Sorry it took me so long to get this last day’s post done. I kept meaning to get back to it, but got caught up in getting back to real life activities.

On this final day of our trip we had brunch at a fascinating place called the O Mansion. It’s a private club, but opens to the public for Sunday brunch and certain other special events. First off, the brunch was incredibly good and so big that it was impossible to try everything. They cram lots of people into a tight space, but your table is yours for the entire day - a nice feature. Every room in the 40 room mansion is decorated with a different theme and everywhere is jammed with stuff to buy. Everything in the mansion is for sale - everything. This stop made for a nice event on our last day. We arrived when it opened at 11a and stayed close to when it closed around 2p. We ate a little, explored a little, ate a little, explored a little, for three hours. It was fun.

Then we took this final chance to loop back around to the monuments we missed early on because of the scare with Grandma and her fall. We explored the Lincoln Monument, the Vietnam Wall, and the Korean War Memorial. We enjoyed visiting all of them, but were particularly taken with the Korean War Memorial. Especially on this autumn day with beautiful leaves on the trees and the ground, this memorial was just spectacular. Each statue depicts a different very real human emotion - very moving.

Our flights home went fine, but felt incredibly long. We finally arrived at our house a little after midnight, yet both managed to make it in to work that day. Since then, we’ve been scrambling to catch up and get back to normal life, whatever that is.

Thanks to all who read this blog to learn about our trip. It was fun to share it with you.

No more car. We’re back in DC for the day. We started our morning with an absolutely wonderful breakfast experience at the Lafayette Room in the Hay Adams hotel, across from the White House. The decor is beautiful, the service is attentive, and the food was wonderful. We felt pampered.

Then we spent most of the day in the Newseum. This site was not on our original schedule, but we heard so many good things about it we decided to give it a try. Good thing we did. We both enjoyed it very much. Again, there were some wonderful video presentations at this museum, a common theme at attractions in this city. We saw movies on how news got it’s start, what makes news, sports news, Woodstock, the Holocaust, and more. There were exhibits on the FBI, Berlin Wall, sports & Pulitzer Prize winning photos, President’s dogs, 9/11, the evolution of news, and more.

We stayed in tonight to watch the Duck football game. We were sitting on the couch watching the pregame show when the game was about to start. Boom, the screen went black. We switched channels and all others seemed fine. We called for help and were told that ESPN2 always did that during a non-local game, whatever that means. I tried and tried to find it online and the closest I could get was listening to Jerry Allen. Then I found it! Did you know you can watch streaming live video of games from ESPN360? It worked and we were able to watch a great Duck football game. Go Ducks!

Today we drove the opposite direction to Gettysburg, PA. The Visitor’s Center is amazing. Honestly, there’s no need to leave the Visitor’s Center to get all of the information you could ever want about the Civil War. There are videos, interactive displays, artifacts and written information about every aspect. One highlight was a 360 degree painting that they used lighting and narration to help give perspective on how the battle took place.

We then took an audio tour in our car and drove through the sites where the fighting occurred. Somehow, I thought the space they fought in was quite small. That’s not the case. It’s fairly large, with lots of varied terrain. That make sense. I just hadn’t envisioned it that way.

It’s amazing to think about how the armies stayed organized - how the soldiers got to where they were supposed to go and did what they were supposed to do. And both sides fought with such passion - each thinking this particular battle was key to winning the war. As it turns out, they were right. The North was outnumbered, especially in the beginning. But, they held the high ground in a defensive position and it worked in their favor.

Nearly 30,000 people were killed or mortally wounded in that battle - ten times the population of the city of Gettysburg at that time. Can you imagine coming home from hiding and finding bodies everywhere? This was the only Northern city that was effected much in the Civil War. Many Southern cities were demolished, as most of the fighting happened there.

Today, we made our longest journey of the trip, to Williamsburg, VA. It’s a town recreated to be as it was in the late 1700s. This town was the capitol of Virginia back then. Many of our founding fathers were members of the House of Burgesses and some of them were governors - Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, etc. This was one of the major hot beds that evolved into the Revolutionary War.

