Home Again!

 Hi!

Long day in DC, as our plane didn’t leave until 5:35 pm – which is REALLY unusual for us, as I usually book the first thing out in the morning!

So, this time, we slept in a bit and went down for a so-so breakfast about 8:30 am.  We had to vacate the room by 11 am, so that’s about when we left the Leesburg hotel.  Found some reasonably priced gas (thanks to Gas Buddy!) and filled up, and were at Dulles by noon.  Turned the car in a couple of hours early, which actually saved us $30 on the bill, which wasn’t too shabby.

Dulles, at noontime, was eerily deserted!  Where were all the people?  We got through Pre-Check with no problems, and took the shuttle across the field to Concourse D.  One of the first things we saw as we got off the shuttle was a new French bistro that had recently been added, so we decided it would be a great place for lunch. 

A little Sauvignon Blanc...

We both ordered their French Dip with fries, and, while it came with cheese on the beef, it was a fabulous sandwich!  We’ve never eaten so well at Dulles, which has been famous for a notable lack of decent food! 

Yummy!

Sauntered down to D4, where we had something like 4½ hours to wait.  I actually lay down on a couple of chairs and fell asleep for a bit, which was lovely if not private. It was interesting to watch the terminal gradually fill up with people.  I think that lots of European flights arrive in late afternoon, and outgoing flights to Europe are sometime after that. 

Our plane boarded on time, and left not too long after the schedule.  However, the pilot informed us that because of some terrible weather in the mid-west, that we were going to have to divert south – and as it turns out, we were diverted out over New Orleans, and came back up to the U.S. somewhere over Nogales.  Took about 20 minutes longer than normal, but at least we didn’t have too much turbulence.

The WiFi did NOT work on the flight, though, so to make up for it, everyone got free DirecTV – which is a bummer, as I had paid $4.99 to have it…supposedly my “credit” will be available for the next six months.  I did get to watch the Thursday night football game, though, which is definitely a positive!

Got in around 8 pm and the luggage came in its normal “Phoenix-y” fashion – lots of people mulling around and no order to anything.  However, we were quickly whisked to the rental car shuttle, where we picked up our rental car for home.  Got in about 10:45 pm – after a very long day! 

So, thank you so much for coming with us, and hope we’ll be back blogging soon – Turkey3 in January!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

On the home stretch!

Monticello Visitor Center

Jefferson Statue

Hello!

We started today at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s 5,000 acre farm on the outskirts of Charlottesville.  We were able to get “behind the scenes” tour passes for their first tour of the day – 9 am, and spent the next two hours covering the three floors of this beautiful mansion.  As it turns out, Monticello was sold in 1836 to a Naval officer, Uriah Levy, who was a great admirer of Jefferson, and who worked very hard over the years to restore the house and estate to its earlier condition. 

View of the surrounding area

House on top of the hill!

Monticello was acquired by the non-profit Jefferson Foundation in 1923, which is still in the process of restoring the house and grounds to their original condition.

Done of Monticello

Great windows!

Me in Dome room!

Unfortunately, we were unable to take photos inside the house, except for the “dome” room – which apparently Jefferson used as an ATTIC!  The views were absolutely amazing, and the octagonal shape of the dome and the various rooms made them very, very unusual to say the least!  I’m so glad that we were able to get behind the scenes, as the second and third floors of the house are not usually open to visitors.

From the unusual entry way – there is a clock that has weights so that, in addition to telling time of day, also is able to designate the day of the week – this is done by using 18 lb. weights that go from the top of the 18½’ ceiling down below the floor level – there are holes in the floor to accommodate this!  There are also holes in many of the interior doors that are to accommodate cats that were provided to take care of the rat problem that apparently was endemic! 

Another entry to Monticello -- with the dome!

Hemmings slave cabin ... for the whole family

In Jefferson’s own suite of rooms, the bed is actually in the middle of the floor – makes getting out of either side much easier, right?  There was also a clock built above the end of his bed, so whenever he got up, he would know exactly what time it was.  The guide said that Jefferson was responsible for winding all his own clocks.  Made me think of one of Robert’s Sunday “chores” – going around the house and winding all of our clocks!

