Day 33 - Fredericksburg, VA to Charlottesville, VA and back again

Photos from Monticello


Jefferson's grave

Pete and I on the back porch...called the "Nickel Side"
Cooling down with some colonial root beer
Elena helping Jefferson's neighbors' helper carry stuff
Pete meeting Jefferson's butler


Pete and I decided to take a day trip to see Monticello, Jefferson's residence, just outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The estate is actually not that big, but I guess the total property he owned in his day was pretty substantial. Although it was very informative and interesting, we were kinda disappointed by the lack of..I don't know...national park-style professionalism? It just had a different feel to it, especially since our tour guide side-stepped my only question about Jefferson's illegitimate family and told me to read a book instead. We did do both the house tour and the "Slave Road" tour, so we felt like we got our money's worth. His house did have this really cool pulley system that would bring a new bottle of wine up from the cellar to his fire place, and Pete and I decided such gadgets need to be more present in our future houses. So cool.

We ended up puttering around Charlottesville downtown, which was pretty quiet, so we saw Despicable Me, which was cute but not worth buying a movie ticket. We made it back to Fredericksburg pretty late and just went to bed.

Day 31-32 - Greenwich, CT to Fredericksburg, VA

Another long day of driving. We made it to Fredericksburg in time for a late dinner at Sammy T's in downtown Fredericksburg, and then returned to Jeremy's new little house where he'll be living for his last year at Mary Washington University. Alex and his friend Kyle (also a high school friend of Jeremy from Virginia Beach) made it down about the same time, so we all just hung out and relaxed, that night and the next. Virginia is really starting to be humid, and Pete and I were really appreciate that we could sleep indoors with air conditioning. The next day we mostly just hung around Fredericksburg and went to a used book store, where I found a 1940 textbook on "American Foreign Policy." I'm the only one I'm sure that finds this fascinating! Good reading for when I get back and have no job...

We once again forgot to take any photos of the whole weekend! Good job dumb dumb.

Day 28-30 - Greenwich, CT to New York, NY and back again

Rob dropped us off at the train station early in the morning so that Pete and I could try to get to a box office early for discount Broadway tickets. I was hankering for some musical production (I had The Producers playing in my head non stop) and discovered that Pete had never seen a Broadway show (again, it's a time for firsts!) so we decided to see a show since you can only do it in New York (thank you Greg and Osa!). We ended up not getting tickets that morning because they didn't have any to Avenue Q, our top pick, but we did walk around Wall Street and meet up with Alex to see the Bodies exhibit. If you haven't seen it, it's plasticized humans cut up so you can see all the interesting things on our insides! Totally worth it.

Alex had a dinner with friends that night, so Pete and I went to see Inception on IMAX. OH MY GOD AMAZING! Go see it, it's a great movie. And the IMAX was actually worth it this time. We all met up and decided we were pretty tired, so we headed back to the apartment that Alex was squatting in/house-sitting in East Harlem. It smelled just like Guatemala, that sweet rotting fruit smell with flowers and gas. The neighborhood was really cute though, and the apartment even cuter, decorated and owned by the very chic, fashionable friend of Alex's.

In the morning we woke up extra early (8 am!) to go to the Box Office of Avenue Q to get cheaper tickets (full price ones are still over $100 each), which turned out to be way too early and we were totally the first ones there. After scoring our tickets for that evening, we all went to Central Park to reminisce about college and life before college (as Alex and I tend to do sometimes). Alex was working briefly for a gourmet desert bar as a waiter, but now is anticipating a solo trip to Europe before continuing to work on his writing. I may be able to convince him to move to San Francisco yet! Alex then took Pete and I to a cafe at Columbus Circle, which is apparently owned by the same guy who owns the French Laundry, except for $15/person instead of $500/person. Delicious! Alex went back to take a nap, and Pete and I headed to the local Salvation Army looking for leather scraps to make him a leather journal cover. Instead, Elena just found lots of cheap cool clothes and Pete found nothing (surprised? :) Pete and I went back to Central Park to relax and lie on the grass, then met up with Alex at the theater that night. Great show! Totally raunchy but adorable, catchy and clever, and especially appropriate as it's about a recent college grad meeting the "realities" of life. We could take a lesson I suppose :) And with puppets!

