Danielle moved across the country to Charlottesville this year and moved into her new house in late November. We spent a couple of days there at Thanksgiving and came back for 10 days at Christmas. She got a running account at Lowes, which we made liberal use of for a range of projects.

Since we were there for 10 days at Christmas, though, it was necessary to entertain us with more than new home projects. She asked the locals what they recommended for activities. The first thing they asked was whether her parents drank. After she replied in the affirmative, they said “Oh, good, otherwise I wouldn’t know what to recommend.” Seems that Charlottesville has over 40 wineries, and dozens of breweries, cideries and meaderies. Thomas Jefferson takes the blame, for trying to establish a wine business able to compete with France a couple of hundred years ago. The Monticello Wine Trail is the thing now.