Jefferson's Hometown
Last week, for a job interview, Mark and I embarked to Charlottesville (Virginia, not North Carolina), home of Jefferson's home--Monticello. Hence the title of this post. Except we never made it to Monticello, because we ran out of time, but, you know, we were still in his hometown.
The reason we embarked instead of flew is because we had purchased our tickets separately, so were not sitting next to each other, and even had different flights after the layover in Charlotte (apparently the namesake was very popular in the South). These circumstances led to the Aggravating Situation of the whole trip. You see, Mark and I were in different boarding groups on the flight to Charlotte, and since he boarded after me AND had a shorter layover, I took his carry-on with mine so that I could stuff it above his seat before walking further down to mine, thus guaranteeing him a spot in the overhead bin. Unfortunately, when he boarded, he could not locate it anywhere, and sent me frantic texts before the cabin door closed for takeoff. I kinda assumed he wasn't looking very well, but when we landed, as I got my bag from the overhead bin near my seat, I saw his backpack sitting right by it.
"THAT SELF-RIGHTEOUS STUPID-HEAD!" were my approximate thoughts as I realized that some evil fellow-traveler had seen me stick a bag near the front and then carry my (larger, I might add) bag to the back, and had foolishly decided that I shouldn't take up space where I wasn't sitting, grabbed Mark's bag, and then followed me to where I sat to stick the bag next to my own carry-on. Creep.
Since that is the worst of the whole trip, I can say that overall it went quite well. There was the time I got stuck in my winter coat in a nice restaurant (I did finally escape, with Mark's help), or the fact that I literally dragged my duffel bag all over the (floor of the)Charlotte airport because it became too heavy for me to carry, or the regret we felt getting into our hotel's lukewarm hot tub, but these were minor hiccups.
On the plus side, I saw that our hotel seems to be catering more to women, since they provided 1 shampoo bottle and THREE conditioner bottles, two separate hair dryers, and bath towels large enough to cover me from armpit to knees. Our hotel was also great because they had such a cool couch--wide enough to allow us to lay on it on opposite ends [our current couch, and indeed most couches, don't support such activity, but that's how we sit. The obvious solution would be to get an additional couch, but we don't have the room for that]! It was very exciting. I took pictures.
As mentioned, we didn't make it to Monticello, but Mark and I did walk around the Rotunda, which is the academic village that Jefferson designed for the University of Virginia.
Panorama pictures don't really capture it well. It totally screws the perspective of the buildings. But we tried anyway.
It was cold and hilly (and, as mentioned, we were short on time), so looking at the Rotunda was basically the only fun thing we did. We ate there, slept there, did yoga there (okay, that one was just me), but I didn't take any photographic evidence for that stuff. Fortunately for you, the Rotunda was very photogenic.
The reason we embarked instead of flew is because we had purchased our tickets separately, so were not sitting next to each other, and even had different flights after the layover in Charlotte (apparently the namesake was very popular in the South). These circumstances led to the Aggravating Situation of the whole trip. You see, Mark and I were in different boarding groups on the flight to Charlotte, and since he boarded after me AND had a shorter layover, I took his carry-on with mine so that I could stuff it above his seat before walking further down to mine, thus guaranteeing him a spot in the overhead bin. Unfortunately, when he boarded, he could not locate it anywhere, and sent me frantic texts before the cabin door closed for takeoff. I kinda assumed he wasn't looking very well, but when we landed, as I got my bag from the overhead bin near my seat, I saw his backpack sitting right by it.
"THAT SELF-RIGHTEOUS STUPID-HEAD!" were my approximate thoughts as I realized that some evil fellow-traveler had seen me stick a bag near the front and then carry my (larger, I might add) bag to the back, and had foolishly decided that I shouldn't take up space where I wasn't sitting, grabbed Mark's bag, and then followed me to where I sat to stick the bag next to my own carry-on. Creep.
Since that is the worst of the whole trip, I can say that overall it went quite well. There was the time I got stuck in my winter coat in a nice restaurant (I did finally escape, with Mark's help), or the fact that I literally dragged my duffel bag all over the (floor of the)Charlotte airport because it became too heavy for me to carry, or the regret we felt getting into our hotel's lukewarm hot tub, but these were minor hiccups.
On the plus side, I saw that our hotel seems to be catering more to women, since they provided 1 shampoo bottle and THREE conditioner bottles, two separate hair dryers, and bath towels large enough to cover me from armpit to knees. Our hotel was also great because they had such a cool couch--wide enough to allow us to lay on it on opposite ends [our current couch, and indeed most couches, don't support such activity, but that's how we sit. The obvious solution would be to get an additional couch, but we don't have the room for that]! It was very exciting. I took pictures.
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| The lawn of the academic village |
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| The library rotunda, the head of the academic village square. And then looking the other way. |
It was cold and hilly (and, as mentioned, we were short on time), so looking at the Rotunda was basically the only fun thing we did. We ate there, slept there, did yoga there (okay, that one was just me), but I didn't take any photographic evidence for that stuff. Fortunately for you, the Rotunda was very photogenic.
Well done, T.J.* Well done.
*T.J.=Thomas Jefferson
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