Marines and Monticello

Brendon's dad visited us this weekend, and I wanted to take advantage of that and get something touristy checked off on our Summer to-do list. We drove to Monticello, but on the way at Brendon's request we stopped at the National Musuem of the Marine Corps in Quantico. Brendon has wanted to make a trip to the museum ever since the dedication speech that President Bush delivered at the museum. On the drive to Quantico Brendon had us read said speech about an amazingly courageous man and Medal of Honor winner, Jason Dunham. The museum was very neat and we spent hours wandering around inside.

Al sacrificed his body to get just the right angle on the photo. What a team player!

In the gift shop they have a replica of the Iwo Jima monment made entirely of Legos!

After we finished at the Marine Corps Museum we drove to Thomas Jefferson's plantation, Monticello. The drive there was beautiful, and Al and Taryn could not contain their excitement over seeing so many beautiful houses and farms. The plantation was very cool, but we all rejoiced that we were born in the era of plumbing and other modern conveniences. :)

Brendon deserves some credit here - he can be quite the photographer sometimes.

Have you ever seen a cabbage this big? Jefferson had 1,000 feet of vegetable gardens.

This is the famous view of Monticello - the one on the back of the nickel.

This is harder than it looks!