Monticello & UVA

Today we drove to Monticello, which was the home of Thomas Jefferson. I don't think I ever realized, even with this history book that I have been packing around, what an amazing man he really was. He was the author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Statute of Religious Freedom, the father of University of Virginia, and those don't include his civic offices. The interesting thing is that he was such a champion for religious freedom, and he was a deist--though Jefferson read the Bible all of the time. He only attended church on special occasions and didn't believe in the divinity of Christ, just that He was a great teacher. It has been really interesting.

We also went to Mickey's Tavern, yeah who knew that BYU-Idaho would encourage eating at a tavern ;) Jefferson used to sit in the corner there and talk to travelers. After hours of talking to him they would discover they were talking to a previous president of the US. Oh and there was a tour from the United Presbyterian Church there too. It was a bunch of old people and I looked over and there is a picture of Angelina Jolie hanging on the open door by the wheelchair lift. So of course I went to go take a picture of it. Then this old guy explained that his Reverand had pulled out the picture and told a couple that there had been a room mix up and that one man had to share a room with Angelina Jolie and his wife would have to stay with Brad Pitt. The reverand came out and was talking to us and my friend said she would take Brad Pitt. He told her that he would get the picture for her, and then we laughed it off. Well a few minutes later he came on board our bus and gave her the picture. It was killer funny.

Okay maybe you had to be there.

We went to the University of Virginia. That was an amazing campus! Dad makes up words like athletical, well Thomas Jefferson made up academical. His academical square was amazing. The classical architecture and crowned with the Rotunda was incredible. Of course my camera was dead so I didn't get interior pictures, but we did get some outside.