Day 7 - Charlottesville

Charlottesville - a home away from home! We woke up this morning to a beautiful view. We kept an eye out for deer that sometimes graze in the woods outside, but alas, we never saw any. We were treated to a lovely homestyle breakfast of cereal and toast (and rooibos tea for me!). Midday, Jeni took us to Monticello (home of Thomas Jefferson). We tried to do a Priceline for $50 for four star deluxe lodging in DC, but it didn't work out, so we stuck with our original booking. I discovered that Kat thought Thomas Jefferson was the dude sitting on the big throne in the DC monument, so I knew this was certainly going to be an educational experience for Kat!

The Yank's do tourism right! Monticello offers free access for locals bringing out-of-towners, so when Jeni bought our tickets, she was allowed to go in for free. We each received a $2 Jefferson bill as a gift from Jeni (really awesome because you only get the Jefferson $2 bill in Virginia), and enjoyed a tour of the house's ground floor. The exhibits in the museum beforehand were high-tech gizmo's and gadgetry, with touch screen displays and "information droplets" to select from. It was a spectacular set up. Very impressive!

The house was interesting enough, but the overall legacy of Jefferson was far moreso. We had a typical tour with a mix of snooty know-it-alls and strange enthusiasts. There's always one guy taht asks all the stupid questions as if he knows everything. In our case, it was this one old guy who was obsessed with random factoids like how to pronounce Monticello ("sello", "chello", or "zello") and another guy was fascinated by the doors. Oh, and someone even asked if the C18 house had plastic or plaster finishings! Fantastic experience and worth the visit, but you need to take heritage and history seriously to enjoy it, the "random fun" factor was low with this one, but the "mature knowledge" factor was high.

The only problems we faced were the freezing cold temperatures outside at the top of the hill (minus 13C or something stupid), and also the waiting time took about fifteen minutes.

Afterwards, we met some South Africans (two girls and a guy) from Aliwal North. Basically this one guy in a Canterbury New Zealand shirt seemed to be paying extra attention to my Springbok beanie, so I figured he was a Kiwi. Later I heard him say he was west of Lesotho, so I approached the group and said hello. Nice to meet some fellow 'Saffers' this far north, and he and I marvelled at the random luck of bumping into each other so far from home. I suppose the other thousand pairs of 'Saffers' around the world bumping into each other in foreign lands were thinking the same thing!

On the way home we stopped off at a supermarket to buy some ingredients in anticipation for a "surprise" visit from Fae & Si. Here, we were introduced to self-checkout shopping. This stuff is really cool: First, you scan your discount card (like a membership tag; or you can enter a local phone number... Room for identity theft perhaps?), then you grab the assigned handheld wireless scanner and a shopping bag (paper or plastic) and away you go! The scanner has a cycled list of discounted products being advertised, and whenever you scan an item it will mention what the total basket price is as well as any discount savings you score. Awesome! Once shopping is done, you proceed to a self-checkout till and scan an "end shop" barcode at the till, before finally placing the scanner in one of the holders provided. The system downloads the data from the scanner and asks for cash or card. We paid with card so it asks for a digital signature which is accomplished by using the provided digital pen (stylus) against a touch-sensitive panel. After that you just go!

We returned home to Fae & Si and had a lovely shrimp lunch (finger snacks) followed by some tea and a chitchat while early supper/late lunch of burgers and hashbrowns were prepared. We indulged in traditional homemade burger revelry (Si and I got to have two! Score!) before proceeding to watch a ton of hilarious youtube videos and experiencing the wonders of pandora.com (you heard it here first). The plan was to play JENGA, but this was relegated to the back of the list while we indulged in highspeed internet wonders. Of course, the USA has 20mbps internet speeds (I ran a linespeed.net test) whereas the typical Saffer has 384kbps, so both youtube and pandora aren't the most practical answers!

I experienced the joys of a dark chocolate orange for the first time in my life, and now I know what all the fuss has been about; Kat's always been obsessed with getting one, and until I actually saw someone smash one and share it out, I didn't think it was any sort of big deal.

After a very good evening of chat and fun ("minky" and "bubbles" became inside joke words) we had to say goodbye to Si & Fae who were heading back home. We saw them out (me in only my first layer of clothes, and with no shoes on, in -2C), attempted an impromtu snowball fight, before sprinting back inside to warmth and comfort.

Shortly after returning to the house, my nose started to bleed AGAIN and I've now developed a theory about this... I suspect the intense changes in temperature or altitude are affecting my nostrils, and in this case, the severe cold made me bleed. I'll confirm this theory as the holiday goes by.

After I recovered from my nosebleed, Kat and I took a walk alone together around the neighbourhood and took a photo with the camera precariously parked atop a police car. We had a very lovely quiet and peaceful stroll around town, with a few moments spent avoiding the infamous "black ice" (that stuff is super slick), but it was nonetheless wonderful, and such a vast contrast to South Africa. I can't say South Africa is worse, because it really is a lovely place, but to be able to walk around at night without fear of harm is a wonderful experience and pleasure.

That was it for a lovely day, and a truly wonderful time spent with family. Kat and I really loved the time spent with family, and it was an awesome surprise to meet up with Si and Fae (who took a long detour to come through to see us). It is absolutely great to be able to stay at "home" when we're so far away from home!

Just at the moment I was about to snap the greatest nightshot of a rare and previously-suspected-to-be-extinct spotted warbling Virginia night-owl, Kat jumped in the way to play silly bugger.

It was very cold in Charlottesville.

The white stuff is frozen water vapour, called "snow" around these parts.

Beware the water run-off... it's called "black ice" and it's as slippery as water-based snot.

No traction on that stuff, and you'll end up looking like a silly bugger on your bum if you step on it.

A lovely view from the steps of Monticello to the "driveway".

US TRAVEL TIP OF THE DAY: In the state of Virginia, if the robot is red, you can still turn (traet it as a yield) if you are turning right!