Dietz Summer Road Trip

They say Virginia is for Lovers. History Lovers, apparently! The last part of our journey was throughout Virginia to check out some famous presidential homes and historical sites! Virginia is full of them so the few that they managed to see was just scratching the surface.

When we left Shenandoah National Park we drove about an hour to Staunton, VA. Side note, it’s pronounced “Stan-ton”, apparently that “u” is not very important. Staunton is home to the birthplace and museum of President Woodrow Wilson. While he was president of Princeton and Governor of NJ, he was born and raised in Virginia in the house we visited this morning. Referred to as a manse, the house was provided to the Wilson family when his father was hired to pastor the local church and the family was allowed to live in the home.

You start out in the gift shop and they show you a movie that covers pretty much all of Wilson’s life. Then you Head next store on your own to check out the museum before the guided tour of the manse. Lots of cool stuff in there, it wasn’t a super big museum, but there was a basement exhibit that focuses on WW1 and trench warfare. They also have Wilson’s restored Pearce Arrow car!

After the museum we met in the lobby for our tour of the manse. There were no pictures allowed inside (that’ll be a theme that happens often throughout this post). But we got to tour most of it, still original and a lot of the furnishing were time period originals and a few owned or used by the Wilson family.

Afterwards we walked downtown in Staunton to find something to eat. The small downtown had a bunch of cool shops, a camera museum and a truck that looked like this…

We settled on the Clocktower restaurant for lunch. Aptly names since it’s inside of an old clocktower which chimes every hour and did so at 2pm while we were there.

We couldn’t waste much time because we had about an hour drive to get to our next stop, Monticello.

We had bought tickets previously for the last tour of the day at 4:30pm and the grounds closed at 6pm. It probably would have been better to spend a little more time. There was a separate tour you could take about slavery and Sally Hemmings that would we would want to do if we could go back. But the ticket let’s you into the gift shop (obviously), a small gallery, and provides a round trip shuttle up the house. There is also a trail you can take to walk up, which we will take on the way back.

Pause. Let me introduce you to the third member of our traveling party, John’s fanny pack. It’ll come up again but important for you to see it in all it’s glory outside of Monticello.

Before our tour we got to walk around the grounds, which we absolutely beautiful. The flowers were gorgeous. Shady trees were plentiful. And we just loved taking a little stroll around where Thomas Jefferson use to hang out.

We met near the entrance for our timed tour. Again, no pictures inside but it was absolutely beautiful. Almost all original and about 70% of the furnishing and decor were all owned by Thomas Jefferson, the rest were time period artifacts.

We learned about Thomas Jefferson eclectic sense of decorating, love for France, and his meticulous record keeping which helped them understand exactly why Monticello would of looked like back in his day.

After the tour we walked around a little bit longer. In some of the rooms sort of on the side they had kitchen replicas and then also a great video about Sally Hemmings told through letters of her son. There was also a room with information about descents of not only the Hemmings family, but other families that have traced their ancestry to slaves at Monticello.

After a few more photo ops we then took the trail back down to the visitor center. We stopped at the gravesite and saw where Thomas Jefferson and his wife was buried, along with other members of the Jefferson family. (The grave of Sally Hemmings is unknown to this day).

While Charlottesville, VA is only about 4 hours from our house we wanted to stay one more night to hit up a few things in the morning. So we got a campsite at the sweet KOA.

Now if you thought our campsite was cool… check out our neighbors. They stayed in a legit teepee. Now that is epic.

In typical fashion it started to rain so we headed out for dinner. We wanted to check out Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. The reviews online promised a pizza alternative and a lot of options. Totally lived up to the hype when we ordered something called the “Fat and Sassy”. Described as cheese bread, it also had whole roasted garlic cloves on it. Omg.

The next morning we went to James Monroe’s home called Highland. It was also nicknamed “Ash Lawn” after it experiences a fire and basically burn to the ground. But the new owners at that time rebuilt and we learned a lot about what it might of looked like from the fire insurance policy. So Highland is right beside Monticello. “neighbors” basically, and since Jefferson and Madison were friends that made sense.

Again it pays to get places early. Since we were there before 10am our tickets were discounted and only $10! We got to walk around the grounds on our own and take a few pictures (and buy a bobble head from the gift shop) before our tour.

Again, no pictures inside (boo!). So here are a few more from the outside.

The whole tour list about 45 minutes and again was super informative and interesting. When we were done it started to rain a little. But don’t worry… John’s fanny pack was made for this.

Our very last stop of the weeklong adventure was Appomattox Courthouse National Historical Site. It was only about an hour from Charlottesville (and 3 hours from home). Not technically a presidential site, but a future president was there! (Talking about Grant).

This is the site of Lee’s surrender to Grant which began the end of the civil war.

We got there and were able to walk around the visitor center and then we were just in time for the “Living History” presentation.

The surrender didn’t actually occur in the courthouse, but the McLean house just across from it. You are able to go in there and see exactly what it would have looked like that day.

Well that brings it to a wrap! We head back home for a little bit before heading back out! Thanks for reading along!