Alex invited Pete and I to join him in Fredericksburg to visit high school friend Jeremy in the coming days, so Pete and I took off the next day back to Greenwich with promises to see each other soon.

Rob and Marjorie were generous enough to host us another night after Rob picked us up at the train station. They are such kind and energetic people! They took us to dinner at this fusion Mexican restaurant, where they had items such as lobster tacos and served Patron tequila! Not your typical Californian fare, but totally delectable!

Day 27 - Bloomfield, CT to Greenwich, CT

The Mountains are family friends of mine, and were dear friends of my grandfather in Greenwich. We had decided to call them in hopes of leaving our car at their place while we went to visit New York City. Elena and I had such a wonderful time staying with them! Their home is beautiful. I am an especially big fan of their pond behind their house that is full of fish, and dragon flies. Rob also was kind enough to show us their boat, "Upwind", which was a lot of fun. I'm so glad that we were able to spend some time with them before we left for New York City.
-Pete


The Mountain's beautiful home


The pond behind their house.

Day 25-26 - Bloomfield, CT

Grandma was nice enough to let us sleep in, so we didn't even have breakfast until 11 or so. We decided it was so awful hot that we would go to the swimming hole, which of course is what one does in Bloomfield during any visit in the summer time. (Picture #1) It's an old club that my grandparents have been members of for a long time, and the location of many a story relating to my brother and my childish antics. We both remember it as one of the best things to do while visiting Grandma and Grandpa. We all had such a good time lounging around (and Pete and I diving off the platform) that we stayed until 6pm, to our surprise! Then back to the house for dinner and more talking on the porch. What a great invention! The temperature and humidity were almost unbearable, so sitting on the screened porch is really the only relief. Pete and I took the requisite walk around the neighborhood and watched a movie before bed. We both love watching movies so much that it was really a treat to do so, since we had internet and Netflix!

The next day, Grandma took us into town to take a boat cruise down the Connecticut river in Hartford, which afforded a nice view of most of the main buildings of downtown, as well as effects of heat on the many small children on the boat = children slippery as soap and totally disinterested in the boat. Afterward, she drove us to Trinity College to check out the truly majestic buildings (we West-coasters are always awed by the semi-gothic stone structures of Eastern colleges) and the truly amazing chapel (Picture #2).

The night, Pete took us all out to dinner at a local restaurant (quite the gentleman!!!). It was good food, which was even better because of the air-conditioning. After dinner, we watched Forrest Gump because Pete had never seen it (what?!) and we both agreed it's one of our favorite movies.

Day 24 - Buffalo, NY to Niagara Falls, NY to Bloomfield, CT

We woke up early (as per usual in a Walmart parking lot, as the noise of people banging around and cars passing usually starts around 7am) and headed to Niagara Falls. The park is mostly on the US side, which is nice because neither of us brought passports anyway. We walked around the two sides of the falls, but didn't feel like paying the extra money to get totally soaked just before the long car ride to Connecticut. However, the views are definitely satisfactory from the edges of the cliffs.


View of the crazy people who pay to be crushed by the tons of falling water... :)




Then we headed to Buffalo again to test a Lonely Planet recommendation for buffalo wings - it was phenomenal! We didn't have time to eat it but on the road, so we tucked paper towels everywhere and slobbered away on the best chicken wings we've ever had! Not much else to the afternoon except driving, and general frustration with paying tolls (how come the rest of the country doesn't bleed every driver for $.50 every 20 miles?!)

After spotting a feisty black bear running around in a cabbage field somewhere north of Bloomfield, we arrived at my grandmother's house around 8pm just in time for dinner. Gma cooked us delicious fish with cracker crumbs and some of Wade's famous yellow corn! We sat on the porch and listened to the bugs, ready for a couple days of sleeping in beds and relaxation.

Day 23 - Chicago, IL to Buffalo, NY

Long drive, not much happened except that we started to see fireflies alongside the road, and we arrived really late in Buffalo. We found out (the hard way) that not all Walmarts allow overnight parking, and it wasn't until the third one that we were finally able to make our bed in the back. The problem was it was so hot we cracked the windows, and then a thunderstorm in the middle of the night rained on our faces! I guess you get what you pay for...