Garden Trip Extravaganza!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for it to get here, and now it's finally come, and I'm super excited for it but also a little frazzled trying to make sure I'm ready and packed and...

*deep breath*  Calm down, Ms. Avenger.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm heading east with a bunch of volunteer friends for a week-long Garden Trip Extravaganza to Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.

Stops on our trip will include:

• Monticello - Home and gardens of President Thomas Jefferson
• Ash Lawn-Highland - Home and gardens of President James Monroe (to whom I happened to be related waaaaay back on my dad's side of the family)
• Winterthur - (pronounced "winter-tour") Home and gardens of the DuPont family and a museum
• Longwood Gardens - Garden wonderland...or so I'm told.  I don't know much about it other than it, too, was developed by the DuPonts.  The Longwood Facebook fanpage has been taunting me with images of flowering splendor for months now.

There will be a free day in Washington, D.C. while we're out that way.  No official garden stops have been scheduled there, so it's up for grabs, but...well, if you can't find something to do or see in D.C., you're probably just not trying.  I'm sure it will be a fun-packed day as well.

I intend to get drop-down, slobbering drunk on flowers and expect to be nearly catatonic after such horticultural overstimulation.  I'd like to offer in advance my sympathies to loved ones who will be forced to deal with the post-trip adrenaline crash.

*massive picture spam to follow, I'm sure*