Hi guys! As you might know from following my blog, we love traveling. We typically do an international trip or two every year, as well as many domestic trips to visit friends and family. With COVID-19, we opted to not do a big international trip this year which is SUCH a bummer, but certainly the right decision. To cure our travel woes, we decided to just make the most of it and try to focus on taking some fun family road trips this summer instead!
This past weekend, we did a weekend in middle of nowhere Kentucky (Owenton, to be exact) with my parents and sisters. This was SUCH a good spot for us, especially in the middle of a pandemic. The drive was about 3.5 hours from Nashville without traffic, 4 hours from my parents and 3 hours from my sisters in Columbus, OH. When we were searching for places to go, we were pretty flexible and had no place in mind but wanted to be within 4 or so hours from home and ideally have some water situation. We wanted the place to be somewhere we WANTED to spend time, because our plan wasn’t to go anywhere except the Airbnb itself. I ended up finding this Airbnb that I couldn’t recommend enough!
The home was an old historic house and we had 200+ acres all to ourselves. The house was quaint and charming with lots of character and had plenty of room for all of us (7 adults, 2 kids, one dog). There was a cabin next to the house that could be used for more people, but since it didn’t have a bathroom, no one in our family stayed there. The best part for us was all that we could do there, especially since we aren’t really “doing” a whole lot in public with COVID-19. We never left the property, and just packed enough food for the four days/three night trip! There was a private lake (perfect for fishing — something E loves doing!) and a massive shaded pavilion where we ate meals and hung out. There was a corn hole set and a smoker out there near the lake (my mom made amazing smoked fish one night!). The house has private access to the Kentucky River, where we used the home’s kayaks and stand-up paddle boards. E and I LOVE standup paddle boarding and used to do this often in SF before kids, so that part was extra fun! There was a big front porch for drinking wine or coffee on rocking chairs and just hanging out together. There was tons of land to roam and hike and wander. There was a huge fire pit for late night s’mores. There was a library for a cozy afternoon movie and lots of new magazines to leisurely flip through. The home was totally off the beaten path and there was no cell service or wifi, which was a VERY refreshing break for me. Not having my phone to distract me was possibly the very best part!
It was definitely in the middle of nowhere! It felt super remote because…it was! We were about 40 minutes from the nearest freeway and to even get from the small town of Owenton to the home, it was several country, off-the-beaten path roads in the woods. When my sister Katie arrived she first said “I’VE NEVER BEEN SOMEWHERE SO RUSTIC” and Kerry said “This is a lot for us city girls!” which tells you that we totally usually do vacations like this. BUT — everyone really enjoyed how serene and peaceful this area was, even if it wasn’t the ocean or a fancy international city. 😉 It was really nice to just BE and spend time as a family in a beautiful, relaxing setting.
Here’s more photos of the house! I’ve actually never raved about an Airbnb like this before, but was totally blown away by our time here and just how peaceful, serene and beautiful it was! The owner, Kathleen, was so responsive and accommodating (she let us check-in early before nap time and check out late, too!). We honestly are hoping to go back later this summer, because it was just so relaxing and fun. You can book the Airbnb here and I found out they have a website where you can get more info/book here, too!
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