Little Mountain Travels

October 8, 2013

Jason and I began our day the way most people do, being served breakfast by a British Woman while drinking hot tea. At least, that's what I hope everyone else is doing because it's awesome. Today Juliette served us fresh fruit, egg soufflé, and cornbread with wine jelly. Delicious, as always. Wish she taught cooking classes! Today we got to learn a little bit about her and her husband. Apparently Juliette lives here most of the time, but then goes to her house in Savannah from November through the spring. She gets a longer fall than anyone. She had made the comment that this year the Virginia leaves have been "dreadful" or "boring," Jason and I don't remember which. In either case, we both were a little shocked. We told her that compared to Georgia this was breathtaking. Anything with just a tinge of fall color is noteworthy.

After breakfast we headed upstairs to plan our day. Today we were off to see Monticello. Due to yesterday's rain, today was much colder and certainly felt more of fall than any other day I've ever spent in Georgia. We wore long sleeves and took our jackets with us. Jason reminded me to wear appropriate shoes, since I have a knack for wearing flip flops in any type of weather. We were ready.

After a small amount of time, we arrived at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home. I should probably say mansion due to the size and loveliness of his property. After taking a bus to the house, I was able to take some pictures:

We were only able to get the outside of the house unfortunately. Apparently there are many people who have donated a lot of their own personal collection of historical artifacts and have not given the right for any photos to be taken. However, 90 percent of the house is exactly the way Jefferson left it. He apparently lost his home due to financial troubles, and a man named Levy purchased it in order to preserve the historical location. There are a few notable items in the house that we hope we will always remember. The first being a unique clock. Above the front door in the foyer there is a clock that keeps track of the days of the week as well as the time. He did this by hanging cannon balls on a string. Each time the clock would rotate, the balls would move lower to the floor. On the walls there are markings indicating what day it is. In the foyer you could only see up to Thursday. He had cut out holes in the wood floor so the balls could continue to lower. He also housed a large collection of books and was often found reading in his library on the floor rather than in a chair. Additionally, in his dining room he had created an early version of a dumbwaiter, in which to carry wine and plates.

Some other facts we learned from the Monticello tour: he supposedly introduced America to macaroni and cheese; he died on July 4th as did his close friend Adams; He had regular visits with French General LaFayette; and he brought numerous French decor to his home. We also learned from a Monticello slave tour that he fathered possibly 6 children with one of his slaves. Although he did free two men during his life, they kind of outsmarted him into making a deal where they would have their freedom bought. He also freed three other people in his will, all related to the woman slave he fathered children with. All though he said he agreed that slavery was wrong, he never really made an attempt to end it or free his own slaves willingly.

Oh, one more fun moment. . . during the tour, our guide told us about a bone Jefferson had found from some massive creature. Neither one of us can remember what the creature was, but it was huge. She grabbed the bone and put it next to the head of a little girl in our group and said, "So, this is your head and this was [the creature's] tooth!" Pretty scary! It was exactly the same size. This same little girl had asked her earlier if they used soap back then. It was pretty cute.

Here are some pictures of the bottom part of his home, where horses were kept and wine/beer was stored:

After seeing the house, Jason and I headed out toward the gardens. My favorite spot at Monticello was what they call Mulberry Row. Not really even sure how to explain how beautiful it is, so I'll just let the picture do the talking:

To Jason's right and behind me is his garden. They still are growing corn, flowers, and other types of vegetables. It also comes with a breathtaking view. Here are some pictures:

After taking these pictures we headed toward the gift shop and decided to purchase some gifts, along with fudge and water. We went back to the garden and started eating on a shaded bench. Here we are:

As we unwrapped the first fudge pack, a woman walked right in front of us and randomly said in a loud voice, "Here I'm going to talk about..." it took a second but we finally realized she wasn't talking to us. Shortly after, we heard a large group of people following her. She was apparently giving a tour and decided to give us front row seats. Sadly, a man walked up between our bench and another women's from the group and tripped pretty badly. We decided we should get up so that people with disabilities or balance issues could sit down. We walked farther down and saw a group of archaeologists working...

