68 Promises to be Great...

Another landmark in my life. Monday was my birthday. This year, Claude made reservations for us and told me I simply needed to leave Sunday evening open, pack one change of clothes and leave Monday open. Okay...

I truly did not know where we would be going. I guessed that Claude might take me to Berea. We love to stay at Boone Tavern & Inn and have dinner there. That was my guess. 

Sunday we went to Church in Georgetown so I could play the organ. Then we hurried to Paris, Kentucky. We had been asked to do a Self-Reliance presentation during the third hour of their meeting block. This went very well. Claude had one more meeting after that. Then we drove the back roads to Sadieville. 

After getting into comfortable clothes, we put our bag in the car and headed out for our evening away. Claude was driving south on I-75 so I was pretty sure my guess of Berea was good. Then we got to where he took the exit off I-75 to I-64 going west. Okay...we were not going to Berea.

Next guess was to Midway to have dinner at Holly Hill Inn. Claude cruised west on I-64 and by passed the exit to Midway. Okay...we were not going to Holly Hill Inn. I assured Claude he now had me totally confused. I had no more guesses. I knew check in time at wherever we were staying was 4pm. We were past that time. Dinner reservations were at 6pm. We didn't have time to get to Louisville in that amount of time. No more guesses on my part.

Claude got to Frankfort and turned south toward Versailles. Now I was totally confused. Enjoying the drive but totally confused. Then he turned back to Lexington from Versailles. The light went on. It was confirmed when he got to the intersection. We were going to The Castle. Claude made us a room reservation and a dinner reservation. This was going to be fun.

We check in to a very beautiful room. When Claude made the reservation he told them it was for my birthday. They upgraded our room to this suite. When you look at the picture above, we were on the second floor. If you see the turret to the left of the second floor balcony, that was our sitting room. Our room was the window to the right. We had a door that opened onto that balcony. Here are a few pictures of our room.

Claude had them place chocolate covered strawberries in our room. We ate a few of them and then decided to walk around outside before dinner. This is our walk. First out on the balcony.

We took the stairs to the roof. 

Back to the room to rest a bit till time for dinner. We left the room with some time prior to dinner for me to take some interior pictures.

Dinner was excellent. All the veggies they grow in their garden boxes and on the hill behind the Castle. They are picked fresh each day. The meats are purchased from local farms. It is a Farm to Table experience. We totally enjoyed our meal. The soup spoon was an interesting shape. We opted for peach gelato for dessert. 

After dinner we roamed around the grounds again and up on the hill where the garden is located. They have chickens and roosters and two of the cutest goats you ever saw. They actually have goat yoga on the roof. Can't even imagine that!

It was such a great evening, the air was cooling down and we just enjoyed the beautiful evening. 

Saturday we slept in and opted not to have breakfast at the Castle. We were still full from dinner. I took these final pictures of the front of the Castle.

We drove home on some back roads I knew that Claude had never been on. When we got home Claude set to planting some day lilies that Andie gave us. I set to doing laundry and paying Papa's bills. I walked down the hill to take him water and had fun taking pictures of a butterfly on the butterfly bush. 

At the end of those chores, Claude drove me in to Georgetown to visit with Papa while he ran some errands. After, we had dinner at Sonic. 

Bluegrass Tomorrow, of which Claude is president this year, will have their Annual Dinner and Fundraiser there in October this year. While Claude was touring the Castle with the planning committee he suddenly realized my birthday was coming up and this would be a great place to go for that. He made the reservations that day.  

This was a great birthday. We both have wanted to go to the Castle and this was a perfect opportunity. This starts the 68th year of my journey off to a great start!