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The Thomas Jefferson Discussion Group
of Orlando, Florida
Meeting No. 51 - September 13, 2005
Trip: October 24 - 27, 2005
Holiday House Restaurant, Orlando, Florida
THIS MONTH'S TOPIC:
"IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON" FIELD TRIP
We’ll reserve our meeting on Tuesday night to firm up the itinerary for our field trip: "In the Footsteps of Thomas Jefferson." First stop will be at Mr. Jefferson’s home Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. He spent 40 years building and rebuilding Monticello (Italian for "Little Mountain"). He said he found great joy in building up and tearing down. On his mountaintop we will be given 6 hours of special tours and have a complementary lunch at the new Jefferson library. We’ll also get to see Shadwell, the site of Jefferson’s boyhood home. An additional 2 hours is planned for Ash Lawn, James Monroe’s Home (our 5th President and Jefferson protege) that is right down the road from Monticello. That’s Day 1! (Monday, October 24)
Day 2: Tour of The University of Virginia – the school Jefferson designed and built upon his "retirement" after serving two terms as our 3rd president. The college was one of 3 things for which Mr. Jefferson wished to be remembered. Who can name the other two? He had all 3 inscribed on his tombstone (which we’ll also see!) - hint: being president was not 1 of the 3. The school was key to Jefferson’s principal objective – not letting the republic slide back into a monarchy - He felt fervently that the best defense against tyranny is an educated population. How would he feel about the present state of our public education system?
After UVA, we’ll travel to Montpelier, the home of James Madison, 4th President of the United States, another protégé of Mr. Jefferson and considered to be the father of our Constitution. (Why was this not Thomas Jefferson who, of course, wrote the Declaration of Independence? What role did Jefferson play in the development of our Constitution? We’ll find out!)
Day 3: Mount Vernon – Home of George Washington. Father of our country – need I say more? (What was Jefferson’s relationship to George Washington? - Did it change over the years? We’ll find out!)
Day 4: We’ll finish up in Washington, D.C. (About 2.5 hours driving time from Monticello) at the Jefferson Memorial and other points of interest in our Nation’s Capitol.
This will be an informal trip. We’ll have an itinerary with places, dates, and times. Individuals will decide what part(s) of the itinerary they want to see and how they want to travel – some will fly, some will drive. We’ll publish the final itinerary after the meeting Tuesday night.
This should be fun!
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