Charlottesville Virginia April 4 – April 11, 2022
We visited Charlottesville about 15 years ago and I was really looking forward to visiting again. I loved the city as much the second time.
No trip to Charlottesville is complete without a visit to Jefferson’s home, Monticello. This trip we had a guided tour and our guide was awesome. We learned that tour guides at Monticello train for six months which explains why they are so knowledgeable. We were fortunate to hear the best historical actor/impersonator of Thomas Jefferson (Bill Barker). He was fantastic!
We also visited Highlands which is the location of James Monroe’s home. I thought this was a little false advertising, because while he did live at this location, the original home is no longer there. We visited the grounds and the guest house. James Monroe lived close to Jefferson and apparently, they were good friends.
We walked around the University of Virginia, which is a very lovely campus and we went into the Rotunda which is a building with a dome on campus designed by Thomas Jefferson.
Downtown Charlottesville is cool and we walked around the downtown mall – which is a pedestrian area with shops and restaurants. We met our friend Colt for lunch at a restaurant on the mall called The Nook.
Colt also invited us for a crab boil at his home south of Charlottesville. We had a great time and met some of his friends from the area.
Charlottesville is also home to lots of breweries. We went to Three Notch’d Craft Kitchen and Brewery which is named for a colonial road in Virginia marked by 3 notches on trees to mark the way. Surprisingly enough, I did not see an axe throwing section at the brewery. We also visited Stone Street Brewery – its namesake is pretty obvious.
On our last trip to Charlottesville, we went to a bunch of wineries, this time we only visited three – Mount Ida Winery, Cunningham Creek Winery, and Keswick Vineyards. At Keswick, we brought our lunch and enjoyed wine and our charcuterie plate. We also visited Bold Rock Carter Mountain (a cidery) that had a stunning view of Charlottesville.
Next we are headed to Western Virginia to ride the New River Trail and the Creeper Trail. Should be fun!
“Virginia Moon” by the Foo Fighters
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