Virginia: Thanksgiving 2006

For thanksgiving 2006, we started by having our thanksgiving meal in new jersey, at the stockton inn. Then we drove down to washington, dc for a light dinner at mr. smiths in georgetown, and settled into our motel in virginia just south of springfield.

thursday, november 23
There was a huge traffic jam on interstate 95. So we headed a little west and made a brief stop at the civil war site manassas national battlefield (see my manassas pics). Then we shot over to take a drive through shenandoah national park, but the skyline drive was closed due to icy conditions (I do have one pic). We had lunch at the nice homestyle brookside restaurant featuring virginia ham (natch!). Then we continued on down to charlottesville.

It was a little to late to begin a tour of monticello today, so instead we explored downtown charlottesville, including the pedestrian mall (see my charlottesville pics). We had dinner on the mall at a very trendy seafood restaurant called blue light grill and also saw the annual christmas tree lighting ceremony there.

friday, november 24
Today we were going to monticello for a morning tour. From the parking lot they use a tour bus to take you up the hill to the estate, which has a magnificent view of the valleys all around. They don't allow photos inside, but I got some nice pics on the grounds (see my monticello pics). Then we made a stop at nearby kluge estate winery. I especially enjoyed the cru, a very sugary light wine that I've never experienced before. We then continued north out of town toward washington dc (stopping at the national air and space museum (see my space museum pics) and stopped for the night in annapolis.