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OnSite in Kentucky

Day 3

Guided tour at Shaker Village

Lunch at Kentucky Fudge Company

Departure for Bardstown

Shopping downtown in Bardstown

Civil War Museum of the Western Theater

Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center

My Old Kentucky Home State Park

Dinner at Kurtz Restaurant

“The Stephen Foster Story”

Overnight in Bardstown

After enjoying the overnight guest rooms at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, FAM participants learned the story of the settlement and the Shakers who lived there during a guided tour of the 3,000-acre site. The tour included an overview of the Shakers, a 19th- and 20th-century Christian sect who built the village and operated a celibate commune there. The experience ended with a rousing Shaker music performance.

After a lunch at the Kentucky Fudge Company in downtown Harrodsburg, the group proceeded west to Bardstown, a charming Kentucky town roughly 40 miles south of Louisville. Participants had a choice of activities upon arrival: Some perused the shops in Bardstown’s charming central square while others visited the Civil War Museum of the Western Theater or enjoyed a bourbon tasting at the Bourbon Heritage Center at Heaven Hill Distilleries.

The rest of the day focused on Bardstown’s claim to fame. The group spent time touring My Old Kentucky Home State Park, which preserves the mansion and estate said to be the inspiration for composer Stephen Foster’s classic “My Old Kentucky Home,” the official state anthem. Then, after a delicious dinner, the group attended a performance of “The Stephen Foster Story,” one of the longest-running outdoor dramas in the country.

Day 4

Abbey of Gethsemani

Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral

Lunch at Talbott Tavern

Departure for northern Kentucky and return home

In addition to its history and culture, Bardstown enjoys a deep religious heritage, and the group spent the final morning of the tour seeing Catholic sites in and around the city. They began at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a monastery founded in 1848 that is still home to dozens of Trappist monks; there, they learned about the history of the order and the lifestyle practiced by the brothers who live and work at the large site. Next, the group visited the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. When it was built from 1816 to 1819, it was the first Catholic cathedral west of the Allegheny mountains. Visitors saw valuable artifacts, learned about the church’s history and discovered Bardstown’s role in the expansion of Catholicism on the American frontier.

Before leaving Bardstown, the group stopped for a farewell lunch at Talbott Tavern, an iconic, historic restaurant on the town square. Then everyone boarded the motorcoach for the two-hour drive back to northern Kentucky, where they bid goodbye to their new friends and began making plans to return to the Bluegrass State.

Brian Jewell

Brian Jewell is the executive editor of The Group Travel Leader. In more than a decade of travel journalism he has visited 48 states and 25 foreign countries.