The house also had three rather primitive “privies” to accommodate the family and guests…hmmm…

Once we finished the house tour, we headed over to one of the slave cabins to take that tour.  I have to admit that that was a bit more than I could take, and we decided that we had had enough.  Seriously, how could the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence own 600 slaves?  I just truly can’t wrap my mind around that one – the fact that a person can “own” a human being as “property” – my liberal tendencies tend to get the better of me, that’s for sure.  In his lifetime, Jefferson apparently only “freed” a handful of slaves, all of them men.  He actually gave away slaves as wedding presents!  Brrrrrrr…..

The gardens and the grounds were really lovely.  I would imagine that in the spring, things would be absolutely stunning! 

By lunch time we decided to start making our way to Leesburg VA (about 2 ½ hours north of Charlottesville) and about 15 miles from Dulles, where we head tomorrow for our return trip to Phoenix. 

Stopped at Arby’s for a quick sandwich and we were on our way.  Most of the time we were on small side roads; US 29 and then Route 15, as we wound north.  It was a beautiful drive – through some wonderful horse country, and past some lovely stables and farms.  Reached the Hampton Inn Leesburg about 2:45 pm.  Lovely corner room on the 3^rd floor – very big and comfortable, and we’re very pleased!  Off in a few minutes for dinner down the street.

More later!

m

xxx

Hello!  Just back from Tuscarora Mill restaurant, which was about 1.1 miles away (meaning I could have some wine without worrying too much!)  Got there for our 6 pm reservation and it’s in a very lovely series of buildings (an 1890’s mill that has been restored).  Some wood, some stone.  All in all, a lovely setting.  Tuscarora was on the second floor, and we had a really lovely booth to ourselves for the most part (although the other two booths in the area filled up before we were ready to leave).  For starters, R had their seared rare tuna with soba noodles, seaweed salad, wasabi, pickled ginger and soy glaze.  He loved it.  I had their baby wedge salad: baby iceberg, smoked gorgonzola dressing, bacon, cracked pepper, tomato and tobacco onions.  Fabulous!

Lovely restaurant and wine!

 

My wedge salad

I think some are built to look old, and incorporate buildings that really ARE old!

R's seared tuna starter

For mains, I had the grilled flank steak with bourbon molasses glaze, tobacco onions, whipped potatoes and French beans and corn.  The flank steak was perfectly cooked (rare) and the only quibble was that the French beans were overcooked – but tasty anyway!  Robert had the Harris Ranch* filet mignon with cauliflower potato gratin, Madeira truffle sauce, French green beans and corn with tobacco onions.  YUM!

                             

R's Harris Ranch filet

My flank steak

YUM!

Amazing dessert!

Robert drank his dessert in the form of a glass of Armagnac.  I, however, had their warm dulce de leche cheesecake beignets with raspberry sauce, whipped cream and fresh berries. Incredible!  Truly one of the best desserts I’ve ever had!  What a nice way to celebrate the last night of our trip!

Safely back at Hampton Inn by 7:45 pm and now watching a baseball game and finishing the blog!

Lots of love,

m

xxx

*As it happens, we stopped the Harris Ranch in the San Joaquin Valley (just off IS 5) for lunch just a few weeks ago.  Highly recommended.  Odd coincidence to run across their filet here in Virginia.Y

Catching up … is hard to do!

Hello! 

Whew!  Two very interesting and very different days!  When I last posted, I think I ended with the Medieval Times.  On Monday, Chris was nice enough to take off work and we had a nice a relaxing day, except for Chris, who took Arden to her school - 45 minutes one way - and Dara to her school - about 10 minutes - and then got to pick them up at the end of the day! 

Chris' "kitchen sink" burger with egg on top!

That’s a lot of miles that Brenda does five times a week!   

We decided to go to Old Town Lawrenceville (lovely area with some beautifully restored buildings) and have lunch.  Selected Local Republic, where Brenda and Chris had been before.  We were there about 11:30 and opted to eat inside, as it was really getting warm outside.  Brenda ordered an olive tapenade for starters, which I skipped (allergies) but it really looked good.  I ordered a green salad to start, with jerk chicken sandwich with cheese, which was nicely done.  Brenda had a Panini with ham, which she liked, and R had a cup of black bean soup and a Caesar salad.  Chris, however, had what is called the “kitchen sink burger” – meaning that the hamburger comes out with whatever the kitchen wants to put on it!  Apparently last time Chris ordered it, it came with mashed potatoes on the burger … hmmm.  This time, he had a zucchini fritter to start, with gravy as well as a fried egg on top.  Very interesting, and Chris said it was good!  Very unusual concept; I’m not that adventurous!

