A path through Virginia presidential history

A gate at James Madison’s Montpelier casts an interesting shadow.

UPDATED: 2/4/2023

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In April 2018, I spent a long weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, with my mom. We both have an affinity for history and archaeology. If you have similar interests, you will find this itinerary to your liking and a long weekend a perfect amount of time!

We arrived in Charlottesville on a Thursday night and checked in to Marriott Courtyard Charlottesville . The hotel is convenient to the places we were going to visit but is not walkable to anything. By the time we booked this trip, some of the more centrally located Marriotts were booked, and I wanted to use my reward points for the stay. The hotel was sufficient for our needs and had a convenient bistro where we could get breakfast each morning. Many of the rooms, including ours, overlook an outdoor courtyard.

After checking in, we grabbed a bite to eat at one of our favorite local Thai food restaurants, Thai 99 II . (Note there are a few restaurants by this name in the area. The one we go to is in Albemarle Square on 29 North.)

On Friday, we visited Monticello , Thomas Jefferson's unique architectural masterpiece and gardens atop a hill in Albemarle County. This historic home with interesting renovations of their slave quarters and garden deserves its own dedicated blog. For more details on what we did at Monticello, check out that blog here.

Back in town, we went to the (car-free) walking street in Charlottesville known as the downtown mall . If you happen to be there on a Friday night in warmer weather (April through September), you can check out the free weekly concert known as Fridays After Five. Since we were tired after a long day wandering in the hot sun, we opted to just have dinner at Bizou . The downtown mall is always a fantastic place for people watching, particularly when you can get seated at a table outside on the mall, which we were. The food was delicious, and the people watching didn’t disappoint. One reality of an outdoor space like this is that there are sometimes people wandering looking for handouts. In our particular case, a man came and stood right next to our table, asked if we had money, and when we politely demurred, he snarked at me, “just go back to drinking your wine.” Alrighty then! It was definitly one of the more awkward, confrontational situations I have come across in a while but such is life and such are people at times.

On Saturday, we headed north to Orange County to visit Montpelier , James Madison’s home, located in beautiful, rolling countryside. Like at Monticello the prior day, Montpelier also has some newer exhibits and a recreated village of the quarters that housed their enslaved population. For more details on our time at Montpelier, check out that blog here.

Early Spring at James Madison’s Montpelier.

After touring Montpelier, we were ready for an afternoon treat out of the sun during an unseasonably hot April weekend. We stopped at Barracks Road Shopping Center for some dessert at Hot Cakes , which incidentally is the bakery Dustin and I used for our wedding cake and catering.

For dinner we went to a new place recommended by a family member - Mas Tapas . I love tapas and very much enjoyed this tapas restaurant. With a lot of choices, our server was helpful in making recommendations to balance out different dishes. The restaurant is very cute and in a residential area, where parking can be a little tricky, and the restaurant seems to fill up quickly. We were able to get a nice seat on the outdoor patio. In case you haven't noticed the theme, I love eating outdoors!

One other place I was interested in revisiting but didn’t fit into our long weekend trip was Highland (formerly known as Ashlawn-Highland), the home of James Monroe. That particular house has an interesting history. When I visited previously (and it was named Ashlawn-Highland), the home that they thought was the Monroe’s abode is now thought to no longer be the main house and in fact was a guest quarters. A 2016 article from the Washington Post (here) explains this evolution and revisiting of history.

And this, ultimately, is what makes these historic homes interesting to me and worth visiting. As society’s understanding of history continues to evolve with different interpretations (e.g., of slavery) or with new technological abilities to understand the archaeological sites, interpretation of these homes, the lives lived in them, and the place they have in our country’s origin will continue to evolve.

Three homes of former US presidents within a stone's throw of each other is a rarity granted to the Charlottesville area and a great trifecta around which to build a long weekend itinerary, even if you can only fit in two like we did!

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