In 2009, my friend Julie (cofounder of the original Nerd Trip) came to visit. We planned to go on the “Ultimate Nerd Trip”- three presidential homes in three days: Ash Lawn-Highland, Monticello and Montpelier.  I will write about this trip over several posts.

The UVA Rotunda designed by Thomas Jefferson

We started our trip heading to Charlottesville and the campus of the University of Virginia, historic in itself, but our real purpose was food, specifically bread ends and House Dressing, a specialty of the Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, Virginia where I went to college. I knew a sandwich shop near the UVA campus, the Take It Away Sandwich Shop, also had this “delicacy,” a tangy tub of mayonnaise and bread. After securing our tub of mayonaissey goodness, Julie and I proceeded UVA’s famous lawn (in the shadow of Mr. Jefferson’s Rotunda) for a picnic and preparation for our three days of “nerdvana.”

I have been to UVA many times.  I almost went to college there and I have many friends who went there. I have been on historic tours of the UVA campus, including Poe’s room on “The Lawn,” (this was way before the idea of Nerd Trips), but the point of this visit was food. I guess I would categorize this stop as a Bonus Nerd Trip, since it was an extra historic spot on our way to the homes of three of our presidents. (I may need to add UVA and the Rotunda to the list for future Nerd Trips).

After our picnic, we headed to Monroe’s Ash Lawn-Highland, a trip I will describe in Part 2 of the Ultimate Nerd Trip.[map size=”medium” align=”right”]