The History around Charlottesville

Today we had breakfast at the Lower Level in the Groove Ballroom where we'd also have our GTE fair. Luckily, it was served on real plates with real silverware and not on paper or plastic. The waste in the US is crazy.
After breakfast, we hopped onto a shuttle which brought us up to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello which he architecturally created in the late 18th century. He has always dreamed of living on top of the hill he was looking up to growing up, so when he had the money, he just did it. He was the third president of the United States and the writer of the Declaration of Independence. He actually didn't want to write it but John Adams asked him to, as he wasn't as known to the other influential characters of that time and therefore they wouldn't find so many things offending. Also as Jefferson is from Virginia, one of the first states of the US, his word had kind of more power to it than the one of the later 2nd president to that time. When the first draft of the Declaration was given to the congressmen, they had 86 changes, which made Jefferson feel mutilated. He was an architect, creating multiple famous buildings, and he founded the University of Virginia, the 2nd oldest university of the US. He was also a huge hypocrite, as he wanted to end slavery in the US, and still had dozens of them to build Monticello. He also thought that you shouldn't mix "white" blood with "black" blood, and still had a very long lasting relationship of some kind with one of his female slaves and got at least 6 children (of whom 4 make it to adulthood) out of that. Sally Hemings, said slave, was taken to Paris with him during his Ambassador time there. In France she was free, because there wasn't an institution of slavery in place, so she could have stayed there to have a free life. But she negotiated with him, that she wanted to do only light work, get special treatment, and that the to-be-born children of theirs to be freed when they'd reach their 21st birthday. She was 15 at the time. I think, that is absolutely remarkable of her and somehow still stupid. But when you've lived in more or less of a cage all your life, it can be quite scary to actually go out into the real world and be free.
Jefferson died on the 4th July 1826, exactly 50 years after the Independence, and also on the same day as former president James Adams. There were lots of rumours about that at the time, obviously, but it was just a weird coincidence.
After getting to know all of this controversy, we hopped from one president's home, to the next. James Monroe's Highland sits only a short drive away on the hill next to Jefferson's. Monroe actually only bought that land, because he was very good friends with Jefferson and they wanted to be neighbors. After Jefferson's death, the Monroe's sold the house, and the original one burned down in 1829. They've only found out about it ten years ago, as the later owners have built (unknown to them) on top of the old president's home, and everyone thought that the home of the fifth president of the United States was a small little house that actually was only the guest house. Well...
After all that history, we got some lunch in an old historic Tavern, and drove to an Apple Farm afterwards where they also had loads of pumpkins.
That was it for the tour through Charlottesville (not seeing anything of the actual city) and we had some resting time before dinner.
Tonight was the big opening event with all the buyers, suppliers and allied members of the CRUSA GTE 2024, so I thought I could make myself a bit pretty with wearing a fancy dress and - oh my word - make up.
I was glad that I put extra effort in my appearance, when we arrived at the Montalto Winery, our location for tonight. It was pretty fancy a very nice place to hit the show off. Good food, drinks, view and company. It was a nice evening, but we kept it short, as tomorrow would be the first day of the fair and we'd have to be in check for that.Okumaya devam et