 We ended up walking down toward the Jefferson Cemetery and eating our dessert there. Here we were alone, except for a squirrel (Harriet) that was acting more like a cat. She kept stalking us from behind blades of grass. No joke, here's a picture:

Monticello is the perfect place for a picnic, especially in the fall. The weather is crisp and slightly cold, yet still sunny. Perfect fall weather and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. After finishing our fudge we headed toward the Jefferson Cemetery. We even saw a headstone from a woman who died in 2006. Apparently his descendants are still being buried here. Here are pictures:

 Jefferson's tombstone... of course the biggest one there. He did ask them not to mention his presidency as one of his accomplishments on his tombstone. Said he was happy to retire and that being president was the quickest way to turn friends into enemies.

 Not sure who these people are, but felt this was some kind of joke since they were buried at different times and had matching headstones. "A perfect Gentleman" and "a Talented Lady."

After viewing the cemetery we walked through the grove and headed back toward the visitor's station. We stopped in the shop and bought some more gifts. We decided to only get a few things since most items were extremely overpriced. We then got back in the car and headed toward an old tavern where we did some more shopping. Virginia is extremely hilly and is difficult to travel around with a stick shift. When we parked, Jason pulled his parking break up but we still felt the car move backward farther than we felt comfortable with, so we headed for flat ground instead. This allowed us to go in and shop without worry. Got some pretty awesome gifts here, too. We then headed back to the Inn for dinner. On the way back there was this massive truck that decided other cars didn't exist... slightly terrifying with how often he was changing lanes and how quickly he was doing so. Jason managed to avoid him though and we got back safely.

Once back at the Inn, Jason and I relaxed a little before dinner. We decided to go to Baja Bean, a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Staunton. We said goodbye to Juliette and her husband and then walked toward downtown. Here's a picture of downtown Staunton (within walking distance):

We had such a good dinner at Baja Bean! It was wonderful. Here are pictures of our amazing food, be jealous! :^)

After dinner we decided to walk to a dessert restaurant called "The Split Banana." Amazing ice cream! They had gelato there! Jason got pumpkin pie and cinnamon gelato and I got Hazelnut... both awesome. To the left of the entrance there was an old timey piano with a sign on it that read "play us something awesome." We didn't because we didn't know how to play, but I thought that was amazing! Well, I guess amazing depending on who plays for them. Here's a picture of us enjoying our amazing dessert!

After eating, Jason and I walked back to the Inn. Now we plan to read a little of that book and relax before our anniversary. Tomorrow will be October 9th, 2013. Exactly 3 years from the day we got married. No better man I'd rather spend my days with than Jason. I still can't believe how lucky I am. He seems to just get better and better every year :^) End of day 3.

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

October 7th, 2013

No better way to start off your morning then with a British woman serving you breakfast! The only reason Jason and I would ever set an alarm on our vacation is so we can get breakfast from Juliette. Amazing! He and I quickly showered and dressed and headed down the large wooden stairwell to the living room/tea room for breakfast. I don't have pictures of the room, but I'll try my best to get one before we leave.

Jason and I found the tea table and began making ourselves some hot tea. I also popped my head into the kitchen and wished Juliette a good morning. She returned the gesture and then came out to show us where everything was for breakfast. She has an amazing tea room. She has coffee and a large assortment of different types of tea, along with sugar cubes, honey, and milk. She even has a hot water tap so you don't have to wait for boiling water, although she offered to make us a pot since she found out we love tea. We declined so she wouldn't have to wash any more dishes just for us. To the right of the room, above a very large window with small square panes made of dark wood, she showed us the buffet area. Here she had three different types of cereal (one was homemade granola), milk for the cereal, and a large bowl filled with fruit. Jason grabbed an apple and I ate the granola. Side note: granola was amazing. Juliette also offered us some fresh fruit juice. I declined but Jason took her up on the offer for pear juice. After we sat down for a few minutes Juliette walked out with two plates. Both filled with buttered toast, bread pudding, and sausage links. She also showed us where her homemade jams and jellies were. Jason tried both the strawberry jam and her wine jelly. The wine jelly was wonderful! She sells the jams and jellies too, so we might need to buy some for ourselves before we leave. Once we became unbelievably full, we headed back upstairs to relax and figure out the day.

