Today we toured Jefferson’s Monticello.  We spent most of the morning and early afternoon there. The grounds are vast with beautiful vegetable and flower gardens.  The tour of the mansion was also great.

After Monticello we went to the Michie Tavern for lunch.  It was late afternoon and we were all hungry.  It is a buffet but there is wait staff that keeps bring more good if you would like to try something.  There was fried and baked chicken, pulled pork, biscuits and cornbread with an assortment of vegetables.  All was delicious.

Then we were off to a craft beer bar.  We each had a flight of beer.  The beer is delicious and inexpensive.  While we were there a large group of men came in.  They are all in Charlottesville attending JAG school.  The basically were getting their Masters Degree in law.  After that bit of fun it was almost 7pm so we decided to return to the hotel for the night. We will be on the road most of tomorrow on our way home.  It was nice when we started out this morning but the day got chillier as it went into the afternoon.  I think it will be in the low 40’s tonight.

We left Williamsburg to go to DC. On the way we stopped at Mount Vernon.  The grounds are beautiful. We finally got to see some cherry trees.  We toured the house that overlooks the Patomic River.

Everything was beautiful except for the gale force winds.  It was chilly, but the wind was awful.  Then we drove down the road to the gristmill and distillery.  Both the gristmill and distillery are replicas of the originals and both work.  The distillery is the only working one of its kind in the U.S.

      
We ate lunch at the food court which consisted of fast food.  We left Mount Vernon in the late afternoon and headed for DC.  We got to our hotel, LeMeridien, in Rosslyn about 5:30.  They had free wine in the lobby so we had happy hour there and then had dinner in the hotel restaurant.  Then in for the night.

Beverly and I attended a presentation given by the resort. It started at 8:15 and was supposed to last an hour and a half.  Five hours later we escaped.  No, I didn’t buy anything which is probably why I was there so long.  We had planned on doing Jamestown and the Williamsburg Winery today.  We chose to go to the winery because we could eat lunch there. My neighbor’s  cousin lives here so we contacted her and made arrangements to meet at the winery for lunch.   First we did the winery tour and tasting.  We tasted 7 wines and they were about an ounce each.  After 7 ounces of wine we were happy campers.  Then we met Joan for lunch at the tavern on the premises.  Not having any sense I ordered the flight of red wine along with the food.  We had a great visit with Joan and delicious food.  Beverly and Marsha ordered a limoncello dessert. 
            

It was only 5pm so we decided to go to downtown Williamsburg.  It is set up like the historical section of town but housed modern shops and restaurants. We walked around for several hours and then went back home. We are now doing laundry and preparing for another day on the road. 

In the morning we went to the resort office where we purchased discount tickets to Colonial Williamsburg that would give us access to all of the buildings.Back in the car and off we went to be tourists.  The entire area around Colonial Williamsburg is historic.  We started with a tour of the Palace and palace gardens.  The tulips were in full bloom and absolutely beautiful. There is a picture of the rest of the Palace and garden. 

We toured one if the homes next and since we didn’t have breakfast food was next on the agenda.  I ordered a flight of local beers and everyone had a different drink. I had the Welsh Rarebit with s side if Virginia ham.  All very good.  I took pics of the menu and beer selections. Beverly ordered the sampler of soups plus there was a musician to serenade us. 

We toured other homes- one had a basket making demo and another had a blacksmith. We also toured City Hall, reconstructed to replicate the original.  We also toured the jail. 

We then drove around Willismsburg since we are unfamiliar with the area.  We decided to go to a supermarket and pick up some things for dinner.  Since we were not hungry we thought about 9 or 10 we would want food, and thought a grocery store would be the perfect solution.  Beverly and I have to be up early tomorrow to attend a presentation sponsored by the resort so we were in for the night about 7:30.