Charlottesville

Cindy and I spent the first part of this week in Charlottesville, VA, taking a little mini-vacation. If you're a history buff or a book lover, Charlottesville is the place to go. The most famous attractions are the homes of three presidents: James Madison's Montpelier, James Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland, and of course, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Monticello is quite impressive, especially if you have a good tour guide (or if you know enough to be your own guide. I do not.).
Monroe's Ash Lawn-Highland is more modest in scope and history, but still quite interesting with the right guide. (Ours was superb.) We passed on Madison's house in favor of...well, books.

Downtown Charlottesville has at least six used book stores and I hit them all. (My "Books Purchased" for March will completely obliterate previous months.) We missed the Virginia Book Festival by one day and Iris DeMent by a week (she'll be in Annapolis soon, though), but still had a great time.

Other stops included Spudnuts, a local C-ville shop specializing in doughnuts made from potatoes (tastes better than it sounds) and the Barboursville Vineyards and Ruins - an excellent winery with nearby ruins of a home designed by Jefferson for Virginia governor James Barbour. The house was destroyed by fire in 1884, but the wine's still good - we bought a couple of bottles---to go with the Spudnuts, of course.