Washington Again

Today Anna, Kris, and I drove to Vienna and caught the Metro into D.C. to see and do a few more things: Arlington National Cemetery, The National Portrait Gallery, lunch at Pret a Manger, shopping at H&M, a failed attempt to visit Ford's Theater (closed for tours because of a play), The White House, and Lafayette Square. Rob juggled a buttload* of soccer games and we three traveled alone. *"Buttload" is not a coarse current teen/20 something usage but an old English shipping term meaning two barrels full of something.

Anna and Kris on the Orange-Line train

Arlington National Cemetery

JFK's eternal flame with Arlington House above

Arlington House is a well-arranged home with well-proportioned
rooms -- one of the best designed (though run down)
houses we have seen on this trip -- a pleasant surprise

The view of Washington from Arlington House

The girlies at the amphitheater at the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier

Waiting for the Metro

The National Portrait Gallery

Shepherd Fairey's Obama collage that became
the famous "Hope" poster -- very cool

Not all portraits, not all American: David Hockney

Pret is as good as the memory

"Passionate About Food"

The White House looking very calm

Not all that calm, really

Lafayette Square was an important venue for us
after all our presidential-history reading

It was a spectacularly beautiful day: crystal clear, sunny, but cool. We had a great time. Thanks to Anna for today's excellent management.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Richmond

This was a beautiful cool day with lots of sunshine, blue skies, and billowing white clouds, and we spent it in Richmond. The first stop was Agecroft Hall, an Elizabethan-era house from Lancashire in England, transplanted to a commanding site above the James River in the mid 1920s as focal point for a housing development called Windsor Farms. Today Windsor Farms is an uber-beautiful neighborhood and Agecroft Hall and its next-door neighbor Virginia House (also transplanted from England, but sadly, only open by appointment) are interesting features of the area. We felt transported back to England, which seemed quite appropriate on the day of a royal wedding.

Agecroft Hall

Foxgloves trigger memories of England

The peonies are in full bloom

The sunken garden is reminiscent of Hampton Court

House and garden

The kitchen garden

The house overlooks the James River

Rear view of Agecroft Hall

Virginia House is next door to Agecroft Hall

This is typical of the really beautifully-designed
houses in the Windsor Farms neighborhood

After a quick picnic lunch, we drove to the Virginia State Capitol, designed by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 while he was Ambassador to France. The inspiration for the design was the Maison Carree, a Roman temple in Nimes, France. It really is very impressive. We also popped into St. Paul's Episcopal Church for a look at the stained glass windows.

Jefferson's State House

The dome of the capitol

George Washington in the capitol rotunda

Saint Paul's Church

Our final stop was the Branch House on Monument Avenue. It is a wonderful 1916 Beaux-Arts-era house in the English-Renaissance style designed by John Russell Pope, architect of the National Gallery in Washington D.C. It is now a gallery and museum, but one still gets the feeling of what the house was like.

The Branch House

The great hall with its minstrels gallery

Linenfold panels

The great hall as it looked in the early 20th century
when the Branch family lived there

Branch House rear garden

The front door

This evening we went for dinner at Girasole in The Plains, a small village north of here. Robert Duvall, who lives somewhere nearby, sat across from us. It was a very nice finish to a very nice day.

Girasole

Perfect weather. Perfect day!

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Oatlands and Middleburg

After a traumatic night of, torrential rain, tornado warnings, and a quick dash to the basement for a LONG midnight campout, the morning also dawned rainy and overshadowed by a tornado watch. That delayed the start of school until 10:00 A.M. and gave us a slightly later departure on our adventure of the day. We chose a relatively close visit to Oatlands, a National Trust property north of here.

Established in the early 19th century by George Carter, Oatlands was a thriving wheat plantation and base for numerous business enterprises until the time of the Civil War. During most of the 20th century Oatlands served as the country estate of Mr. and Mrs. William Corcoran Eustis, affluent Washingtonians with strong ties to American politics. All that aside, it is a very homey, comfortable place that looks much like it must of when the Eustis family lived there. The original house was a three-story Federal house, but was redesigned and expanded during the Greek Revival era of the 1820s. The Eustis gardens are beautiful and reminded us of England -- the wet day may have added to that feeling.

Oatlands front view

Oatlands rear view

Peonies in the garden

Today's travelers

Kitchen garden with a wonderful rustic trellis

Clara by the pool

Lutyens benches -- shades of England

And oh my, the dogwoods!

We went for a somewhat disappointing lunch in Middleburg. The attractive village made up for the lackluster lunch. We meandered home along country roads in scenery so beautiful that it made my heart hurt.

Brick sidewalks

Wonderful architecture

Superb stores with local veg and meat

Pleasant views and interesting shops in every direction

This was a most pleasant day in spite of an unpromising beginning. Thanks again to Rob and Anna for splendid management.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.

Monticello and Montpelier

Today, Tuesday, 26 April, we visited the homes of the third and fourth American presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. It was a cloudy day with rain here and there, although we were able to dodge most of it. Spring weather is dicey and evidently there was a microburst at Monticello yesterday evening and the gardening crews were scrambling to get things cleaned up. Tragically, two 150-year-old trees were toppled by the storm.

Monticello is a strange place and was never completed during Jefferson's . . .

(To be continued: the tornado siren is sounding outside and I am headed downstairs with the others until 8:30: weird spring weather!)

As I was saying, Jefferson never finished the place; he loved building and demolishing. He included every idea he ever had for making a home innovative, and it ends up a bit strange. The Jefferson Foundation has turned Monticello into a beautiful spot, but it took many years after his departure to make sense of the place. The tour was O.K., but the best part was a lengthy chat with a docent, also a tour guide, who was completely candid about Jefferson's family/slave issues. Though there is much to admire about Jefferson, he had his problems.

Monticello after the storm

150 years, gone in an instant

Beautiful kitchen garden

TJ's woods are as nice as GW's at Mount Vernon

We headed north to Gordonsville in search of a fantastic barbeque place where Anna et famille had previously eaten. It turned out to be very fine and tasty food. These folks know their barbeque.

Anna and Kris at the Barbeque Exchange in Gordonsville

Pork sandwich with coleslaw and hushpuppies

After lunch we visited Montpelier where James Madison was born and reared and where he and Dolly Madison lived intermittently and retired after the presidency. These aristocratic-Virginia guys spent lots of money and Dolly's neredowell son also help deplete Madison's fortune. So like Jefferson and Washington who also had aquisition addictions, his house was sold to pay debts. The house is in the process of being meticulously restored by the National Trust. In the last century it was owned by a duPont family from England who expanded it and cared well for it. Two of the expansion rooms have been preserved in the visitors' center, including a dazzling Art Deco room that simply wouldn't work in a Georgian house, but was too good to lose. Nearby, on the way home, we stopped at an Amish country store where Anna bought wheat to make her delicious bread.

Montpelier as it appeared c. 1810 when James
and Dolly retired from the presidency

This little classical temple was actually an ice house

During the last century, the duPonts made this
a horse farm with a race track -- the Madisons would
have planted tobacco here

Horses grazing unfazed by a downpour

The tornado danger has passed tonight and all are now preparing for bed. There is more adventure planned for tomorrow, so stay tuned.

That, however, is all the excitement for now.

OXO

D.