Day Ocho was pretty nice, we woke up a little late had some breakfast at Amanda and Ben's apartment and headed out to Monticello. The estate of my favorite Founding Father. Thomas Jefferson would probably object to having so many make a pilgrimage to his beautiful plot of land, but I am grateful it has been preserved for posterity. Ashlee was particularly struck by Jefferson's quest for improvement and design in the way a household is organized. She really thought Mr. Jefferson clever to devise methods for making the whole thing work and function. Of course having servants and slaves helps but there had to be some genius of organization and benevolence. In no way do I feel that slavery is justifiable by any means, however that said, there are shades of grey in all things. Although the light would have to be particularly bright to see the slightest glint of gray on this matter. The weather cooperated really well (tip from previous post Buy a big umbrella), but Lance was so tired from this marathon trip I couldn't let him go and take the tour. 
He was miserable so I watched him outside while Ashlee toured the inside of the home. I had gone through about 15 years ago but really remembered it quite well. And while I was waiting outside I had an excellent conversation with a Syrian. He was a Christian Syrian which is like being a Jew in Salt Lake City. Actually probably worse. He had been in the US for 10 years and waxed poetically about how God has saved this land for the righteous. In retrospect I should have seized the opportunity to do a little Mormon missionary work, but somehow having a screaming kid throwing a tantrum outside the Monticello makes you feel like you definitely do not have all the answers. We spoke about families and even about Christianity, I did share my religion with him and he told me he had been to Salt Lake City once and loved it. Somehow at that point I believed if he had been to Baker California he would have said that place is awesome. Which is so cool because his positive attitude helped me deal with my son who at this time was almost a brain eating zombie that wanted so badly to just sleep and be held.
Our travel itenirary is not to be copied by other young families that wish to remain sane or together or both... and here is why. we left Monticello and headed straight back to NYC. mainly to go and get some dinner in Little Italy. We drove and drove nonstop for 6 hours and actually made it to Mullbery street to see most of the eatiries closed but we were fortunate enough to get into one that kept late hours for fool like us. I have to be honest. I have had better Italian on the west coast and even in Salt Lake City. It was good but nothing to drive 6 hours non-stop for. But we did it and were satiated for the next few hours which was good because we ended up trying to get a room on the island of Manhattan for the next 2 hours and found out becasue of the Tribecca Film Festival, not even the seediest of dives had space in the broom closet. We had to drive clear out to White Plains to get the last room in a 12 story Hampton Inn. It was the Handycap room so it only had a full size bed that felt like it was frequented by an assortment of obese people weighing in at 600 lbs. Im not kidding I had to check under the sheets to see if they were trying to pass a canoe off as a bed. The four of us huddeled in and were so exhausted that we passed out. Except for the 15 times Rene woke up Ashlee and about 2 myself, but that was only so I could wake Ashlee up and have her feed Renee to get her to stop crying. I think Ashlee woke me up because she was crying too. Ai yai yai.... but its all worth it because of what we were about to do on the 9th day.
He was miserable so I watched him outside while Ashlee toured the inside of the home. I had gone through about 15 years ago but really remembered it quite well. And while I was waiting outside I had an excellent conversation with a Syrian. He was a Christian Syrian which is like being a Jew in Salt Lake City. Actually probably worse. He had been in the US for 10 years and waxed poetically about how God has saved this land for the righteous. In retrospect I should have seized the opportunity to do a little Mormon missionary work, but somehow having a screaming kid throwing a tantrum outside the Monticello makes you feel like you definitely do not have all the answers. We spoke about families and even about Christianity, I did share my religion with him and he told me he had been to Salt Lake City once and loved it. Somehow at that point I believed if he had been to Baker California he would have said that place is awesome. Which is so cool because his positive attitude helped me deal with my son who at this time was almost a brain eating zombie that wanted so badly to just sleep and be held.
Our travel itenirary is not to be copied by other young families that wish to remain sane or together or both... and here is why. we left Monticello and headed straight back to NYC. mainly to go and get some dinner in Little Italy. We drove and drove nonstop for 6 hours and actually made it to Mullbery street to see most of the eatiries closed but we were fortunate enough to get into one that kept late hours for fool like us. I have to be honest. I have had better Italian on the west coast and even in Salt Lake City. It was good but nothing to drive 6 hours non-stop for. But we did it and were satiated for the next few hours which was good because we ended up trying to get a room on the island of Manhattan for the next 2 hours and found out becasue of the Tribecca Film Festival, not even the seediest of dives had space in the broom closet. We had to drive clear out to White Plains to get the last room in a 12 story Hampton Inn. It was the Handycap room so it only had a full size bed that felt like it was frequented by an assortment of obese people weighing in at 600 lbs. Im not kidding I had to check under the sheets to see if they were trying to pass a canoe off as a bed. The four of us huddeled in and were so exhausted that we passed out. Except for the 15 times Rene woke up Ashlee and about 2 myself, but that was only so I could wake Ashlee up and have her feed Renee to get her to stop crying. I think Ashlee woke me up because she was crying too. Ai yai yai.... but its all worth it because of what we were about to do on the 9th day.
1 comment:
Hey, I love your photos..they are really nice...
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