Over the summer I visited Monticello with my dad, grandmother, and grandpa! Monticello is where Thomas Jefferson lived in Virginia. It was a three-hour drive, and we got there right before lunch. Before visiting his house, we stopped at a junction to eat lunch and watch a movie about Jefferson. Then finally, we were able to take a bus ride up to his house.

We stayed at Monticello for about three hours, taking the house tour and the slavery tour. Even though Thomas Jefferson clearly had good design skills, he owned over  400 slaves in his life, and only seven of them were let free. My grandparents, who had taken the tour of the house a couple years ago, told me that when they went, the slavery issue at Monticello was rarely mentioned, and it did not have it’s own tour. This was surprising to me that it had not been mentioned for so long.

After touring his house and learning lots of facts about Jefferson: for example, did you know that he was in over two million dollars of debt when he died? My family and I went to our hotel to stay the night. The next day we walked around the University of Virginia, which Jefferson had also built. Finally, near lunchtime, we packed our bags and headed back home. This trip was really fun, and it also had some good things to learn about, such as how Jefferson’s slaves were treated. Monticello is an awesome place to go if you are looking to travel.