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May 29, 2005

The journey to Mecca

This trip to the DC area for me was somewhat of my own personal Mecca. It's something I've longed to do for quite some time.

My journey actually began outside of Washington proper and into Virginia, near Charlottesville. The landscape was strikingly like that of the Willamette Valley here in Oregon. The main difference was Virginia's red, rust colored soil. But the trees and hills were very much like home.

The highlight of this journey was visiting the home of Thomas Jefferson: Monticello. Jefferson has always intrigued me. Besides the obvious attractions of government and politics...Jefferson and myself are also kindred agrarian spirits. I too love to garden and experiment with it.

Jefferson designed his home and oversaw the construction and re-construction many times. He liked to add on and make changes. He was a self taught architect.

I even managed to pick up a bottle of wine from grapes grown at Monticello. Jefferson tried to grow grapes during his time but couldn't get past the disease and insects. It wasn't until modern day pesticides could grapes take off on his soil.

I didn't get a chance to ask the gardening docent on the property about the growing season in Virginia, but this garden at Monticello is much further along than mine:

And the views from the hill above the garden are spectacular:

This really was very much a spiritual experience for me, visiting this place. I deeply admire Jefferson's ideals and his affinity for finding a wide array of interests...and succeeding at them. He certainly had his raw imperfections (slavery, spending money like water) but he truely believed in the notions of liberty and freedom.

Jefferson is buried at Monticello. And of all his great accomplishments..he wished for his epitath to read:

Freedom, separation of church and state and advanced education. My kind of spirit.

My next stop was Mt. Vernon, home of George Washington. I'll do that in a separate post later.

Posted by Carla at May 29, 2005 07:20 AM