It was raining today, which made things difficult to plan since we picked a place where walking was the best way to get around. Also, Jason and I were locked in a car all day yesterday so we weren't wanting to get around the town that way. We decided to relax and little and wait for the rain to stop. Around lunchtime the rain finally disappeared. We both were still pretty full from breakfast, so we decided to spend the time walking around the cemetery and town. The cemetery was unbelievably beautiful. We both love historical cemeteries. It's always the quietest spot in every town, the most peaceful, and it's a good reminder that no matter who you are there was someone once that remembered you and loved you enough to mark a spot in the world for you. It's also neat to read the different names of people and see how old they are. This particular one was called Thornrose Cemetery and there were people placed here from the 1800s.

Thornrose was absolutely breathtaking. The leaves were turning red and golden yellow and covering the ground like a blanket. There were long, winding paths that lead to a beautiful stone bridge with a small tower attached. It was just lovely. Here are some pictures:

 

 

 Don't Blink....

 1860 tombstone and the Hogshead, I assume the owner of the pub in Harry Potter.

 Our identical poses were actually not intentional... Just sorta happened.

 No more Zelda Games :^(

Over 700 unknown confederate soldiers are buried in this mound, their names are unknown, just their ranks.

After savoring the cold weather and walking throughout the whole cemetery, Jason and I decided to head into town to browse antique shops. Apparently antique shops is what this town is known for. There are too many to count. We spend the afternoon going from store to store looking at old things, like a gold, travel razer kit; an old barber chair; a wooden spinning wheel; and an old, wooden wall mount telephone like the one my grandmother had. The first store we went to, however, told us they only take cash so we headed toward the nearest atm. We didn't make it right away though. Just a few feet from the antique store Jason had a heated battle with a bee. The bee landed on his head and Jason, thinking it was leaf, went to brush it out only to be stung on his thumb. We decided to head back to the B&B to get Advil and run it under cold water.

This is Jason elevating his thumb to reduce the swelling.

After a few minutes we headed back out to shop. We came across an awesome shop filled with pumpkins and fall decor in the window. My favorite thing in the window display, however, was the shop owner's cat. The cat was curled up by the pumpkins taking a nice nap in the sunshine. We already have two cats, so we didn't buy him (although I doubt he was really for sale). The only thing we did end up buying was this:

It's a little dusty, but once we clean it up it will be a great display case for our souvenirs. Jason and I always try to get dirt or shells or something from each vacation spot, usually from historical locations. This will be perfect to house each item. The antique shop we bought this in was really cute. The owner was a friendly bald man who watched a lot of news programs and alien tv shows. He also owned a very large, kind dog named tafty or tafada or something weird like that. There was also another man working there that greeted us when we came in. We heard "Hello" and responded in the same way. "Where are you two from?" We, of course, said Georgia and he then thanked us for driving so far to come shop at their store. We still don't exactly know what tipped him off that we weren't from Virginia. In fact, Jason and I have been rather surprised by the accents here. They don't seem to have any. Jason never really has had a southern accent and I have had to work hard not to sound southern (the occasional "say-ed" slips out, but never on purpose and rarely). We've thought we were blending in perfectly since we sound exactly like Virginians, but something must be tipping them off. This could also explain why everyone in town stairs at us so intently. Jason thinks it's because the town is so small that anyone new sticks out immediately. He's probably right.

