Charlottesville, VA

We went over to Charlottesville for the first time ever (yes, after we have lived here for nearly TWO years and it's only an HOUR away).  We got to catch up with a friend of ours who served as a great tour guide!  Here are some of the sights we saw around town....definitely enough to entice us to return as soon as we can!

The non-denominational church on the UVA campus, what was interesting was that Thomas Jefferson (founder of UVA) banned religion from being taught on campus and his original campus design did not include a church at all.  This was an obvious departure from prior universities in that it was not religion-centered.  James Monroe gifted the land from one of his farms for the campus and I think he had something to do with the church but I can't exactly remember.  

The steeple of the church, what a beautiful day to sight-see!

The walkway surrounding Jefferson's Rotunda at the heart of the campus:

Little Man in said walkway...

Jefferson's Rotunda, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome (seen it!) and is half the height and width of the Pantheon.  It burned in 1895 due to an electrical fire in the annex (no longer part of the structure)....which probably could have been put out but the genius who was on the scene of the fire decided that he would use dynamite (yep) to separate the annex from the Rotunda....did not work out well in his favor.  He is actually the namesake of a scholarship or honor society on campus...ha!

The black caps are for renovations...

The "square" (actually a very long rectangle) in front of the Rotunda was a wonderful place for little man to run around after his hour-long car ride!

 There are 10 pavilions along the Rotunda lawn, 9 of which have faculty living in them (would you really want to live in the heart of campus?!) and their gardens are open to the public (creepy to see someone in your backyard, right?).  They have beautiful flowers...which H did not care about when he saw the pretty co-ed sunning in one of the gardens...he would not leave her alone and we had to drag him away kicking a screaming...literally

OMG, does this not look like the ideal place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine!  This is one of the vineyards around Charlottesville and it was picturesque to say the least, I definitely want to go back and visit some other ones too!

This was the stable with horses, Hayes was interested but one of the horses was being a little too outspoken and scared H away.  He was mesmerized by them by wouldn't get closer than about 15 feet!

It was a fabulous day (minus the allergy trouble) and I would love to go back and see more!