that is. It always seems like when May rolls around the calendar becomes a jostling mess. As you put things on it the month prior, you think "Oh, it looks like it will be a decent month with time to get some things done around the house." Can I just tell you that that NEVER happens around our house? I don't know how people get away with it, but we don't.
The first weekend Rob had his 10K run - he did get and we survived. This past weekend Rob and I were in Virginia and Washington D.C. We went back for Rob's graduation, you know, the smarty-pants in the family. It rained every day BUT the day that we sat outside with 19,999 other people for the Commencement Ceremony.
This is usually how life rolls for us when we are somewhere:
We take the red-eye flight and arrive in D.C. at 5am (O' too early). Get our rental car and head down to Virginia. We decide to take in a few sights on the way. The first being where the Battle of Bull Run took place. It was raining so we decide not to go out onto the Battle Field.
Next stop, Montpelier where James & Dolley Madison lived. 
They are in the process of renovating the home to the original plans but we still popped in for a quick tour; unfortunately we had to leave the group before completing the tour to get to our "room". We left via the garden.
We stopped at the local Wal-Mart picked up a couple of sleeping bags for our "room" - a great little KOA outside Charlottesville, VA. This is where we rented a cute little cabin for a couple of nights.
That evening was his Baccalaureate. Dr. Tim LaHaye was the main speaker and it still rained BUT we were inside so that was OK with us. It is now O' too late at night and we need to drive an hour back to our cabin and wake up at O' too early again for the Commencement Ceremony.
This is my handsome man, lacking his gold honor cord, but handsome none the less prior to walking on the field.
This is what the field looked like....
and this....
and this...
The speaker was Chuck Norris. My kids and father-in-law love Chuck Norris. All of them watching the re-runs of Walker Texas Ranger is a given on any day of the week.
Well, what does any normal family do after the Commencement Ceremony? They completely lose each other for over an hour amidst 20K people - yeah, no game plan there. We end up missing where he would walk on stage to receive a handshake, good job, any type of special recognition for making it this far. So we take it in stride and decide to go to Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.
Beautiful isn't it? To be able to have a 1/4 of a garden like this would be divine!
You can't just go to Montpelier and Monticello without seeing their bud, James Monroe (Ash-Lawn Highland). He is just down the way from Monticello. Here's the driveway up to Monroe's place..
Look at his garden! I forgot to take more pictures of his place.
Are you getting a sense of what I was looking at this trip???
Our need for caffeine was becoming evident to us so we stumbled upon this WONDERFUL coffee shop in Charlottesville. 
All I can say is if you are ever there for some random thing, you MUST stop by Shenandoah Joe. One of the roasters was there making the drinks and all I can say is I love to talk with the roasters. 
They are so passionate about what they do and making the perfect cup of coffee for everyone - it really makes or breaks the atmosphere of a place. (They are going under the Fav Cup O' Joe's section of my blog!
You can't go to Monticello without going to University of Virginia too. You know, Jefferson founded/designed the place and if you look close to the small details that are on his house... they are on the buildings of the University. We sat on the steps and admired for a while and talked about how, if he were alive today, what he would think about this place now.
This was a cool church on the premises.
Oh, Edgar Allen Poe was here too.
After the University, we headed downtown for a bite to eat. That was the first 2 days of our trip. I'm tired just from typing about it so, I'll fill you in on the next two days tomorrow and hopefully, I will have some photo albums for you to gaze into.
Happy Trails!
I am exhausted just reading about your trip. Goodness, how do you do it? I mean CRIKEY, you must have been to 70 places in just 4-5 days...THAT...IS...INSANE!!! LOLOLOL
Posted by: Karrie Baker | May 17, 2008 at 06:43 AM
By the way...LOL = laughing out loud...as you can see I was sending myself into fits of laughter above...LOL
Posted by: Karrie Baker | May 17, 2008 at 06:45 AM
Sounds like a fabulous and busy trip! Congrats to Rob! Awesome accomplishment!
Posted by: toni | May 19, 2008 at 10:04 PM
That's my kind of trip. See everything until you're exhausted and can't run another step. In fact, DC is my favorite place to visit because you can see a bajillion things in one day thanks to the metro and everything is free. (I like free.) Nice photos you took.
Posted by: Sharon in NE | May 29, 2008 at 10:47 AM