I promised adventures this summer, and we are having them! Well, generally, time at home just looks like this. Mess, Dad on the floor, Lukie smothering him, dogs trying to escape.
But this weekend, we took one of our first family trips...kind of. See, when you live 10-12 hours from your family, most vacation time is spent driving back and forth to your far-off loved ones. We haven't had a lot of time for trips that didn't involve a 4 a.m. wake-up and a day's worth of driving on either end. We've gone to Georgia a couple times to see friends, had the ISU reunion...but this weekend, we got to do something just the three of us that was very "family vacation-y."
A few months ago, our friend from the Agricultural History Society asked Peter to chair and comment on a panel at the annual meeting and conference. I pushed Pete to do it-- keeps his hand in history, it's a topic he's interested in, we would see friends. The conference was in Lexington, KY, which is about a 4-hour drive away. Pete agreed and we said, "Oh, that'll be fun," and then we kind of dropped it.
Well, a couple weeks ago, Peter realized he had missed the deadline for getting the hotel room in Lexington at the conference rate and that we were going to have to pay $180 to stay at the hotel where the conference was happening. Other hotels in downtown Lexington weren't much cheaper...and then I had a thought. We had been wanting to visit the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (here) for a few years. It's about 45 minutes south-west of Lexington, and since I had looked into it as maybe a get-away for Pete and me to take someday, I knew they operate as a hotel, as well. Turns out, for $50 less than we would have paid to stay in Lexington, we could stay in one of the buildings at Shaker Village! Sold!
Two weeks ago, then, I booked this lovely room on the third floor of the Old Stone Shop at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky.
(Okay, this is the Farm Deacon's shop, but it was identical to the Old Stone Shop.)
What a great substitute for a cookie-cutter hotel experience. No, it doesn't have a pool, but there is an old telephone, which, to a 2-year-old, is far better.
On Saturday, we left the house at 5:00 a.m. to make it to Pete's 10:30-12:00 panel. Pete chaired his panel while Lukas and I rode the escalator about 42 times at the conference center, took a walk around the building multiple times, and watched Despicable Me between moments of trying to escape out the revolving doors. We saw friends (briefly-- they were headed back to Iowa, boo) and by about 3:00 in the afternoon, we were at Shaker Village!
Now, in a perfect world, Peter and I would have had lots of time to look at architecture and furniture. We're Shaker furniture geeks-- everything he makes me is somewhat Shaker inspired (how lucky am I to have that guy?). I love the simple lines and lightness (especially compared to Craftsman furniture, which I often find just a little bit heavy, even if it is beautiful). Our house lends itself to Shaker furniture, anyway- it's fairly simple with small-ish rooms but a good amount of natural light, so the airiness of Shaker furnishings complements it well.
So...this is not a perfect world. We saw just a few of the 40+ buildings and very little furniture. But, you know what? Lukie had lots of stairs to climb, rooms to run through, gravel roads to scuff, birds to chase, and fun. Pete and I'll go back and enjoy it our way someday, but in the meantime, it was kind of nice to enjoy it Lukie's way, too.
(That's the Old Stone Shop, where we stayed, behind me.)
(I think we both hoped he'd be into the piglets, since we were, but Lukie preferred the kitties and the chickens. That's okay, too.)
(Small hitch in our happiness: it was really hard to go anywhere. Lukie doesn't exactly follow us on walks very well yet. He's too interested in everything other than getting where we're going. I think everyone was taught a lesson in patience.)
Don't judge me. The iPad is the only way we get to eat our dinner, sometimes, and the kid was tired, hot, hungry, and thirsty. We shut his brain off so we could eat our delicious meal in peace.
Lukie learned that cups with straws don't work the same way sippy cups do. They're hard.
Our night was pleasant and Lukie slept like a log. We got up in the morning and paid one more visit to the farm animals, and then plopped Lukie in the car (after his Benadryl-- whoever discovered that it prevents car sickness should be given a medal) for a nice long nap. We stopped in Knoxville at Trader Joe's to pick up lunch, snacks, and some other TJ staples, and then were home by at 4:00.
Pete and I both felt like we had been gone for a week instead of a night, but I think it was a pretty successful family mini-vacation. We look forward to taking him to these places when he can talk with us about them, but we know Lukie learned some new things, saw some new animals, worked out a lot of energy, and had lots and lots of fun. None of the things we'd look for in a vacation would necessarily be on his list, but his list was completely checked off:
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That's all that matters, right?
