By Grace We Build

There are so many interesting things to explore here in Kentucky!  Actually, I am spurred on to go back to Ohio and find the many interesting things around us there that I have been missing.  But for now, we are continuing to discover the treasures around Louisville.

Today we travelled a little over an hour to visit the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.  It was a Shaker Village until about a hundred years ago, when the last of its members eventually died (celibacy is one of their beliefs, and that just doesn’t help a religious movement grow, does it?).  The village was filled with reenactors who taught us about the Shaker lifestyle.  We saw typical things from the time period, such as wool spinning and weaving and sheep-shearing.  We also learned about Shaker-specific things, such as their worship meetings and their homes.

Their homes had two almost mirror-image sides for the men and the women, housing up to 70-80 people as one “family”  - huge!   Note the two doors going in – one for the women and one for the men.  That is the set-up for all of the buildings, unless it is a building that only men or women go into (like the laundry house or the woodworking house).

There was a special room for hand-on kids’ play.  What a cutie!

And here is Ellie in a Shaker outfit.  She’s kinda cute too!

Associated with the village, in a spot along the Kentucky River where the Shakers used to operate a ferry, is a riverboat cruise.  After several hours of walking around the village, we relaxed on the Dixie Belle for about an hour and learned about the Kentucky River, which feeds into the Ohio River.

Such a fun day with the kids!

On Tuesday the girls and I went to Locust Grove here in Louisville.  It was the home, for a time, of George Roger Clark, the founder of Louisville.  He was also a general who led troops into Indiana to push the British back up into Canada (“back where they belonged,” as our feisty, little 80-year-old tour guide put it!), securing the area of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, etc. for the United States.  Clark was the older brother of William Clark, of Lewis and Clark.  The explorers dined here together, giving it another “claim to fame.”

Most impressive about Locust Grove is its museum.  It is a great place for kids.  Throughout the museum there are clothes hanging on the walls, with signs saying “Try me on.”  My ever-obedient children (who??) tried everything on, again and again.  There were other interactive things for them to do as well, such as playing with a butter churn and a surveyors compass.

They seriously thought it was the best museum ever (one said the only way it could get better is if, when you walk into the museum you actually go back in time!).  I think it helped that it was small, so they didn’t have to stay their forever.