With all our obsessing about Lincoln and Obama, we might have overlooked another one of our favorite Presidents--Thomas Jefferson--an all around great American--but we didn't! On our way home, we wound our way through the lush Virginia countryside into foxhunt country--large "named" estates that had ever-so-tasteful signs out front, indicating that somewhere nestled (and hidden) in the hills was probably an incredible house and stables. We may as well have been in England (except for that part about driving on the left side of the road). Our arrival at Jefferson's Monticello home coincided with the skies clouding over and a drizzle beginning to fall; of course, on the top of a mountain, when the skies cloud over, you're in the fog! Strangely, all that white air blowing in intensified the setting and its beauty. And really, what a lovely home and garden! 
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth,
and no culture comparable to that of the garden.
--Thomas Jefferson