After shopping we headed back to the hotel and decided to figure out where to eat. We decided on Mill Street Grill. As we walked downstairs to head toward Mill street, we heard Juliette's husband speaking to someone. We waved and then headed toward the back door to leave. Juliette's husband, however, excused himself from the new visitor and said he wanted to speak to us outside. Jason and I both had a moment of panic. What on earth could we have done to have him want to speak to us and why did he insist on speaking to us in private? My first thought was they were going to tell us they doubled charged us and our credit card would be overdrawn. Or what if they accidentally had served us breakfast with poison in it (I might have let myself get carried away with potentially horrible things, but it could happen...). Or maybe they doubled booked our room and were going to tell us we had to leave. In either of these cases, both Jason and I knew we were thinking the same thing... something bad is about to happen. He closed the door behind him and actually apologized to us. He said they had left the cottage earlier in the day to run errands and had completely forgotten to clean our room and give us new towels! Haha... no poison! We told him it was okay and that we didn't mind. He asked if we would be gone for a while so they could clean up now. We told them we were headed to dinner and he promised they'd clean up. Crisis averted. This is what the Mill Street Grill looked like:

 The stained glass windows in the back were beautiful. Each one was part of the bread-making process. The first starting with a farm and the last ending with the bread being served. Jason ordered the fish and chips and I got a veggie plate. Both came with amazing bread with maple butter and a small scoop of peppermint ice cream. Delicious! After dinner we walked back to the Inn, but before we reached it we ran into Hugh Laurie. No joke, even got a picture:

Okay, this may have been misleading, but that has to be a drawing of Hugh Laurie on a side street door. Whoever drew that was amazing! Once we got back to the B&B we decided to relax and read some until we eventually were so tired we fell asleep. End of chapter 2 from The Brown's Go to Staunton.

Staunton, What?!, the electric city!

October 6, 2013

We woke up far too early to start our anniversary, but it is totally worth it. We woke at 6:30 to finish packing the car and shower. At 7 we said goodbye to our kitties, who seemed extremely upset, and then headed off to Virginia, where I hope to eat some ham. Road trips are always filled with weird adventures, and this is definitely true with this time around. The first thing we saw was a hilarious billboard, but I was unable to capture a picture for it. It was a small red-headed child with a beard and mustache. Next to the child is read "Worried about added hormones? Come to Moes!" Hilarious! Next was... well, here's a picture:

Apparently Megabus people don't think about vent placement.... had they just put the vent underneath the mouth this would not be so offensive! Who would want that for a mascot... or who would want Hitler as a bus driver. Just a really really bad idea. Only a dollar though!

Other than these two things, we mainly spent the drive singing to Beirut and Of Monsters and Men. We also just talked most of the way up without music and read from "The Alchemist" by Michael Scott. Staunton, What?!, the electric city! No, not that Michael Scott.

Halfway to Virginia we stopped at a small parking lot and had a mini picnic of homemade peanut butter sandwiches and fruit snacks. Yummy! Also got coffee from Dunkin Donuts. We got back on the road and started noticing all the beautiful fall-colored trees! In Georgia it's all pine, but here it's reds and golden yellows! Jason stopped me from reading and said "quick look," and I was able to catch a glimpse of the red and gold leaves washing over the car. I'd like to note that the guy in American Beauty knows nothing of true beautifulness... trash in the wind compares very little to a scene like this.

After spending some time admiring the landscape, I went back to reading the Alchemist to Jason. I put my feet on the dash and settled into the good book. Not long after, however, there was a screeching halt as numerous cars slammed on their breaks. There was an accident up ahead which caused everyone to stop, but they had already moved their cars over to the shoulder and weren't blocking the road, so I'm still not sure what happened there. We had about two more experiences of unexpected suddens stops, but were able to make it there in once piece without any issues. Luckily Jason is an excellent driver and quick on his feet and in a car.

Once in Staunton we found the Bed and Breakfast we would be staying at. It's lovely! Here is a picture of it... I do have to note that we got it from their website and didn't take it ourselves (http://www.anne-hathaways-cottage.com/).



