Last Saturday, we left Nashville to drive back to our niece's house in Independence, Kentucky. We waited until we knew our housesitting hosts were on their plane back to Nashville. Because it was around noon and we had packed and cleaned and didn't want to make lunch there, we made one last stop in Nashville to grab some lunch. We went to the Cafe at Thistle Farm. The cafe provides employment and empowerment to women who are survivors of trafficking, prostitution, or addiction. The mission of Thistle Farm is to provide sanctuary for two years for women that need it. The menu was great and they were doing a good business. Along with the cafe, there was a shop connected to cafe that sold handcrafted body products, candles, jewelry and textiles. These items are handcrafted by survivors both local and around the world. Another interesting feature of the cafe are teacups hanging from the ceiling at the front of the cafe. There is a tea cup hung for each women supported by Thistle Farm.
We arrived in Independence at dinner and spent a little time with Rori (5 years) and Maggie (2 years), before bedtime. We stayed through Friday, January 26th. Our niece's husband, Josiah, was starting a new job and their daycare did not have space on Wednesday for Rori and while, he will be able to work virtually most of the time, this week he needed to be in-person for orientation. So we got to spend a little time with the girls. They have adopted us as their grandparents.
Northern Kentucky had snow, when we arrived and we were able to play with the girls in the snow on Sunday. Rori liked do sled races with Thom on their slopy backyard, while Maggie just wanted to eat icicles and snow.
The girls had daycare almost everyday, so we had time to explore. On Monday, we had lunch with our niece, Megan at the Fidelity Campus. Both her and Josiah are now working at Fidelity. Fidelity has a nice campus just a short drive from their home. They have a nice cafeteria and wooded walking trails. The trails were covered with snow, but we did take a walk around the campus on the sidewalks which were clear of snow.
Tuesday, we took a drive to Frankfort to see the Kentucky State Capitol building. We scheduled a 2 pm tour and so we decided to get there early and have lunch. We found a nice farm to table restaurant called the Sage Garden Cafe. They had great sandwiches, soups, and salads. Along with the cafe, there was a large nursery with a retail space called the Wilson Nursery. We had time to walk around the retail store and see the variety of plants in the attached greenhouse. They have a bunch of additional greenhouses as well.
When we arrived at the capitol building there was a pro-life rally. It was noisy and crowded in the entrance and rotunda. Our tour guide lead us to a quiet area told us about the history of the building.
The Kentucky State Capitol was finished in 1910 and took four years to build. According to our guide, it also came in under budget. The state of Kentucky received $1,000,000 from the federal government for damages sustained during the Civil War and for services provided in the Spanish-American War of 1898.
The architect was Frank Mills Andrews, a native of Iowa who practiced in Chicago, New York City, Cincinnati and Dayton and it was built in the French classical style. The interior makes use of white Georgia marble, gray Tennessee marble and dark green Italian marble and the grand corridors feature 36 imposing columns of Vermont granite on either side of the rotunda. The rotunda has art glass skylights with lighting the changes color. The legislature was in session so we weren't able to go into the senate chamber, but we were able to go into the house gallery.
On Wednesday, we spent the day with the girls. We started the day making fruit faces in oatmeal and then we did their Kiwi Co. Stem Projects. Maggie's involved mixing colored water with plastic beakers and dropper. With Rori's project, we created a wooden claw. Maggie helped Thom make a apple crisp.
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