There is so much to see. We barely scratched the surface - Governor’s Palace, Capitol, Residence, Tavern, Hospital for the Mentally Ill, Blacksmith, etc. The staff walk around in period costumes and many of them act in character.

We discovered a peanut shop featuring famous Virginia Peanuts. I didn’t know there was such a thing, but the shop owner says once you eat Virginia peanuts you can never go back. Mom and I each bought some to share with our office mates. We’ll see if that claim is true. :} Peanuts were grown to feed animals and slaves ate them, too. You wouldn’t find people from high society eating them. But, the story goes that Jefferson loved them.

The town had two working kitchens with cooks making real food that would have been made back in the day. You wouldn’t believe the spreads these high class folks would have had - two rounds of several meats, starches and vegetables, then two rounds of desserts. They’d eat leftovers for late night supper and breakfast the next day - all without refrigeration, of course.

Today, we’re headed to Monticello, Jefferson’s home. We’re renting a car and driving about 2.5 hours to get there. Did I mention before that I lost my driver’s license? Yep, I’m pretty sure it fell out along with my credit card when getting out of a cab. The good news: 1) I have my passport and another credit card with me. 2) No one has tried to use the lost credit card. 3) The Oregon DMV was able to send a letter to the rental car company that they say will work for us to rent a car. I’m still a little nervous about this (sayin a prayer).

UPDATE: We made it to Monticello and had a wonderful time - maybe one of our best days on the trip. The drive was gorgeous. We hadn’t planned on seeing such fall beauty but the trees and hills in Virginia make for an extraordinary backdrop. I took way too many pictures. I just couldn’t stop.

Our first stop was Monticello where Jefferson lived. Monticello means “mountain top” and that’s where he choose to place his house and plantation so that he could get a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge mountains. Jefferson was clearly a brilliant man. His house is filled with books, gadgets, documents keeping records of everything, etc. He considered Monticello his lab where he could test all of his ideas. And you can tell this when you walk through the house. The architecture is unique - like placing the out buildings under north and south pavilions so that they didn’t interfere with the look of the rest of the house. He had a weighted clock that told the time and day of the week, a gadget that copied whatever document he was writing while he was writing it, pocket doors, a wine dumb waiter, and lots more. He split his bedroom in half by building a center wall on either side of his bed. One side was kind of his office, the other more of a typical bedroom. Jefferson grew and experimented with all kinds of plants, evidenced by his extensive garden. And he had a little room with lots of windows built out by the garden - a place to survey his land and just think.

We also took a tour of Jefferson’s plantation, which included stories of the many slaves who lived there. Jefferson was conflicted about slavery. Morally, he’s documented as saying many times that he knew it was wrong. But, financially he was dependent on them, like many were in the South. In the end, he choose not to do anything about it, either personally or politically. He did train many of his slaves in a useful trade and many of them learned to read and write from Jefferson’s grandchildren. His only living child, his daughter, and her 12 children came to live with him after his presidency through the rest of his life. Because some of the slaves knew how to read and write, they wrote memoirs about their time at Monticello and so there is documentation about what it was like. The stories were fascinating.

For lunch, we went to Michie’s tavern. They serve period food and it was pretty good. Then we toured the real tavern from the 1700s, that they now keep as a museum. Interesting to see the contrast from Monticello and to hear the stories of what it would have been like to be a patron in that tavern.

We unexpectedly stopped at Jefferson winery and tasted their line up. The wine was surprisingly good, and we bought a couple bottles made from unique grapes that grow well in Virginia. This quick stop was a nice change of pace.

Our last stop was Ash Lawn-Highland, which was the home of Monroe. He only lived a few miles down the road from Jefferson. They were good friends. As were the Madison’s. Jefferson recruited them to live near him so that they could see each other often. This house was not nearly as interesting or spectacular as Monticello, but what made the tour great was the guide. She knew everything about Monroe and this house and was clearly passionate about it. She made us interested. And it was again interesting to see the contrast in styles and tastes from Monticello.

The rental car turned out just fine. The letter from the DMV worked and we were able to navigate through DC and Virginia without a hitch. It was actually fun to have a car for a few days, with the freedom it affords. And I honestly liked driving around in the big city. It brought out the aggressive LA driver in me. :}