Part 7 – Monticello, Oh, hi, Ohio!, a return home…

Like seeing a brilliant ray of sunshine piercing through slate gray clouds, let your emotions lift skyward as you relish the fact that this is finally the last blog covering our June vacation. Through seven excruciating segments, all three (this is a generous estimate) of you have stuck with me to the end of this trip. It was my longest vacation in years, and it felt only right to drag this blog out as long as I possibly could.  For a moment, ponder the fact that this very paragraph has nothing to do with what we did those last, fleeting hours of the trip, and shake your fist in the air as you realize I’ve just wasted another minute of your life blathering on about nothing. You’re welcome!

Our final hurrah was to be Jefferson’s Monticello, which sits above the university town of Charlottesville, Virginia. We left Richmond’s Carytown at an awkward time for dinner. We weren’t quite hungry yet (read that sentence a couple of times and let it sink in…I scarcely believe these words are mine) and Charlottesville was only an hour away, so we figured it would be easy to find something tasty in a university town. Carytown did make one last effort to retain us, sending plumes of delectable smoke from a barbeque joint out to envelop us and massage our nostrils with its tendrils of sweet, smoky succulence.  I was ready to give in, but Mike had great hopes for Charlottesville.

Oh, poor Charlottesville. You do not know the monster you awakened. Mike had gotten it in his head that tonight was a good night for pizza. If you know Mike well, you know he loves his pizza. While he will technically eat any disc of starch topped with cheeses and meats put in front of him, if he’s scouting out the ideal pizza, it will have thick crust. The local standard is Nonna Emilia’s in Aloha, whose thick, pillowy crust is topped with an equally thick strata of toppings – the slices are square, lending each piece an appearance more like an open face sandwich of melty goodness.

So, we pull into Charlottesville, check into our hotel (more on that later) and head for the center of town to see what our options were. At this point, our stomachs had undergone a complete turnaround and we were both quite prepared to eat.

Strike one, Charlottesville – due to incredibly tight parking downtown, and a pedestrian mall that blocked a significant amount of access from one side of downtown to another, we spent about twenty minutes looping around to find a place to park. This was an extra twenty minutes without pizza that we just didn’t have to spare.

Strike two – for a college town, there was an alarming shortage of pizza joints in the heart of the city (call FEMA?). For all intents and purposes, the pedestrian mall was nice to stroll along, with plenty of restaurants on either side and tons of outdoor seating situated in the center of the walk. But pizza delirium had fully ravaged Mike’s senses. Where I saw bicycles deftly weaving amongst the pedestrian throngs, Mike saw two spinning pizzas on a bike frame. Manhole cover in the street? To Mike, a pizza he carefully stepped around so as not to track his shoes in gooey cheese.

Finally! One thoroughbred pizza joint was spotted. It still had to be vetted for its crust size, easily accomplished since it was a counter service establishment. The crust was decidedly not the thinnest we had ever seen, but sadly was not the level of thickness Mike had been seeking. Thus, the spirit of the pizza hunter had been broken for the evening.

We went back to a promising looking restaurant closer to the car and walked in, only to find they were closing up for the night. This was Charlottesville’s strike three and we drove toward our hotel, stopping at the Wild Wing Cafe, a regional buffalo wing chain not to be confused with Buffalo Wild Wings. Tensions eased and Mike’s delirium abated as he discovered the “Garlic! Garlic! Garlic!” wings. As an aside, buffalo wings require that perfect balance of crisp and sauce – too many restaurant wings are soggy from the sauce. WWC gets thumbs up for striking the balance, and I’d give them an edge over my few experiences at BWW.

Now a quick blurb on our hotel, before I take you to Monticello. We stayed at the English Inn, wooed by the price and the comments about the breakfast included. The rooms are nothing remarkable and are actually rather dated. While the room was clean, the AC and toilet would have been cutting edge sometime in the 1960s (how cutting edge does a toilet need to be? Well, for starters it would be considered a “plus” to have the water drain in less than 30 seconds upon flushing), and there was some deferred maintenance in the form of large ceiling cracks above the shower.

Completely making up for this was the rest of the hotel. There was this grand elegance, circa 1970, in the decor of the lobby, 2nd story sitting area and other common areas. I should have taken pictures, but for a motor-inn, the lobby was surprisingly evocative of what would have passed as fine accommodations a generation ago. Thus, it was retro-charming. And then there was the breakfast. This is why I read reviews before I choose places – our best hotel breakfast experience was here. English Inn breakfast, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, grits, cinnamon apples (cinnamon apples!), waffles, assorted bread and fruit, and the best coffee of the trip. Even now, I feel a little dreamy about it all.

Okay, Jefferson’s Monticello.  Having never been before, there was a bit of legend built up in my head about this place. I had seen pictures, but for some reason I had this idea that the building was much larger than it really is. Certainly, there are houses in our Forest Heights that dwarf it, but the magnitude of the building was not where its greatness lay.

The scale of the house gives deference to the rolling estate it sits within, and it was this land that Thomas Jefferson so loved:

"And our own dear Monticello, where has nature spread so rich a mantel under the eye? mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty do we there ride above the storms! How sublime to look down into the workhouse of nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, all fabricated at our feet! And the glorious Sun, when rising as if out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and giving life to all nature!" (TJ to Maria Cosway, 12 October, B.10.447) – from monticello.org

The architecture of Monticello echoed centuries old European insights into proportion and scale, the objects within reflecting an almost restless obsession with innovative technology (a partial list here), and the surrounding land is a reminder of the power the idea of land acquisition and expansion had and still holds over this country. Monticello is a quintessentially American place.

Nothing so tugged at my heartstrings as much as this loving description of the smokehouse onsite:

 

The Richmond blog will provide insight if you haven’t read it yet – but I was immediately entranced by the word “hams”…

A tobacco plant, trying to look innocent…

The remainder of our journey consisted of the long haul through Virginia, West Virginia, and half of Ohio so that we could fly back out of Columbus the next day.

Entering West Virginia (cue banjos – actually, let me be the first to say this is one of the greenest, prettiest drives around. The banjos are just bonus)

 

The state capitol building in Charleston, WV.

 

It was in Charleston that Mike had his pizza prayers answered. This was Brenda the GPS’ last favor to us – she led us to Mama Rosa’s. Mama made a nice pie for us, and we sipped sweet tea while reveling in the drawling accents all around us.

Here we cross the mighty Ohio River…

 

And, coming full circle…

 

We drove back through Lancaster on the way to our hotel in Columbus. For all the crap I gave it in this blog, Ohio was actually a great place to explore, and I know we only skimmed the surface.

Holy crud, that’s it!

Um.

*Ahem*

(Not really sure what to do with myself now).

Oh, who am I kidding? Classes start on Monday & Mike and I just went to Victoria BC, too, so you just know I’m going to have to post some nonsense about that sooner or later. Stay tuned!