Turk Mountain

Last weekend our friend, Dao, came down to visit us from Washington DC. He had a B-school interview at Darden, so hopefully he will be joining us in Charlottesville next year. Dao is an outdorsy kind of guy (he's single too if anybody is interested!) so we decided we should take advantage of Charlottesville's close proximity to the montains, even though it was only 35 degress and cloudy.

Turk Mountain is in Shenandoah National Park. It is about 15 miles north of the south entrance to the park which is accesible by I-64 and Rt 250. A week pass for the park costs $10 and a year pass costs $30. There is a small parking area at about mile 95 for the Turk Mtn. trail. You start out across the road on the Appalacian Trail headed south, and then shortly dodge right onto the Turk Mtn. trail. The trail takes you down into a valley, and then up along a ridge to the summit of Turk Mountain. The hike is about a mile and a half to the top and is somewhat strenuous, but not too trecherous. At the summit there is a georgeous view of the Shenedoah Valley and all of the other Mountains nearby. The whole expedition took about 3 1/2 hours counting the drive from Charlottesville.

Montpelier

Last weekend, Charlie and I drove through the country and visited Montpelier - James and Dolley Madison's home in Orange, VA. The entrance fee was $14 (they may have different children/senior fees) and I think it was totally worth it. The visitor center is beautiful. There is a short video on the restoration project that they are working on at Montpelier and it includes a little intro to James and Dolley's lives. They also have a museum in the visitor center where you can see Madison's will, one of Dolley's dresses, and some other documents from Madison's life. The center offers a grounds/house tour after the video. While the house is still under restoration, you are able to walk through most of the house and get a good feel for the history of the place. There are no wall coverings up yet, as the plaster (the mixture is the same used when the original house was built) takes almost a year to dry. There is also no furniture in the house for the same reason. You can see some of the house's original furniture in a museum on the grounds.
Shortly after James Madison died, Dolley had to auction the house off and eventually ended up in the duPont family. The duPont family added 30+ rooms onto the house (using many of the original house's wood and fixtures). After the last duPont family owner passed away, the house was willed to a foundation with the instruction to return the house to the way it was when James and Dolley lived in the house. The exterior renovations have taken years and are finally complete.
After the house tour, we walked around the gardens, saw some of the horses (Montpelier was a famous horse breeding/training facility when Marion duPont Scott lived in the house), visited the museums and enjoyed the grounds.
I definitely recommend going and seeing Montpelier. While it is a historical home similar to many others and Madison is not as widely revered as Jefferson or Washington, I think Montpelier might be more enjoyable than either Mount Vernon or Monticello (bold statement, I know). It just seemed less commercial, I enjoyed learning about a President I didn't know very much about, and the renovation details were very interesting.