After a long plane ride, a long walk to all the monuments was basically called for.

It's crazy to think that a week ago, I was walking around Washington, D.C., viewing the monuments by moonlight with Michelle and Cole. Yes, Michelle, all the way from Kansas was out wandering around at night with us. The long evening turned into 4-plus days of adventures.

Michelle, Cole and I join the many other tourists at the Capitol, including these kiddos.

We started out Michelle's trip with a day in D.C., which included a Capitol tour, some Smithsonian exhibits, lots of walking and a few miles of biking.

The Capitol dome is under construction, so this net protects people below but still allows a small viewing hole for the art.

Meet the newest statue. He's from Iowa.

Michelle and I stop at the Washington Monument on our Capital Bikeshare rides.

Michelle gets a full view of the mall, including stops at all the monuments.

Cole watches our bikes while we go inside the Lincoln Memorial.

Cole leads the way on our bike ride.

Michelle and Cole cruise ahead of me as we head to the Capitol.

Even with the scaffolding, the Capitol is pretty.

The suns glows against the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.

After that eventful day, we took it a little easier back in Charlottesville with apples and wine tasting.

Our Charlottesville tour starts with a great view of the city and apples at Carter Mountain Orchard.

Next, we do a wine tasting at Trump Winery, the largest vineyard in Virginia apparently.

Not only was the wine not the worst, but the view was spectacular.

But a trip to Charlottesville isn't complete with Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. So Michelle and I hit up that informative, but interesting, place.

You can't visit Charlottesville and not go to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home.

We took a house and slavery tour while we were on the little mountain.

We ended her fall vacation with a drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sadly, fog covered up much of the view, but we lucked out enough to find one sunny spot that lit up the valley below.

Finally, we capped off Virginia with a drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Of course, Cole had to do some extra exploring during our stop.

Thanks, Michelle, for coming. It was so much fun to tour D.C. and Charlottesville with you!

It was so great to see Michelle after years of being miles away. Sure, we see each other on Skype, but that just isn't the same. Thank you so much for visiting Michelle. I hope everyone enjoyed the above photos from our adventure. You can check out more over in my Michelle Travels East album.