3rd July

On our way to NYC we made a couple of stops: first in Charlottesville, VA. Then in Washington DC.

Charlottesville was the home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, the Statute for Religious Freedom and the 3rd president, and just a swell guy. We visited Monticello, the house that Tom built, and it's incredible - he obviously had very good taste. And the gardens were stunning. Pityabouttheslaves. What? I said, it's a pity about the slaves - but he probably treated them relatively well, so... He did some amazing things, and abolition was a bit after his time, the problem was HE KNEW that slavery was wrong - he arranged for his illegitimate slave children to be freed as a part of his will, even though he didn't acknowledge them in his lifetime and he authored those stuff he authored. I got the distinct impression that he overlooked his misdemeanor because he couldn't bare the lifestyle change that freeing his slaves would have - he had too many hobbies and interests and beloved belongings. Above all - Monticello. He could have
freed all the slaves in his will but over his lifetime he'd built up a large debt and the only way that could be paid after his death was by selling the slaves - not the house of course, sure that would have covered the debt but the house had to stay in the family. I wanted so much to admire him - he was as close to atheist as they got back then and he had it all figured out. Pityabouttheslaves.

DC was next. We didn't do much in the end. It was really hot. Walked up the national mall past all the monuments and to the Lincoln Memorial. Pretty impressive. Saw the Whitehouse- from a distance of course. And we spent a while in the Natural History Museum. Would rather have seen the Smithsonian American History Museum full of all kinds of oddities but it was being refurbished which was a bummer.

It's a long walk up that mall though. In that heat. We got tired and hungry and i'ts just so busy there, and the worst bit was everything was fenced off so you have to snake around all over the place - I guess because they are preparing for 4th July. You know when you have to queue at the airport and it has back and forth? - it was like that all the way up the mall. Tiring.

However I did get to see some American oddities - tours on Segways, a woman drinking a can of Dr Pepper with a straw and a couple standing in front of an exhibit of primate skeletons compared with human ones, who said: how can anyone think they are similar? Jenn had just said the exact opposite.

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