Lexington

In the way that the passage of time is always a complete surprise to me, it is one week until Easter!  Taking a break from frantic decorating and basket prep to catch up on the rest of March.  My spring break has come and gone with startling rapidity, leaving me feeling like not much got accomplished.  We started repainting the hallway, did not like the new color, and left things unfinished for most of the week.  Ivy and I traveled to Lexington with Bec and Gram, which was a wonderful trip and went off swimmingly, thoughwe missed Nat and Jack (who stayed home to teach and attempt to finish up the massive amount of missing work for the quarter, respectively). Also this week, Jack started tennis practice, and Ivy learned to play poker...

Win is an excellent out-of-bounds ball retreiver, quite handy ( and cute!) to have on the court...

Cousin time at the beach.  Here you see two teenagers engaging in their preferred form of social interaction.  Like paralell play when they were toddlers, all over again...

Ivy and Ada spent their time at the beach collecting dead fish, and at least one almost dead fish.  You know, like you do.

Ivy decided she had to purchase elf ears.  Turns out its pretty fun to do makeup and pretend to be an elf. 

The backyard is greening up, thanks to some really lovely weather.  

And, off to Lexington!  Somebody's Auntie was pretty happy to see her...

We arrived in town around 8pm, after an uneventful drive.  We had good intentions of cooking a quick meal at our AirBnB but then Bec, who'd arrived ahead of us, tols us about the awesome restaurant she'd visited while she waited for us.  Gram heard the words "soft shell crab" and so out to dinner we went!  A night "on the town" to start the trip- great fun, delicious food, and wonderful cocktails-- and patio seating, too. 

Day One activities: 

Stallion Tour at Claiborne Farm. A beautiful place and lots of interesting information that I had never thought about before!  Nothing like having the very first stop on your tour be the Breeding Barn...  Also we got to feed peppermints to a stallion insured for 80 million dollars so that was cool.

Another day, another wonderful meal on a patio.  We enjoyed lunch at the Trackside diner, complete with more cocktails.  Loved wandering around on the main street of Paris.  So much lovely architecture!

In the afternoon Bec and I went to a distillery tour and fell in love with the uber-trendy Distellery District.

The tour was interesting- lots of history here in the "number 5 distillery" in Kentucky.  Never mind that it closed in the 1950's and was reopened only 3 years ago!  They still get to claim 1776 on their labels.  A group of 20-something guys were on the tour and they were definitely out to have a Good Time. Young people are so entertaining!

Vegan craft ice cream in the 70 degree sunshine?  Don't mind if I do!

Meanwhile back at the ranch-  our little poker player is now a scrabble player, too. 

Dinner was burgers on our patio at our Airbnb. And some tree climbing. 

An evening trip to explore downtown and the Gratz Park Historic district.

Turns out that Lexington is home to Transylvania University, and the campus is gorgeous. We learned that the name does not refer to Dracula's hometown but rather means "into the woods," and the university started as a seminary in the wooded, frontier "west" of Kentucky...

Day Two dawned grey and drizzly so rather than driving an hour to explore a state park in the possible rain, we stayed closer to home.  We discovered McConnell Springs park, a little gen tucked into an industrial area of town.

Ivy's first "Blue Hole"! 

This little girl just loves clambering about in nature.

And the spring-fed creek-  that rose up and then sank underground again-- was just a magical place to clamber.  We looked up the fluffy green plants growing in the water-- Peacock Feather.  How delightful. Ivy wanted to look at one up close so we balanced our way out to them and collected one, and she carried it carefully the rest of the time and put it in water when we got back home.  Sometimes she acts so grown up and full of tweeny angst that I lose sight of my sweet, curious girl and the way she sees magic in the world...

We took a driving tour in the drizzle, revisiting Grantz park by daylight and checking out the cemetary.

The day cleared enough for a quick grown-ups only outing to the local art gallery... which just happened to be in an 1860's mansion, because that's how things are in Lexington...

Day 3 snuggles.  Sharing a love of anime, and each other.  I wish we lived closer to this wonderful Aunt!

After saying goodbye to our sweet little Airbnb, we toured Henry Clay's estate.

 Then a stop  to get hipster donuts, at a bourbon store (of course), one more lunch on a patio (sans cocktails, sigh...) and we headed north.  We've vowed to not let 2 years go by again.