaves his entire life. Second, like many Americans TJ struggled to live within his means. He liked to purchase fine things from overseas using his land as credit. He figured that when he died his family would only have to sell a small part of the land to pay off all of his debts. Unfortunately, a few years before he died there was a depression and land depreciated significantly. Upon his death, his family had to sell everything, including his house, land, and slaves to pay all of his creditors. It was kind of sad to see how such a great man from our country's history lost everything because he didn't live within his means.

Although, the grounds were B.E. A.utiful!

And they had some entertaining childhood games to play. (if you look up close to the pic, you can see that Lincoln totally won that round.)

The flowers were in bloom, and butterflies were everywhere.

TJ's Grave:

(The bars were wide enough that I could easily slip through... However, besides this picture I resisted the temptation of getting up close and personal with TJ)

After Monticello, we drove over to the University of Virginia's campus to see the rotunda that TJ designed.

Stay tuned for more pictures of past president's graves and houses....