The Fourth Corps of Discovery: Life, Liberty and Happiness

It has been about a year since our family made our first trip to Jefferson's Monticello in Central Virginia. Because we wrote a fairly lengthy blog post about it then (see "Jefferson's Monticello"), we won't repeat those details here. Instead, we'll supplement it with more photos and additional tidbits from our deeper dive into the "Jefferson Experience."

Lucky for us, the weather that day was spectacular and warm, which made it all the more enjoyable.

Enjoying Spring weather on the garden walk (the "nickel view")

The views from the top of the mountain were endless!

And the massive gardens were just getting started.

We had a great tour of the house and a very knowledgeable tour guide. Sadly, there's no photography in the house, so we only got this shot out front before entering for the tour.

But let's be honest, it was worth the 2 1/2 hour drive to Charlottesville, just to see the flowers!!! It was a veritable RIOT of color, everywhere we looked!

Jefferson was very innovative in his design of Monticello in that he put the "dependencies" (such as the kitchen, wine cellar, beer cellar, laundry, etc.) all below the house, and the slave quarters and other tradesmen outbuildings were nearby along Mulberry Row, just below the house.

Jefferson's slaves turned out elaborate French-inspired cuisine from the kitchen

Restored slave quarters

We could have spent all day looking at the exhibits at the visitor's center, because they really give you a feel for Jefferson and the kind of man he was. Here are just a few of our faves:

The "boisterous sea of liberty" interactive exhibit

Detailed models and information in the architecture exhibit

A replica--the original is at the National Archives

A 18th century "Stander" used by Jefferson--ahead of his time!

This deeper dive into Jefferson's world was fascinating on so many levels but also admittedly left us with some conflicted feelings and unanswered questions.

— If Jefferson was so opposed to slavery, why didn't he free his slaves at his death when he had an opportunity to do so, like other founding fathers did?

— And for someone who was so concerned about providing for his family and ensuring the future sustainability of Monticello, why did he live so beyond his means that he died with substantial debt (somewhere between $1 and 2 million), ironically forcing his family to sell Monticello in order to pay his debts and basically leaving them without a home?

Standing in our 21st century shoes looking back, it's easy to judge, but (unlike proponents of the modern "renaming" movement) our view is that history needs to be viewed in the context and time in which it took place; it can't be viewed through a modern-day lens. We try not to get "political" in this blog, so we're content to leave those questions unanswered and instead focus on the significant contributions this incredible individual made to the foundations of our modern democracy.

Want to know how to "Live the Jefferson Experience" today??? (According to a t-shirt we saw in the gift shop, lol!)

- Declare your Independence

- Read Books

- Pursue Life

- Pursue Liberty

- Pursue Happiness

- Follow Truth

- Boldly Question

- Rebel a Little

- Dream of the Future

- Celebrate History

Yup, not bad advice and pretty much sums up the Jeffersonian values that are embodied and shared with visitors to Monticello.

The ritual photo with the man himself

One last interesting tidbit we missed last time was the marker pictured below. It sits just off the garden path in the back and is one of over a dozen disks that were placed throughout the United States between 2003 and 2006 to honor the 200th anniversary of the surveying and mapping contributions of Lewis & Clark.

Our stumbling across this marker was meant to be! It made us realize that we need to spend some of the time on the drive back to Oregon following in the ACTUAL footsteps of the explorers that provided the inspiration for our own journey. Watch for more Corps of Discovery marker photos in blog entries we'll post later this summer.