Postcard from the Bluegrass State
Ok, here’s a few photos to encourage you to jump in your car and take off somewhere. Anywhere. Preferably someplace with alpacas. The one in the last post had been born just a day or so earlier and was all black spindly-legged, doe-eyed, crazy-cuteness. Also, the adult ones have very expressive faces, and if you are so inclined, you can do what Madi and I spent an inordinate amount of time doing which is assuming alpaca-esque character voices and and describing what a thought-bubble above their head might say. Yes, we are weird that way but admit it, you know you’ve done it at some point in your life with your dog, or something. Don’t judge us.
Here’s a opportunity for you– QUICK, give it a caption, first thing that comes into your mind:
:
(Mine was, “Don’t hate me ‘cos I’m beautiful…” What was yours?)
Now that we’ve gotten that out of our systems, let’s continue.
Here is the first inn we stayed at, the Historic Maple Hill Manor in Springfield, KY. www.maplehillmanor.com
It’s only like, 2 and a half hours from Nashville which is very do-able, and also you can antique your way up I-65 which makes it even better. The hosts are Todd and Tyler, who are savvy businessmen, perfect hosts, fascinating to talk to AND cute as bunnies. They also at least pretended to actually REMEMBER us from our one stay about 3 or 4 years ago– all the way down to the fact that I had been wearing my then-brand-new pair of Uggs! They must have a secret Pertinent Guest Details notebook stashed somewhere… Either that, or I just make an indelible impression everywhere I go, in which case I should run for president or something.
The inn is just beautiful. The rooms are generous and gracious (seven of them, fairly priced), the grounds are extensive and gorgeous (a gazebo, patio, old barn, wooden swing, grape arbor, walking paths), and the food is really good (homemade desserts served in the evening, giant breakfast with a cheesy/croissant/egg thingy and lemon pancakes in the morning). Here are some interior shots:
Front entry hall– isn’t that impressive? Pretty color, too.
Parlor– you can come have a glass of wine and maybe meet other guests down here in the evening if you want to. Or not, your choice. I stayed upstairs and watched TV with Madi and then snuck down later in my robe to raid the sideboard.
Dining room with mural– the scene of that killer breakfast.
We stayed here, upstairs in the Harriet Beecher Stowe room (photo from their website.) It has three beds, so next time when we bring Charlotte too, Madi won’t have to sleep on the floor or a couch. She would rather get bitten by another shark than sleep with her sister.
And here are some outside shots:
Isn’t this just what a country inn should look like? It was built in 1851, and when we were here last time Madi found some old rusty Civil War-era nails out in the yard. Surprisingly, this time she was too busy text-messaging her friends to find any artifacts.
View from the front porch. Not pictured: massive hairy dog named Samson splayed out at my feet as I took the picture. Too old and sweet and lazy to do more than open one eye and thump his tail at me. But here’s another beauty that is (slightly) more lively:
I TOTALLY want that exact same hair color, but I’m too chicken to try it. Also, I’m a little concerned that if I dye my hair red there might be a few too many ‘I Love Lucy’ comparisons than I’d be comfortable with.
Walking around outside you’ll see a lot of this:
and this…
Charming, right? But the real fun is the herd… feel free to make up more captions. I’ll wait.
(See that weird little baby again?) They are kinda shy and more skittish than horses, and yes it is true they DO have a tendency to spit– actually, it’s more like a sneezy spray, and they almost exclusively do it only to each other, like if they’re trying to keep another one from stealing their food or something. Not unlike my girls.
Here’s cute-as-a-bunny Todd feeding them. See, they do look a little pissed off, but nobody spat or anything. Including Todd.
They are really very docile and curious, though, not threatening at all. This dreadlocked one was quite interested in the camera– doesn’t it look like she’s smiling?
And this one was like a movie star! It’s a baby llama– (Yes, they have both llamas and alpacas and no, I can’t really tell the difference although Todd patiently explained it to me at least twice and I nodded sagely and pretended to get it. Something about ‘banana-shaped ears vs. smaller ears’, but seriously? ALL of their ears looked banana-shaped to me. There is a difference in their size and coat type too, but again, la-la-la-in-one-(non-banana-shaped) ear-and-out-the-other… I was too busy trying to pet one to really focus.)
The point is, this one is a llama and it is GORGEOUS– all fluffy and funny, jumping all around trying to get the other ones to play. I fell in love and would have kissed it right on its fuzzy little lips if I could have gotten close enough. Wisely, it didn’t get close enough.
HAVE YOU EVER…?! (mmwa– *big kiss*)
Meanwhile, Madi was falling in love on her own with a rangy old black stray tomcat. And by ‘rangy’, I mean ‘mangy.’ No kidding.
But it attached itself to her, following her everywhere purring its head off, rubbing its (mangy) head on her legs and twining around her feet until she knelt down and petted it again. And when she tried to get up, it would grab at her butt with its claws!
(Hopefully this does not in any way reflect her future in terms of what kind of human she eventually falls in love with. Because mangy and butt-grabbing are not great attributes in a son-in-law. I’m just saying.)
So, that brings the first day of our Runaway Mom/Runaway Daughter/Girl Trip/Road Trip travelogue to a close. I’ll leave you with this shot of the two happy campers–
(All together now: “Awww…….)
