We concluded the Ultimate Nerd Trip at Montpelier, home of our fourth president James Madison. Montpelier is located in Orange, Virginia, about 30 minutes from Charlottesville. Compared to the flowery gardens of Monticello, Montpelier did look a little plain, but we enjoyed the visit and learned a lot!

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.”