travel
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Picketts Mill Historic Site
Last Friday brought us to a new historic site 30 minutes from the house. I sure am loving finding these places nearby. I took the 3 younger boys and my neighbor/friend and her daughter and we packed a lunch to enjoy on our hike. “Pickett’s Mill is one of the best preserved Civil War battlefields in the nation. Visitors can travel roads used by Federal and Confederate troops, see earthworks constructed by these men, and walk through the same ravine where hundreds died. An authentic 1800s pioneer cabin is furnished and open for tours during certain events. On May 27, 1864, the Federal Army, having been stopped in its advance…
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New Echota Cherokee Capital State Historic Site
A couple of months ago, I decided to get the annual pass for the Historic Sites in Georgia as there are many we haven’t visited yet and quite a few within an hour drive. So this past Sunday after church, we stopped by the New Echota Cherokee Captital Historic site. The land and town was the site of the Cherokee National capital from 1825 to 1838 (all my information is from the flyer for the self guided tour). After the removal of the Cherokee tribes the town disappeared and the land was turned into farmland. In the early 1950s the land was purchased by some local citizens and deeded to…
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Frankfort, KY: the State Capitol
My husband travels the Southeast of the United States and Kentucky used to me one of the states he traveled to regularly for work. When we decided to spend a day in Frankfort, visiting the state capitol was on top of our list. Unfortunately because of Covid, we couldn’t go inside (it looks really grandiose in pictures) but we were still able to walk the grounds which are very impressive too. The current building is the 4th permanent build since Kentucky became a state in 1792. The earlier state capitol building (1830) is still in downtown Frankfort. Because of the size of the new state capitol it could not be…
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Frankfort, Kentucky: Murals
When we took a day to visit Frankfort and the state capitol there, I did not expect to come accross a number of murals all in really close proximity. Once we saw one, I googgled the location of others and we walk to a few and found a couple more on the way out of town. While we enjoyed our walk, lunch in a parking lot (a lot of restaurants are still closed to indoor eating) with some rain, it was really kind of sad that a number of businesses had closed down due to the continued shutdown in the state especially here in Frankfort. This mural was near the…
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Versailles and the Arboretum in Lexington, KY
My husband has traveled through Kentucky for work and mentioned seeing a castle in Versailles which is really close to Lexington and just downt the road from Keeneland. We headed there and were pleasantly surprised by this fun castle which is a hotel and spa. One of my readers, Leslie shared the following link if you want to read about how this castle came about: https://myoldkentuckyroadtrip.com/2011/09/20/versailles-lexington-road-castle/ From the road you can see the castle and wonder what it is! I wasn’t sure if we would be able to walk around so we were able that we could. I was very impressed with the grounds and thought this would be a…
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Mount Sterling, KY and Keeneland, KY
To take a break from hiking, we decided to find a small picturesque town to visit. Someone at the grocery store suggested Mount Sterling so we headed that way with a picnic packed. We did save money on this vacation by buying groceries and packing a picnic lunch every day. We shopped in a couple local boutiques, ate our lunch in a little square and took some pictures. Mount Sterling This outfit of the day was fairly comfortable until I realized that we were walking too much for these shoes. By the time we visited the arboretum, I took them off and walked barefoot! This town was pretty small so…
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Rock Bridge and Angel Wings Trails, Daniel Boone Forest, KY
Welcome back to my synopis of our spring break to Kentucky. On our second day, we planned two hikes. We were pleased with the 3 short ones we had done the first day so we choose a slighty longer one and decided to add another one before heading back to our rental. I chose the hikes by searching them on the internet, looking a distance and features such as arches. Once again, I packed lunch but we left it in the car to eat at a picnic table since we knew the hikes were not especially long. Rock Bridge Arch I chose this trail because it was a longer ones…
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Daniel Boone National Forest: Day 1 Hikes
One of my favorite things about our hikes at the Daniel Boone National Forest was that many were very short (less than a mile) and very scenic. The forest is renown for its many arches and on our first day there, we were able to see some pretty fantastic ones. These first two pictures were taken off the main road where a trail started. We did not take the trail but had to stop because the view of the ridge was amazing. Sky Bridge Trail Now this trail is 0.8 miles long and was special due to the crossing of the sky bridge which is wide but does not have…
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Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park, Tennessee
I always try to take advantage of a road trip to visit a historic location. We have loved visiting forts on the coast and when I looked up the town where we were headed for a wedding, I looked up points of interest in the area. I came across Fort Watauga at the Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area. The visitor center hosts a gift shop, a museum and the fort is built by the Watauga River. It is a reconstruction of the original one. There is a one mile loop trail that follows the river as well as an arboretum, a butterfly garden and an amphitheater where they would usually…
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Spring is in the Air: Our First Hike of 2021
As soon as the weather gave us a taste of spring, I corraled the kids and we headed to our nearby state park for our first hike of the year. I was very nice and chose a short 1 mile hike that I knew would be an easy one for everyone and a way to ease in back into walking outdoors again. Thankfully everyone enjoyed the hike! We gave our 6 and 10 year old some old cell phones to take pictures and they thought that was really fun and spent a lot of time finding things to take pictures of. I love how when we hike, we always see…