Time Away...

When one receives a coupon in one's eMail from Boone Tavern and Inn for a greatly reduced stay that also includes a huge portion of the cost of two meals in their lovely restaurant, one goes upstairs to one's hubby and says, "I think this is something we might try and use." One's husband looks at the deal and quickly checks calendars with one and finds an evening and the next day they can clear on their calendars to take a quick getaway. Yep, that is what one would do and it is exactly what one did.

We did our usual Monday activities in the morning of August 29th and left for Berea, Kentucky about 2pm. We couldn't check in to Boone Tavern until 4pm. So we found the crafter's street and walked around there to get a start to our Christmas shopping. We managed to find several items for gifts and a couple of things for us. One thing we purchased was a cute metal hanging thing to keep a rolling pin in. I have my mother's rolling pin and it is simply resting on the counter, until now...Now it hangs in the rolling pin holder on the wall in the kitchen. We also purchased some fudge for that evening in our room. The picture is Shifflet's Cabin by the Welcome Center. Claude is sitting in the chair on the porch.

We next checked into our room. The desk made us dinner reservations for 5:30pm. It was 4:30 when we got to the room so we enjoyed a few moments of rest before going to dinner. 

The food in the restaurant is always amazing. these are photos of my salad course (crab meat Rangoon over a rice and edamame salad), main course (salmon tempura and a noodle dish) and a shared dessert with Claude (black raspberry upside down cake).  Oh my heavens it was delicious. We were full and walked around the block after dinner to work some of it off. 

We determined we would find a place and sit on the veranda for the evening. The hibiscus was along one wall of the Inn. Claude found us two chairs while I took this picture. We sat there for a bit and then this 'flock' (more like a herd) of turkey buzzards flew in.  

I sat once at one of Kentucky's many State Resort Parks for an afternoon while Claude attended classes and watched up to 10 turkey buzzards flying around. Loved watching them catch the air currents and soar overhead. They are big, not the most attractive bird, but they can soar beautifully. We had a rain storm in Berea that evening and the clouds were gathering for another possible rain shower. There was another couple on the veranda with us. We all heard a noise and then they started coming. They just kept coming. There could have easily been hundreds of them. They circled over the Inn and around the Inn and then gradually flew away. I have three video clips that depict this much better than this still shot. We all felt like we were in the movie 'Birds' and wondered if we should hurry inside the Inn for protection. It was amazing. Eventually the no-see-'ums got the best of Claude and me and we went inside for the evening. 

Claude pressed the elevator button to get us to the third floor. We entered the elevator only to find this ladder resting against the back wall. Other's would probably not have had an epiphany with this, but Claude and I both remembered at the same time and looked at each other. At the same time we both said, "Jerusalem!" and then we chuckled. In 2005 we visited Israel for 10 days. While there, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Resting against a second story window is an old wooden ladder. That particular church is managed by several different churches. They each have a niche that represents part of the Savior's Crucifixion and burial. They believe this is the spot where it all happened. A Muslim man keeps the key to the building and opens and closes it everyday. Due to the tension between all these religions, the agreement is that nothing will be moved. That includes the ladder that was put up by this window many years ago. It has never been moved. Claude and I find ourselves looking for it in any documentary we see that features the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is always there. This ladder brought that memory to both of us at the same time. Nice.

Tuesday we had a whole day to play. What to do, what to do? Let's go to Ft. Boonesboro. We had never been there and that was north of Berea. I found back roads and we had a ride in the countryside to Boonesboro. 

We first visited the original site for Ft. Boonesboro. It is located in Ft. Boonesboro State Park. The first picture is Sycamore Hollow behind Claude. Daniel Boone first had cabins built here. Just below this is the creek. Someone else came and suggested he move the cabins to higher ground. They did and the next picture is Claude standing by the rock wall where the original site of Ft. Boonesboro stood. 

This picture has that rock wall around the monument to the original site in the background. to the right of the picture is an old elm tree. It is called the 'Divine Elm'. This is the site of the first church service held at the settlement. 

We drove out of the park and around to the replica of the original fort. There is usually the ability to go in and tour the fort with re-enactors in period costumes showing you what life was like. Guess what? It is not open on Tuesday! Well, on to Plan B. 

Claude has some nice pants he purchased at Cabela's. One of them now has a small hole in it and he wanted to replace them. We also could not find our folding chairs in their cases. So a trip to Cabela's would satisfy that. There is now one in Lexington so away we went to Cabela's. 

Now, an explanation about our folding chairs. We had our 4th Saturday MusicFest in Sadieville August 27th. Claude went to load the Jeep with the things we needed to take and the first thing he looked for was our folding chairs. They hang in their cases on the wall in the garage. They were not there. Hmmmm...Claude searched my trunk and every place in the house that might have them. Nope, they were not there. He came and explained the situation to me. I got up and looked in all the places he had looked just to give a second set of eyes on this problem. We had no idea where they could be. I pulled out my calendar and we determined we would have taken them in June to the previous MusicFest. We also took them to Paris, Kentucky for a Pioneer Day Picnic in July but did not use them. We had no other times that we would have needed them. But they were not to be found. We went to MusicFest without them but took two of the chairs that go around the table on the deck instead. 

A few days later, Claude said to me, "Think with me for a minute. When we went to Paris, what car did we drive?" Then the light came on for me. Claude was in one of those rental cars and we drove it. It was the one from Enterprise. We must not have taken them out of the car and gave them away with the car when Claude returned it to Enterprise. As sad as it was to lose the chairs, at least we weren't losing our aging minds!

I took this picture for our Nissa. She loves bears. I told her we were thinking of her while we were out and about.

We still had plenty of afternoon left so we drove through Lexington to Henry Clay's Estate, Ashland. We had also never toured this property. We first visited the formal gardens. We had them to ourselves. 

Then we walked toward the actual home. We passed this building which used to be the privy on one side and the laundry on the other. They have displays in it now of objects found while working on the property.

We purchased our tour tickets and went to the front steps to wait for our tour. Claude is standing in front. No pictures were allowed inside. Sorry. 

As we left we looked at these two interesting structures. They are ice houses. Ice was stored in them and they stayed cool enough in the summer that ice was available most of the summer. The one closest to the camera would drain ice cold water down a channel to the one below. The lower one furthest from the camera was used like a refrigerator to keep milk and cream in.  

We learned another new term here. There was paved parking and 'grass-crete' parking. We neither had heard of 'grass-crete' parking. There are paving stones with grass growing between them. That is 'grass-crete' parking.

This was a lovely tour. We followed it with dinner at Schlotzky's in Lexington. Yum. Then we headed home feeling rejuvenated and ready to hit reality face on.