Anniversary Vacation Part 3

Thanks to everyone that has been leaving comments and following my vacation travels. Vacation Part 3
Tim and I left Amish country and drove about six hours to Bardstown,KY. We spent one night there. I love Bardstown. It has lots of old buildings and is in the middle of bourbon country. Makers Mark and Jim Beam are just minutes from Bardstown. My favorite place to visit there is "My Old Kent

ucky Home" state park. I had been there once before as a kid. It was nice to share this visit with my husband. Kentucky' state song was written by Stephen Foster when he visited the family that owned "My Old Kentucky Home." The house is set up for tours and they have beautiful gardens on the ground. Stephen Foster also wrote the state song for my current state, Florida. Florida's state song is "Suwanee River." Mr. Foster was one of America's first professional songwriters. He copyrighted his music but music piracy was even more prevalent in the mid 1800's than it is now. Stephen Foster died poor but he left us many great songs. I think that "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Jeannie With the Light Brown Hair" are ageless melodies.
When Tim and I left Bardstown, we headed to Mammoth Caves National Park where we spent two nights at the lodge at the park. I lived my first 40 years in Ky and never made it to the caves.So it was on my list of things to do this summer. Mammoth Caves did not disappoint! Tim and I did two different tours. They have probably about a dozen different tours that encompass different levels of physical activity. Our tours were considered moderate.
The first tour we took was the two hour historical tour. We entered the cave the way visitors in the 1800's entered. The park ranger, Jerry, who gave us our tour was an anscestor of one of the African-American slaves that had explored many areas of the cave in the early 1800's. Jerry was full of information and had a great sense of humor! If you ever tour there, I hope you are lucky enough to get him as a guide. A few things that I learned is that the cave was used for mining sulphur during the war of 1812. Original cave tours allowed participants to write on the ceiling with candles. One area of the is The Rotunda. This area is huge. In the mid 1800's church services were held in the cave and even singing events. We had a choir from Arizona that was on our tour and Jerry allowed them to sing a song at the end of the tour. It was amazing to hear their beautiful voices echoing inside the cave. Mammoth Caves is a dry cave, which means it does not have a lot of stalactites or stalagmites ( I am sure that I probably said and spelled these names incorrectly). Wet caves produce these forms. Mammoth caves is home to species of fish and crickets that are eyeless. Living their lives in darkness, these creatures had no use for their eyes and over time they evolved into their current eyeless state. I will save the second tour at mammoth caves for my next vacation part. I hope I didn't ramble too much! I also have a pic of my finish of "February" from LHN monthly threadpack. Stay tuned for my last installment of my anniversary travels soon!

Anniversary Vacation Part 2

After we left the Lake Erie area, we headed to Amish Country Ohio. We spent two wonderful nights at the Inn at Amish Door Village. It is a great place to stay. It is a fourstar hotel that seems to be in the middle of nowhere but is only fifteen minutes away from most "Amish" areas. The Inn is part of a village that has a great restaurant, a general store and craft area, and banquet hall. The

Inn was immacualte and had wonderful service.
While in Amish country, Tim and I visited an Amish farm that is open to the public. It gives tours of several farmhouses, barn, schoolhouse, and gives carriage rides. The farm houses reminded me of my grandparents houses when I was little. Wood cooking stoves, no indoor plumbing, etc. The school tour was interesting. The little girl that gave us the tour was probably around 15 and was Amish. She was finished with school. Amish children only go to school to 8th grade. Then they work. Many of the Amish women and girls work in restaurants. I wasn't sure as a teacher how I felt about only going to school until the 8th grade. My mom had to do that growing up but as an adult in her early 40's she went and got her GED and even took two college classes. Our guide through the houses was an elderly lady named Mary that reminded me of my Grandma Chaffin. Grandma was only about 4ft 9in tall and little Mary was the same. Mary used to be Amish but she had left the Amish and now she is a Mennonite. One of the tour participants asked Mary if she had been shunned when she left. Mary told us that she had not been because she had belonged to a new order Amish. She told us that there are seven orders of Amish. Some being more strict than others. An interesting fact I learned was that Amish have church at their homes and they do not have their pictures taken. They believe that is having a graven image. The Sunday morning that we left, Tim and I passed all kinds of Amish families on their way to church. Some were in their buggies and others were walking. It was an amazing sight and I admire them sticking to their beliefs despite the outside worlds interference.
Since I have been home I have finished my first block of Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow. I omitted a few things from the design. Ms. Barrick had a bunch of trees behind the house but to me they looked suspended in air. So I didn't put them in. I also changed the color of the horses eyes. They were yellow in the design and I changed them to a sable brown. Thanks for all of the great comments and stay tuned for Part 3 of Anniversary Vacation!

Anniversary Vacation Part 1

Tim and I just got back last Sunday from a sixteen night trip. It was great! We went to several different destinations and I thought I would blog about each one. Along the way, I got a stitching finish too!


Tim and I spent our first three nights in Paintsville, KY. Paintsville is about twentyfive miles from my home town. We visited with family and then left on the Monday for Lake Erie. We stayed in Huron, Ohio for four nights. Huron is about fifteen minutes away from Sandusky, Ohio. We had a great time there. We rode a ferry over to Kelley's Island and island that is in Lake Erie and spent a day there. Kelley's Island has glacial grooves that were made by the Wisconsin Glacier. The Wisconsin Glacier created the great lakes. Kelley's Island also had many historic sites and some great restaurants! Kelley mansion is in one of the pics I posted. It was a gorgeous house. While in the Lake Erie area, Tim and I also visited Marblehead and its historic lighthouse. I could have stayed at the lighthouse area all day. There were lots of rocks and people were catching fish. The waves were crashing and the birds were everywhere. It was so calming and peaceful, the kind of place that when you leave you have contentment in your heart. We also went to Vermilion, Ohio and I found a stitching store! I bought some fabric and another set of qsnaps from her. The store was Claire's Stitching Post and she had all kinds of patterns and fabric. I think that she had every Little House Needlework pattern that has been created! Claire was a very nice lady and if you are in northern Ohio, look her up. She is trying to make a go with her shop and we all know that that is hard to do nowadays!


While on our trip, I started LHN's monthly threadpack series. I am going to do six each on a piece of linen aida. I finished "January" while on the trip. I will continue my excursions in another post later this week. Thanks for reading and for all of the nice comments!