Vacation Highlights, Part Two

Out of habit, we had mapquested the route from Somerset, PA to Charlottesville, VA before we left home, but didn't even look at it till we were well on our way. We also had our GPS and turned it on. We were surprised to see they had us going different routes. We decided to go with our GPS (fondly nicknamed "Dora" -- as in Dora the Explorer).

The travel time was basically the same, about 4 hours, but Dora had us driving on some very beautiful by-ways where we thoroughly enjoyed the scenery, especially when we got into the Blue Ridge Mountain region.

The Bed & Breakfast we had booked in Charlottesville was (to our way of thinking) the pricey Dinsmore House. It is a historic Federal townhouse built in 1817 by Thomas Jefferson's master builder, James Dinsmore. We've never paid this much to stay anywhere, but bit the bullet for two nights since everything in this part of Virginia was high. From looking at the website (http://www.dinsmorehouse.com/) I thought we were really going to be in very plush and high end B&B. We actually were pretty surprised to find, while our accomodations were clean and very acceptable, it was more like staying in a small eight room hotel rather than what we've always experienced when we've stayed at "country" Bed & Breakfasts. And it looked like an "old" place, with some peeling paint, etc. (which it is) rather than a "restored" place (which the price would suggest) .Our room, however, (the Veranda room) was nice:

And I was impressed with the vase of fresh flowers on the mantle...

There was also a small semi-private courtyard...

and of course, the private Veranda...

Breakfasts were served in another part of the building, which we needed to access by going out of our room to the outdoors, walking a few feet, and entering another door. But it was a lovely, sunny porch...

and I loved the brass pineapple napkin rings...

While we thoroughly enjoyed the ammenities, we probably would not stay here again. The main difference between this B&B and any of the others we've stayed at (8 in several different states) is we sat at individual tables for breakfast, which was more like a restaurant, and our quarters were separate from where the common area of the house was. Also, the B&B's "office" was in the common area, so we didn't really feel free to hang out there and we didn't really even have any conversation with any other boarders. SOOO unlike country B&B's!

But enough about the Dinsmore House. This leg of our trip was really about sight-seeing!

Next: Monticello and Montpelier