Day 11 - Monticello and Michie Tavern

Day 11 was our 2nd day of exploring the homes of our past presidents.  We know that there were many options to choose from, but in the end, we decided on George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  We picked Mount Vernon because we had recently studied George Washington and his role in the French-Indian War and in the Revolution.  And when my husband was a boy, he vacationed down in Virginia with his family, and the two places he loved the most were Williamsburg and Monticello, so they also made there way on our must do list.

When you arrive in the parking lot for Monticello, you buy your ticket and then wait for the shuttle to bring you up the hill to Thomas Jefferson's home.  We opted not to bring our stroller with us, because while there were areas that were accessible for strollers and wheelchairs, the loading and unloading it onto the shuttle, and knowing that most of the area was rough, we decided to skip the stroller.  I think it was a good call on our part.  It would have been a bother trying to push the stroller through many of the areas.

Now, I know George Washington went on and on about the views from his house, but I'm sorry - Thomas Jefferson has got him beat.  The area was flat out gorgeous. 

Near the orchard

It looks like one big hill in the picture, but it's not.  It was like a giant staircase garden.  Pretty neat!

Staircase gardening!

Ken carried a sleeping Felix on the guided tour of the gardens, while I stayed with the other children.  They wanted to explore the gardens on their own.  They were much more interested in the birds that were roosting in the trees, butterflies that were going from flower to flower and bugs that were crawling around the garden plants than in a historical tour of the garden.

After Ken finished the tour, he took me and the children around and shared what he had learned.

The chimney from one of the original buildings.

After spending time in the gardens, we headed over to the main house because it was time for the tour.

After having failed attempts at home tours in Shirley and Mount Vernon, I decided to sit this one out with Felix.  We had just finished up learning about Lewis and Clark, so I thought for sure that the children would want to go inside on the tour and see all the things that they brought back, which we knew were on display inside.  Ainsley and Ephraim decided to "play in Thomas Jefferson's backyard."  Nathaniel was REALLY torn on what he wanted to do.  He finally decided that he would stay with me, and then proceeded to lament that decision the entire time.  He was able to join his Papa towards the end of the tour when they made an appearance outside.

Once Ken and Nathaniel had come back from their tour, we walked the path and looked at the flowers blooming everywhere. The kids found a little pond filled with tadpoles.  They were amazed.  It was their first time seeing a tadpole in real life.

Discovering Tadpoles

I can't exactly remember the original purpose of the next area that we toured, but it was a basement of sorts.  It now houses many hands on examples of Thomas Jefferson's inventions.  The kids had fun in this area.

Just outside the hands-on area for inventions

After spending some time in this area, we were starting to get hungry, so we took the shuttle back to our car and headed for our destination for lunch: Michie Tavern!

Picture time with Thomas Jefferson

Like so many other places in Virginia, I would never have known about this place if I hadn't stumbled onto this site: http://www.virginia-beach-family-fun.com/michie-tavern.html. 

Michie Tavern (pronounce like the mouse - MIC-KEY-MOUSE) offers both a buffet meal and a tour of the house and grounds.  You can either just have lunch, just do the tour, or do both.  We chose to do both.  It is also VERY close to Monticello.  Maybe a 5 minute drive, if that.

Lunch at Michie Tavern

We enjoyed our lunch here, but if I had to choose between the Mount Vernon Inn or Michie Tavern, the Mount Vernon Inn would win hands down.  The food there was better, and we paid less for our lunch in Mount Vernon than in Michie Tavern.  Adults are $17 each, and children over 6 were $7.  One child under 6 per adult eats free.

Now don't get me wrong, the food WAS very good.  And the staff here was great.  They had mashed potatoes and gravy that was amazing. I ate way more of those than I should have, because I adore mashed potatoes and gravy.  They had Fried chicken, baked chicken and pulled pork, cornbread (which my husband loved), biscuits (which my children loved), and a few different veggies that most of my children were unwilling to try.  (Things like beets and stewed tomatoes.)  For dessert, there was ice cream, fresh fruit and peach cobbler.  You can see the full menu here.

After lunch, we went over to take a tour of the tavern.  We had a lot of fun here, even though we had the only kids on the tour.  My kids loved learning the Virginian Reel.  Ken sat out with Felix during the dance because I had sat out during the house tour.  I think in reality, he just didn't want to dance!!

After a tour of the house, we were allowed to explore the yard.  We had two favorite parts.  The first one was the outhouse.  Yup, the outhouse.  Here is why:

Sign hanging in the outhouse

Notice: If ye bottom falls through seat, do not call proprieters.  Use ye rope to pull ye out.  

Mrs. Michie

Obviously, not true, but didn't stop us from laughing hysterically!

The second part that we loved was the fact that they used a spring in the back yard to refrigerate perishables.  It just amazed us how inventive people were when they didn't have the modern inventions of today!  If I was suddenly stranded on a deserted island, I'm not so sure I would have thought of this without reading about it first!

old fashioned refrigeration

We finally wandered down to the gift shop, and if you do nothing else here, you should visit the gift shop.  My children didn't know which way to turn first.  It is filled with tons of old fashioned gifts for old and young alike.  After a lot of hemming and hawing over what souvenir they wanted, Nathaniel finally decided on a pocket knife that had Michie Tavern etched on the side and Ainsley decided on a crocheting set.  We allowed the children to pick one souvenir each for each area we were - so one pick in southern Virginia, one in northern Virginia, and one in Baltimore.  We reserved the right to say no to anything too pricy or foolish - we did  not need another stuffed animal laying around!

After our enjoyable break over at Michie Tavern, we headed back to Monticello.  There were still areas we hadn't explored that we wanted to.  Mainly the Mountain Top Hands-On Kids Center!

For any kid, hands-on equals fun, and this place was no exception!  We spent the rest of the afternoon here.  There was blocks to build with, checkers to play, and a little house to show kids how the slaves lived. 

Cooking up a meal in the slave's quarters

Playing blocks with another homeschooler

Playing with the blocks

I lost.  He won.

We left as the museum was closing.  We had a good day here, but I don't think a full day would be necessary if we didn't leave and spend a few hours over at Michie Tavern.  We left again feeling like it was good that we went, and that we had fun, but that we wouldn't necessarily visit again if we were in the area.  Mount Vernon and Monticello both fell under the "once is enough" category for us.