Tuesday 2 October - day 42 - to Williamsburg

First stop was at the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington.  Of course, he was a famous Confederate general, and it's commonly agreed that the results of the battle at Gettysburg - and maybe the whole Civil War - might have been different had he not died a couple of months before the battle as a result of friendly fire.
He was also apparently known for eating citrus fruit - he believed it to be good for his health - and even now when people come to his grave they often leave citrus fruit and not flowers. There were a number of lemons there when we visited.

Next stop was Thomas Jefferson's home and estate Monticello.  He was an absolute genius and among many achievements, he designed and built this house himself - it took him 40 years as he kept pulling parts of it down and rebuilding it.  He spent quite a bit of time in both France and England, and brought back many ideas and concepts that he built into the house.
Unfortunately it was not a good day for viewing the estate - this is the sort of fog that was around

and that was before the teeming rain started.
We were also a bit rushed - as we have found is typical with a lot of these places, you get a guided tour around the house, but self guided through the gardens and outer buildings.  Our Tour Director rushed us through a look at the outside of the house before we did the guided tour.  We really didn't have enough time to look at the outside things properly, and there was no time to look again afterwards.  That was a bit disappointing, however the house itself was quite interesting.
The rest of the day-time travel was fairly uninspiring - a stop at a cafe at Charlottesville for lunch and then a quick photo op at the Capitol building in Richmond before making our way to our hotel.
This is the Capitol building - one of the few State Capitol buildings without a dome:

 This is the old city hall - a beautiful building

 And a memorial near the Capitol - as is so often the case, a quick photo op just leaves you keen to come back and see a place properly!

Dinner tonight was at an old tavern in the historical area of Williamsburg.  Basically it was a set meal with some entertainment from that era - quickly adjusted when they realised that most of the people in our group are English and therefore the enemy at the time we're talking about!! Really lovely meal and quite an enjoyable night.
And even better, we're staying here two nights, so we don't have to rush to have our bags out in the morning, which is always good.