We are staying in the Romeo Room which is on the top floor right above the front door. Those two windows at the top left are the ones in our room. The garden here is beautiful and there are three cats that roam the house all day and night. They actually look slightly like our cats. I was able to catch one in a picture from our bedroom window...

 Here are also a few pictures of our room:

There is a lovely writing desk that also had chocolates on it for us. You can't see the chocolate in the picture because I ate it immediately. We also found a hidden linen closet behind the regular closet that holds extra toiletries and pillows. I'm pretty sure they keep the chocolate there, but Jason won't let me go looking for it... he's a better person than I am.

The lady who owns the cottage is British and named Juliette. She's wonderful! She makes jams and jellies of various kinds and sells them for only $5. She also has jewelry that she sells and she's great at helping us find things to do and telling us where everything is. Across the street there is a cemetery. We were super excited to find that out since we always go to cemeteries on vacation. We walked over there but it was closed. A lot of the shops and restaurants were closed because it was Sunday... guess we are still in the south. We were able to find a pizza place though and popped in for some really good food and weird music. There was a couple singing love songs as we ate. They were good singers but very bad writers in my opinion. If they didn't write them then they found some songs that weren't big hits that I never heard of... probably for a reason. They were super nice though and were very good entertainers. Jason ordered a bacon-turkey spinach wrap and I had some kind of meatball dish without bread... both were super yummy. We also ordered some pepperoni pizza rolls and chips that were amazing! Jason said they had ranch in them. Really good. Jason and I both found chips shaped like hearts. We gave them to each other cause we're weird like that. Jason immediately ate the one I gave him but I caught a picture of the one he had... I'm better than he is in this situation. Let's just forget about the chocolate incident at the bed and breakfast. Here's the chip:

After we ate we decided to go back to the B&B because of how dark it was getting and how weird people were. It's a really beautiful town but we're not sure about some of the people yet. People stare at you a lot (very small town, it seems) and they love to blare their music from their cars. Just a weird vibe but it still seems super nice and beautiful. There are old churches everywhere and brick buildings. There's even a small women's college down the street that looked gorgeous. We walked down the square a bit and eventually found our way back to the Anne Hathaway B&B. We then settled in for the night. We mainly just relaxed and read a little more of that book... actually pretty good book. It's kind of a spin off from the Harry Potter series, so we weren't sure since it wasn't JK writing it. This guy's awesome though... should have known, he is named Michael Scott after all!

Battlings and Gingerbread Skeletons

October 1, 2013

Fall Day. The second greatest day in the year! (The first is, of course, October 9th, our anniversary). After work Jason and I began preparing for the event. We got all the ingredients for our Fall Day tomato soup. This year we decided to make it a little healthier so we made it with margarine and milk instead of cream... still super good! Jason made the soup and I made the grilled cheese. Keeping up with tradition, I forgot the grilled cheese and caused the crust to burn slightly. I somehow manage to do this every year, even though it's my only job when cooking (I blame the awesomeness of Zelda). I, of course, scraped the burnt part off and it was as good as new. We then lit some holiday pumpkin/hazelnut candles and poured our wine. Jason and I watched the traditional Fall Day movie, Arsenic and Old Lace (best fall movie ever)!

After the movie, we made gingerbread skeleton cookies. They were supposed to have white icing on them to make them more skeletony, but the icing tasted weird and, I think, smelled of bubblegum. . . just not okay for fall. So, we just ate them without the icing. Still amazing!

After eating cookies we decorated for fall. Jason and I made awesome ghosts out of white cloth and put up witches hats all over the house. We then added wall decal bats to the living room and decorated our new fall tree! Our house looks amazing now. Earlier last month we also put up pumpkins and fall leaves all over the house, just to make it more awesome. I'm so thankful Jason loves decorating as much as I do, and that we have the same tastes. Makes life more fun and entertaining.

Our new Harry Potter shelf in the living room is my favorite! Fall Day makes ordinary life way more fun :^) As does Jason!