Selfie at the Korean restaurant!

Excellent soup and salad to start

Very crowded table!

Back at the house, while Robert went upstairs to take a nap, Brenda and I talked about movies, and I suggested Jurassic World.  Robert and I had seen it at the movies when it first came out, but Brenda had not seen it yet.  So … well, let me only say that at least Brenda is still talking to me, so that was definitely a good sign.  R came down for the last half of the movie, and we have decided that no, after all, we don’t need to add it to our collection.  It is quite scary and very, very violent. 

By this time, both Dara and Arden were home from school, and we talked about dinner plans.  Apparently Atlanta has a very large Korean population, and Duluth, the town where Chris works, has a wide assortment of Korean restaurants.  Chris lived in Korea for two years, and is fluent in Korean and loves the food.  Decided to try the Breakers, for Korean barbeque.  The girls got all dressed up (that is, Arden and Dara … Brenda and I remained pretty much the same…) and it was about 20 minutes to the restaurant. 

Well … as we were there just a little after 5, we had the place to ourselves for quite a while.  This is not a Korean BBQ (or Mongolian BBQ) of the kind we have seen elsewhere.  In this case, we selected the “all you can eat” menu, that includes chicken (both regular and spicy), pork belly, beef brisket, another beef, pork (both regular and spicy) as well as squid … on which I took a pass.  Very interesting experience and we all ate way too much food! (Also, they used metal chopsticks, which R and I had never seen before!) 

Korean radish and beef brisket

Pork bellies ...

Our handsome waiter!

Squid ...

(Especially after Chris told Arden that the squid was like eating erasers! … No thank you!) We had a very nice waiter (who Dara thought was handsome!) who cooked everything on the grill in the center of our table, and then presented various sauces and accompaniments to go with things.

Straight home after that, and after a nice visit and the girl’s baths, we were up to bed early, about 9:15 pm; we wanted to get an early start this morning, as we knew we had a long way to go.

Way too soon, it was 6 am and we were back up, showered and repacked.  Out the door about 6:45 am after some very special last hugs with the girls and Brenda.  I am missing them already, that’s for sure! 

So … on the road to Charlettesville, VA.  Our plan was to get here and overnight, and then go straight to Monticello in the morning.  Of course I hadn’t really looked at a map, so our Hampton Inn Hotel (nice clean and very modern room on the 5^th (top) floor) is on the north side of town, while Monticello is to the southeast. 

Pedestrian main street mall!

Lovely theatre!

Oh well!  It took us about 8½ hours, but the drive was fine and we didn’t really have any traffic anywhere to speak of, for which we were thankful!  Checked in about 4 pm.  As we hadn’t stopped any place for lunch, we decided to head to the historic downtown mall area – supposed home of lots of restaurants. 

Well … hadn’t realized that UVA is in Charlottesville!  Young people everywhere!  Had to really be careful driving due to all the one-way streets, and pedestrian walkways.  Finally parked in a lot on Water Street, and then just one block away, the Main Street Mall.  Quite lovely, and beginning to fill up with people.  Decided to try an Indian restaurant, and really had the downstairs indoors restaurant to ourselves! 

Interior of Indian restaurant

Cute guy!

Even some wine!

Our usual:  Vegetable samosas; vegetable pakoras; chicken tikka, shrimp tikka masala, rice, and an eggplant dish that I can never remember how to spell … oh, and garlic na’an.  Excellent!  Between Korean last night and Indian tonight, we’re being very international!

Appetizers

Naan, eggplant and rice; shrimp in back

Chicken Tikka

Back to the mall!

Yum!

Walked down the mall a bit to the Sweet Frog frozen yogurt shop to indulge just a little.  Then, finally, back to the hotel by about 7:30 pm and now to post.

More later!

m

xxx