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. :}

Today, we caught up on our schedule. We arrived for a “make good” State Dept tour bright and early and all went well. The State Dept building is fairly drab, but they have completely redone the 8th floor to host diplomatic guests. It’s decorated with late 1700’s and early 1800’s paintings furniture, carpets, china, etc. Quite a contrast to the rest of the building and a nice place to welcome our foreign dignitaries. They host 5-20 events on this floor each week! They were setting up for an event in the ballroom while we were touring.

Next stop was the Supreme Court, where we got a look at where laws are made. We heard a lecture by a volunteer who told us how the system works. The lecture was given in the courtroom, so it was interesting to be sitting in the gallery of the actual courtroom where the justices of peace hear lawyers present their cases. We hoped to hear an oral argument but none are being presented during out time here.

For lunch we went to Charlie Palmer’s. We got caught in the rain walking over there, so weren’t looking or best. To our embarrassment we stood out, because the “regulars” were all in suits. Oh well. They were very nice to us. In fact, the manager stopped and chatted for quite awhile. The lunch was excellent.

Our afternoon was spent at the Library of Congress. Wow, I like that place. It’s beautiful and I love what it stands for - essentially promoting research and reading into anything and everything that increases knowledge and wisdom. Very cool. We had a fantastic tour guide who turned her tour into stories and encouraged all of us to continue the legacy. Very cool. Notice the picture of “Dana”. This name was among many others depicting prominent people in various fields. We looked into it, but couldn’t find why this “Dana” was mentioned. Maybe we need to research it in the Library’s books. Anyone over the age of 16 can register to be a member. Then research assistants will help you find what you need. And you get to borrow the books to read in one of 23 reading rooms, dividing up by category. We saw special exhibits on Jefferson’s Library, the creating of a nation, Gershwin, Bob Hope, and much more. You can tell that I liked many of the sayings on the walls. And all of the decorations have significance, usually representing an element of history, music, religion, science, etc.

Tonight we had dinner at a very old restaurant called 1789. Our waiter looked like he had been around since it’s inception. The atmosphere was warm and friendly and the food was very good.

Today, we are headed to the State Dept to visit Hillary. Kidding. Well, we are headed to the State Dept, but I don’t think we will meet Secretary Clinton. Then we’re going to the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum.

But, the most exciting event today is …..drum roll please…… We got tickets to the Mark Twain Awards at the Kennedy Center tonight honoring Bill Cosby!!!! We originally scheduled our trip around this event and then the tickets were sold out before they were ever made public. We were originally so bummed, but let it go and figured that all the big wigs scooped up the tickets before the little people could get access. I was on Craigslist looking for other tickets and noticed ones being sold for this event. I couldn’t believe it. We have box seats!!!

We are not well-versed in the ways of acquired reseller tickets. I can handle StubHub, but meeting face-to-face is a whole other thing. So funny. Calls, emails, secret handshakes, and hidden meeting places (ok, not really, but that’s what it felt like). Anyway, we now have the tickets and assuming that they are real and they let us in the door tonight, we are going!

UPDATE: We arrived at the State Dept only to find out that a foreign delegate arrived late last night. Since Mrs. Clinton is entertaining them in the building today, all tours were canceled. Oh well, I guess there are more important things that go on in that building other than us touring it. We spent some time in the National Portrait Gallery and really enjoyed it. It aims to tell American history through portraits of prominent American people. Of note is the president’s gallery, but we also enjoyed the “president’s in waiting” (vice presidents who became presidents), and the portraits of early American people who played an important role in our history. It is overwhelmng to read the info on all of the people. We had to stop for today. We might go back to see more another time. Now we are getting ready for our big night at the Kennedy Center tonight. Exciting!

Oh, see the pictures from our lunch restaurant bathroom? You see my reflection in the circle mirror and see out to the restaurant from the right side. So weird. You can see out to the restaurant from inside the bathroom!!!! And they have little bubble aquariums in there, also pictured. The first pictures are of buildings in the Chinatown neighborhood. I was just enjoying taking pictures at that point.

UPDATE: The Mark Twain Award show was a lot of fun. We saw lots of stars, first at the red carpet entrance and then in the show. Mom shook Willie Nelson’s hand (see picture). Our seats were great, on the box level just above the orchestra. I took lots of pictures. See if you can pick out the stars - Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Willie Nelson, Bill Cosby (of course), Rita Moreno, Felicia Raschad (sp?), Malcolm Jamal-Warner, Carl Reiner and more. It was very interesting to hear how Bill Cosby touched all of these stars lives.

