I always wanted to visit Monticello ever since I saw it on the back of the nickel.  Jefferson has facinated me when I studied the Lewis and Clark expedition.  I didn’t realize how much the third president has contributed to this country…good and bad.  Monticello was a paradox in that it celebrated the rational and scientific man, but at the same time was run by slave labor.  Jefferson ultimately fell on hard economic times and his entire estate was lost to bankruptcy.  Along with his farm, Jefferson designed the University of Virginia campus and it is a true gem of neo classical architecture.