Have you ever wondered, how do I celebrate PRESIDENTS DAY??? well wonder NO MORE...you fix a "presidental dinner" If you look on the internet you can find recipes for lots of presidents OR if you are able..VISIT a Presiden't house. This is my 4th year doing this and my first year making it to a Presidents house. Since this is the fourth year I toured the FOURTH presidents house, James and Dolley Madison's house in Orange,VA. I organized a mid-single trip for anyone that wanted to go. We met at the Oakton stake center.
Dave A.,
Carrie J.,
Tyler T.,
Rich W.,
Jason M.,
Shawna L.,
Laura C.,
Charles C.,
and
myself met there and carpooled down.
Dave's car is ALL DECKED OUT ...two different DVDS on BOTH backseats...IDK if I like this or not??? I mean kids are so obsessed with TV anyway...
I am glad that we did not watch TV because I read all about James and Dolley and Montpelier on the way there to Carrie and Dave.
Tyler was able to find a restaurant for us to try out called The Hornets Nest. It was SO REDNECK..!!! you will have to look on my FB for pictures I am revamping my blog slowly but surely..so it is still under construction.
This place was ran by a man and his wife. They had great food. Dave was nice enough to buy Carrie and I lunch. The two best things about this place were:
1. THEY HAD FRIED DILL PICKLES!!! always a good sign...
2. they had a PETITION you could sign to get rid of STRAY CATS that ROAM neighborhoods!!!! I signed it...cause hey why not??? I guess they don't have a mouse problem since the cats are MORE of a problem...this just says "small town" all over it...LOVE IT!!!
After the restaurant we headed over to Montpelier. Since we went in February ( black history month). When we got there we were able to take a black history tour of the plantation...Something I have started to notice the more places that I tour around here is that anywhere that had slaves always says that THIS place treated their slaves GREAT!!!! like basically the slaves loved being there because these people treated them just so wonderful...Rich said I feel like they glamorize that a bit ...I said ya think..??
We heard all kinds of interesting stories like about a slave that poised James Madisons grandpa and was hung but his co-conspirators were kept at the plantation..
Our tour guide was named Bud and did a great job.
After that tour we went down and checked out the cemetery they have there.
We then went up to the main house we watched a movie about James and Dolley and started our tour.
I forgot our tour guides name but she was just "aiight for me" she made a couple jokes that were a bit off IMO..She also showed us two globes a celestial and a terrestial...no word why they didn't have a telestial...
I asked her if the place was haunted ....she didn't really say...I also asked if the Obama's had been there she said no..but if they did come the secret service would be crazy.
They are still restoring Montpelier.
James Madison was way older than Dolley..Dolley was a widow with one living son..that son was a DRUNKARD AND A GAMBLER...Dolley and James spent A LOT of MONEY and TIME bailing him out. James died and did not leave that much money...Dolley got bored at Montpelier and moved to Washington DC...she left PAYNE her son ( who was a DRUNKARD AND A GAMBLER) in charge of Montpelier...BIG MISTAKE...( he was a DRUNKARD AND A GAMBLER) Dolley sold some of James's papers the people that bought them would only give her the money IF she didn't give Payne her son any of it ( he was a DRUNKARD AND A GAMBLER) so Payne just started GIVING away all of James Madisons stuff to anyone walking down the road...and selling some...Madison had willed his books to UVA he had 4000 they only got like 400 because Payne did who knows what with them...Eventually they lost Montpelier. Later a family the duPonts bought it and added on to the mansion and started horse racing events. They owned the house until the 1960s. After that a foundation bought it and have been restoring it ever since. They are on a quest to get as many of James and Dolley's things back to the mansion as possible. During the restoration they found a SPECK of wallpaper and were able to replicate a whole room pretty nifty.
They even left a restoration room to show us the process of how they found everything...
It started to drizzle while we were there...
Jason and I had a nice time walking around and he was nice enough to take pictures of me lots of places.
We looked around in the gift shop for a bit. They also have a whole wing dedicated to when the duponts lived int he house the redid two of the rooms one of them is a ballroom and one a very elaborate living room IDK if to say they re did them...or if what I need to say is they took the rooms out of Montpelier and put them right into this gallery. It was very amazing to view these rooms.
...and I got a magnet ...of course...:)
We had a nice drive home...
NEXT YEAR: PRESIDENT FIVE James and Elizabeth Monroe, lucky me that is here in VA too :)
PS Payne Todd is NOT buried in the graveyard there he was buried in a paupers grave in Washington DC and no one moved him then and no one will move him now...He was a DRUNKARD AND A GAMBLER...