We spent the entire day at Mount Vernon. Wow, I feel completely inundated with George Washington information. What a fantastic place! I didn’t think we’d spend nearly that amount of time there, but we could have spent another few hours if our brains could take it and if it stayed open any later.

The first two pictures are of us are with George, Martha and their two grandchildren that they raised when Martha’s son died. George & Martha never had their own children, but Martha was a widow with two children when they married. George raised the two children as his own, although never legally adopting them.

Mount Vernon is an incredible place. There are little houses for every function - blacksmith, gardener, wash, salt, smoke, paint, stables, kitchen, etc. George bought the property from his older half brother. Along with the money Martha brought into the family when they married, George was able to create what you see the property restored to now. He was a surveyor, architect, inventor and farmer, in addition to the roles we more commonly know him for.

The property sits right along side the Potamic River, with a gorgeous view from the back landing. No wonder George and Martha loved living here. The view alone sold me. The Washington’s entertained often, with as many as 677 guests recorded in one year. The living quarters had many bedrooms to accommodate all the guests, including fairly nice quarters for the servants of the visiting guests.

The house was interesting to see, but I think I enjoyed the out buildings and gardens even more. Then we took a break for lunch at the Inn, where we sampled peanut & chestnut soup &  award-winning bread pudding. It was good, not great. After looking through the shops a bit, we spent the majority of the afternoon in the museum and information center.

The info center meticulously depicts each aspect of GW’s life, with displays and close to 20 video presentations. In order to get an accurate representation on what GW looked like through various stages of his life, they studied busts, portraits, clothes, etc and feel what is displayed now is as close to accurate as humanly possible.

GW grew up as the son of a wealthy farmer who died when GW was 11. Because he was the youngest of five children, not much of the inheritance fell to him. He struggled and relied on family connections to make a place for himself. He started his career as a surveyor. It wasn’t long before he worked in the Virginia army and got involved with the British in the British/French war. He made a military name for himself then. After the war, he remained with the military and it was at this time that he met, courted and married Martha.

He was recruited to lead our troops in the Revolutionary war and soon discovered that face to face battle with the British did not work. He then resorted to spy tactics and surprise attacks to keep the British off-guard. As we all know, it worked. After the war, he could have easily become King. The entire nation was enamored with him. Instead, he gave the power back to the people by way of resigning his post to Congress.

Four years later, Congress asked him to preside over the Constitution Committee. Then he was unanimously voted to be our first president. He took the job very seriously, and realized that everything he did was setting a precedence for presidents to come. He took a second term because he felt he needed to, but then retired to Mount Vernon.

Two and half years later, he went out in the rain to work at the farm. He developed a sore throat, but thought nothing of it. Two and half days later he died of what they now presume to be a bacterial infection. Martha was devastated, and closed their bedroom off for good. She burned their letters to each other, wanting them to remain private. She lived out another two and a half years running the estate from her new third floor bedroom, before passing away and being buried next to her husband at Mount Vernon.

Another interesting tidbit - GW took very good care of his teeth, better than most did at the time. But he was plagued with tooth aches and eventually lost all of his teeth. He had numerous sets of dentures and none of them were very comfortable. His portrait that is most well-known, the one on the $1 bill, shows him with a discomforting face. That’s probably because he just received a new full set of dentures, they didn’t fit well and were very uncomfortable for him.

For dinner, we took a cab driver’s advice and went to a terrific Mexican restaurant. It had fantastic margaritas and Mexican City style tacos. So yummy!

We began our sight-seeing at the National Cathedral this morning. It’s built in a Gothic style, very similar to the massive cathedrals you see in Europe. I thought it was really old, but it isn’t. Building started in the early 1900’s and was not completed until the 1990’s. Other than the massive beautiful building itself, it’s the glass windows that stand out. There are so many of them and they are absolutely amazing.

We had lunch at Georgia Brown’s. We loved it. Had fried green tomatoes and fried chicken. Amazing. We liked it so much we might go back tomorrow.

Our afternoon site to see was the National Museum of Natural History. It was packed, more so than any other site we have been to. Maybe it was the combination of it being a good site for kids and that it’s Saturday. It made it difficult to enjoy. We did see the Hope diamond and some good exhibits on the sea, dinosaurs, etc.

Since we ended our sight-seeing earlier than expected, we decided to stop at Trader Joe’s and make our way back to the hotel room to watch the Duck game. While walking home from TJ’s it started pouring. I’m not exaggerating when I say we were completely soaked when we got to the hotel. We’re amazed the paper bags didn’t rip. Funny. We watched the Duck game, thanks to a pay-per-view ESPN channel. We won. Go Ducks! And now we’re watching the USC vs OSU game. So far USC is winning. No surprise.