Disclosure: Recently, I was hosted on a 3 day Kentucky Bourbon Trail Tour + stay at Shaker Village with the Moonshine Mamas/Traveling Moms. All opinions are honest + my own. Scout’s Honor.
The original plan was to try it out for a Girls Getaway Weekend. Because it was a bourbon + whiskey tasting tour, I immediately wanted to bring the better half along; I knew this was an experience that I wanted to share with him. I’m an über-wino but he’s really getting into the old-fashioned drinks: bourbon, whiskey + vodka. Since it was part of the Traveling MOMS group, hubby was aptly dubbed our lone Traveling Dad for the weekend.
Side note #1: I absolutely recommend this as an adventure with your girls!
Side note #2: HUBBYs: If you want to give your wife an amazing Mother’s Day or birthday gift, send her to Shaker Village for 2 nights of peace + quiet.
And speaking of Shaker Village…
We stayed at Shaker Village, which used to be a commune for a religious community which believed that Jesus had returned to Earth + that we were living in the last 1000 years on the planet. They believed in religious purity, so when families came to join the community, there was no more intercourse.
I know, right?!
That verification came up several times on the tour because we simply couldn’t believe that husbands + wives would agree to give up sex to live together as brother + sister. When families became a part of the Shaker community, they also gave up parental rights to their children. They took care of the kids + each other as a community, relinquishing ownership of their earthly organization.
Since marriage is a true Do-It-Together sort of thing, I knew I could never live there.
Truth be told, it was not at all what we expected. Looking at it from the outside, it seemed very old school + antiquated + a lot like what in the world did we just agree to? Upon further inspection + settling in, we admitted that it’s an absolutely beautiful location.
The first day of our weekend involved touring the grounds + enjoying an “unstructured” photography class by the amazing Rick Gerrity. It was gloomy, windy + super cold, but we ventured out for a few hours anyway. The staff gave us a thoroughly informative guided tour of the grounds. Our favorite parts were inside of the buildings, of course. As we walked around, we were given some expert tips on how to improve our photography skills. I’ve been in love with photography since high school, so even though I was freezing, I really enjoyed this part of the trip. Hubby has been practicing his photography techniques as well, so we compared + critiqued + improved each other’s work.
The First Dinner
Our first dinner of the weekend was at The Rickhouse in neighboring Bardstown, KY. You know how some people find it annoying when people take pictures of their food? Imagine that x 13! It was awesome! LOL We actually pulled out a professional light to help take our food photography up a notch! We absolutely had to document it all though; the chef went off-menu to create some special dishes just for us!
Fun fact: Bardstown is ~25 miles from 85% of all of the world’s bourbon supply!
After finally getting back to our room, we changed clothes, climbed into bed + did what every non-Shaker married couple really enjoys doing…
We slept.
All. Night. Long.
Yeah, baby, that’s what I’m talking about!
Apparently, the Shakers had to get some sort of perk for giving up their love life + Tempurpedic came to the rescue! Well, that’s a local joke, but the great night’s sleep that we got was nothing to laugh at! After driving for 6 hours, walking around in the cold for 2 hours + stuffing ourselves silly, it was the most rest that the both of us had gotten in a while! The rooms are really spacious, have very modernized amenities, + come with a reasonable price tag.
If we didn’t have a full schedule for the next day, I certainly would have stayed in bed much longer. But alas, there were more many more things to do…
See more Day 1 photos here + check out this post for our second day of adventures!
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