Thanksgiving in Kentucky
December 13th, 2008
As I’m sitting here in the hotel in Atlanta, I figured I should probably catch up with my trip report for our Thanksgiving trip to Kentucky to visit with Gabe’s family. Originally, we had planned to split the drive to and from Kentucky into two days, both ways. We changed our plans at the last minute to leave a bit earlier on Tuesday and drive the entire distance. The last time we went a longer distance was Atlanta in August, and we had decided to not do that again for a while! We heard that snow and ice was predicted for our halfway point in West Virginia, so we wanted to avoid possible weather complications. We were nervous about spending that much time in the car with Maddie! The worst part was arriving in Kentucky (and then back home) after Maddie spent the majority of the day sleeping. We were ready to hit the sack, but Maddie was ready to play! She did pretty well on the way to Kentucky, though she did get fed up with being in the car about 2 hours away from Lexington. We ended up stopping at Kohl’s for an hour or so to go shopping. Maddie slept the rest of the way after that. She experienced her first snow on the ground when we stopped at the Cracker Barrel for dinner in West Virginia.
We arrived around 11pm on Tuesday night and spent the night at Gabe’s parents’ house. We visited with Gabe’s parents, sister, nephew, cousin, cousin’s boyfriend and kids, and step-brother for the next 3 days. Thanksgiving dinner was tasty with lots of turkey, ham, green beans, stuffing, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and a variety of pies. YUM! I think that we need more holidays that are all about the food. We played some games: Pictionary, TriBond, and Trivial Pursuit. We had a nice time visiting with family!
We decided to make the entire trip back on Saturday, as Maddie gave us confidence on the way to Kentucky. We were motivated to have all day Sunday to recover as well. We stopped by Gabe’s parents’ craft fair at Keeneland before leaving town. It was neat to finally see one of their booths! I think they were happy to show off their granddaughter to some of their friends.
The drive back was mostly uneventful, though we did run into quite a bit of snow. I felt like I was driving warp speed through a star field. Maddie is turning into quite the little traveler. She was a very good baby and slept the majority of the trip. Gabe spent a little time in the backseat entertaining her and feeding her Cheerios for maybe an hour or two after we stopped at a rest area. That kept her happy until we stopped for dinner at a random Italian restaurant that our GPS found for us. Unfortunately, the Italian restaurant was NOT very tasty. Oh well, so much for discovering a hidden gem in Pilot Mountain.
We arrived at home around 11pm, and Maddie was wide awake and ready to play. I loved watching her when we got home as she was so excited to see her things again. She kept looking at random things in the house…the fireplace, the animals on the plant ledge, the bookshelves, the foyer…and smiling the biggest smiles. She was so happy to be home sweet home.
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