Family in Kentucky (10.28-30.22)

10/28/22

It was a pretty standard day/morning. Jonathan worked until he reached a good stopping point and then we all got in the car and started driving to Kentucky. He conducted a meeting or two in the car and I drove.

The kids were so excited to “visit Caesar” (Their great pyrenees who won everyone’s hearts last time we visited.)

All in all, it was a most uneventful drive. Thanks to screens. Hallelujah!

Keith and Karen were at their ward halloween party when we were due to arrive, and so they told us to just let ourselves in. As we started nearing their house, we put in an order for a pizza to feed our hoodlums; our hope was that it would arrive at about the same time that we arrived. And then we could swiftly chuck them in bed.

Caesar was there, waiting for us. The kids were so happy to see him. And honestly I can’t say I blame them. I am not really a dog person, but I do love Caesar. He is such a gentle and calm dog.

So, we played with Caesar while we waited for our pizza.

And waited.

And waited.

From the time we ordered the pizza to the time it actually arrived was over an hour. That was a little frustrating, but we eventually got everyone fed and in bed even if it was later than we had anticipated.

After settling the kids, Jonathan and I chatted with Keith and Karen for a while and then we all went to bed.

10/29/22

The next morning, Keith made us a delicious breakfast: waffles, eggs, fruit, and bacon. It was a feast.

And then we kinda just hung around for a bit in the morning while Karen ran errands. Keith and Karen have lots of awesome toys and books (which our kids have very much been missing) and so they had a great time in the playroom. And of course, Caesar got plenty of love as well.

After that, Keith played tour guide for us in their super cute town of Georgetown, Kentucky. First we tried to go see Ward Hall, “the grandest Greek Revival residence in Kentucky and and one of the finest examples of a mid-nineteenth century classical building in the United States.” Alas, it was closed so we didn’t get to see it.

So on to our next stop: Mary Beth’s house (she’s K&K’s daughter) it was fun to see her and to visit with her for a few minutes.

We then moved on to our next point of interest: Downtown Georgetown. It really is a super cute little spot with lots of older buildings and cute shops.

We eventually wandered down to Royal Spring Park, which is right next to a spring which has provided water to the area since the earliest settlements. The park also has two historic cabins, and plenty of space to run around. Also, Royal Spring is considered the birthplace of bourbon, as the colorful Reverend Elijah Craig is credited with distilling the first spirits in Kentucky here. Cute!

Let’s be honest, the kids mostly just appreciated the opportunity to run around for a bit. It was the perfect day for such shenanigans. I don’t think you could ask for better weather. It was gorgeous.

At this point, we asked our tour guide if he had any recommendations for food to eat and he recommended Galvins. So we went in and got food. And it was excellent. Truly. Such delicious food.

We then meandered our way back to the car and dropped by the house for a few minutes. And then we were off on the next part of our adventure.

Karen is volunteering with the Kentucky Historical Society and they were putting on a Halloween carnival at the Old State Capitol building in Frankfort, and so we decided to go check that out and support her. It was about a 20 minute drive from the Longmore’s house to the festivities.

There were lots of different groups that were contributing to the event as well. The Humane Society had an adopt-a-kitten booth, there were old fashioned lawn games from the historical society, the police department passed out goodie bags, there was face painting, different youth groups came and performed on a stage, etc. And of course, Candy. It was a Halloween carnival after all.

There were TONS of things to do and there were lots of people there. And the grounds of the Old Capitol building were lovely.

One of the first things that drew our children’s notice was a group that had a bunch of raccoons. 🤣🤣 I honestly can’t remember what the purpose or name of the group was. I was so distracted by the fact that there were raccoons. 🤣🤣🤣. But our kids though it was the coolest thing ever. So we went over and learned a little bit about raccoons and Clara and Jonas each got to pet a raccoon.

Our next stop was at Karen’s booth where they were doing gourd decorating, they had lots of supplies for people to decorate their gourds like feathers, glue, markers, stickers, etc.

Then of course everyone had to get their face painted.

Our last stop was inside of the Old Capitol building, where there were more activities. The one that the kids stuck with the longest was the art section. They had a great time coloring and making masterpieces.

By this point, there was going to be a costume parade. Obviously, our children did not have costumes, and we were ok skipping the parade, and so we decided to duck out a little early and go to our final destination of the day: Ice Cream.

We had mentioned that ice cream might be a possibility earlier in the day, while wandering around downtown Georgetown, but we were all so full after our amazing lunch that we didn’t get around to it at that point.

So, we made up for it this evening by walking up the road and getting some ice cream in Frankfort with Keith. Frankfort is so cute!

After we had eaten our ice cream, we headed back to Georgetown. We got the kids all settled and in bed. And then Jonathan and I ended up chatting with Keith and Karen for a while before we went to bed.

INDIANA AND BACK TO CHICAGO (10.30.22)

On Sunday morning, we got up, backed our bags, bade Keith and Karen goodbye and then we started to make our way back to Chicago.

Besides seeing Keith and Karen on this little trip, we had one other thing to accomplish.

Back when we were in Nashville, it had become expedient for us to get a storage unit. And so we decided to choose somewhere that might be at least in the vicinity of where we would be at the end of our nomading time. So, we chose Indianapolis. Jonathan went and dropped our stuff off back in April.

And today was the day that we would retrieve our belongings and clean it out.

This was supposed to be a fairly straightforward and quick endeavor.

However, things took a decidedly more complicated turn when it turned out that we did not have the key to the lock on our unit. Crap. (We still have no idea where the key ended up. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ It has utterly vanished.)

So, we went and talked to the office. And they gave us some bolt cutters. So we went to try those. But the lock was an anti-bolt cutters kind of lock. So, we couldn’t cut it off. Crap.

So, Jonathan went back to the office to find out what our options were. They basically told him that we could come back tomorrow and that they would be able to take care of it. Because the guy with the angle grinder wasn’t around today. It was a Sunday after all.

Obviously, this wasn’t viable. We were supposed to be just passing through. And we couldn’t really wait until tomorrow. So, Jonathan started to get on the phone with some locksmiths.

Meanwhile the guys in the office managed to track down someone who would come and help us out.

15 minutes later, Raoul (our hero!) came in with his angle grinder. We played “find the closest functional outlet” which was a surprisingly difficult game.

And then Raoul saved our lives and cut the lock off.

We were SO INCREDIBLY grateful. He was seriously the nicest guy you could possibly imagine (even if he hadn’t cut off our lock I would say that) Basically, Raoul is my favorite.

So, this ordeal definitely took longer than we had planned on. But! We didn’t have to stay overnight!

And the rest of our trip to Chicago was completely, blissfully, uneventful.