Caleb: "Ummm, can we sit down and talk for a minute about our vacation?"
Me: "Sure, babe, what do you want to talk about?"
Caleb: "Well...no offense, but I'm not really liking the educational parts. I mean, when we were in Washington D.C., sometimes I felt like I was being tortured."
Me: "I see. Well, you seemed to enjoy most of it: the Air and Space Museum, the National Zoo, going to the top of the Washington Monument..."
Caleb: "Yeah, I guess some of that was ok, but some of it was so boring. I mean, who wants to look at monuments anyway? Could we maybe just talk about what we're going to do for our last two days of vacation? I mean, I'd really like to do something fun and exciting and not-educational."
Me: With sarcasm, "You mean like spend a whole day at an amusement/water park?"
Caleb: A bit chagrined...
Me: "OK, why don't you tell me some ideas of what YOU would like to do and we'll see if maybe we can work something out."
Caleb: "Well, I've always wanted to go bungee jumping. Can we do that?"
Me: Trying to be polite but firmly, "NO."
Caleb: "What about rock climbing? Could we go rock climbing?"
Me: "Ummm, yeah, rock climbing? Also not going to happen this weekend, buddy."
He finally settled on fishing which we were planning to do anyway, so luckily that worked out. I told him that I appreciated him sitting down and talking with me about it instead of whining and complaining like some kids might. I didn't have the heart to tell him at the time that we were planning on spending the whole next day at Thomas Jefferson's home: Monticello!
Monticello was so cool. We learned so much about Jefferson, whom I really knew almost nothing about. He was a very important person! wink, wink The home itself was very interesting and very beautiful, but even more stunning was the grounds and the view. One interesting point: when you look at a picture of Monticello, for example on the back of a nickel, that is actually the back of the house. The front of the house is less remarkable but offers an amazing view. Also, what you don't see when you look at the house is that there are many rooms and a long corridor running the length of the house, underneath it. These rooms were called "necessary" rooms and included stables, kitchens, wine cellars, etc. where the daily runnings of the home were done out of sight of visitors, etc. Also, contrary to popular belief, Jefferson only had one invention which was a lap desk or something. He did recreate many other inventions, like the swivel chair, that he had seen in Europe and then was able to design and recreate from memory. He was also, amongst many other things, an avid gardener. He would bring seeds home from everywhere and plant them...he would also trade seeds with other people to have as many varieties of plants, trees, and flowers as possible. Who knew the one of our founding fathers was really into flower gardening?! Anyway, it was a fun day and alas, educational. If you want to see pictures from this day click here.
The next day was spent entirely at Lake Anna, Virginia, with Nichole and her in-laws who very graciously opened their huge, gorgeous lake house to us. Their house is situated perfectly right on the lake, with a big shady lawn, a boat dock and everything anyone could possibly want. The boys loved swimming in the lake, boating, canoing, jet-skiing, playing fetch with 2 golden retrievers, and yes, Caleb finally got to go fishing, if only for a moment as it was getting dark when he finally remembered! This was probably the funnest day for them on the whole trip. It was nice to relax...and eat the chocolate chip cookies that Nichole made! Thanks Nichole! For pics and teeny videos of this day, click here.
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