Day 3
• Guided Tour and Music Performance at Shaker Village
• Lunch at Kentucky Fudge Company
• Depart for Bardstown
• Shopping Downtown in Bardstown
• Civil War Museum of the Western Theater
• Heaven Hill Distilleries 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.
Stopping for lunch at the Kentucky Fudge Company in downtown Harrodsburg, the group then proceeded west to Bardstown, a charming Kentucky town roughly 40 miles south of Louisville. Participants had a choice of activities upon arrival, including shopping downtown, a visit to a Civil War museum, and a tour and tasting at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center.
The rest of the day focused on Bardstown’s claim to fame. The group spent time touring My Old Kentucky Home State Park. Then, after a delicious dinner of traditional Kentucky fare at Kurtz Restaurant, the group attended a performance of “The Stephen Foster Story,” one of the longest-running outdoor dramas in the country.
Shaker Village
After a delicious breakfast in the on-site restaurant, the group got a full introduction to Shaker Village. The tour included an overview of the Shakers, a 19th- and 20th-century Christian sect that built the village and operated a celibate commune there. Visitors saw some of the dozens of Shaker buildings remaining on the property and enjoyed the beautiful surrounding pastoral landscape. The experience ended with a rousing Shaker musical performance by an interpreter in the historic house of worship.
Exploring Bardstown
Founded in 1780, Bardstown is the second-oldest city in Kentucky and has history and small-town charm to rival any other destination in the country. Group members had three options for exploring Bardstown during the early afternoon. Some spent their time shopping downtown, where there are dozens of locally owned boutiques and more than 300 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. Others visited the Civil War Museum of the Western Theater, one of the most significant Civil War museums in the country. The rest took some time to learn about the area’s long history in bourbon distilling with a visit to the Bourbon Heritage Center at Heaven Hill Distillery. This is among the best bourbon museums in the country, and the visit featured a private tasting that introduced them to the wide variety of bourbons made in the area.
My Old Kentucky Home State Park
The group reunited later in the afternoon for a tour of My Old Kentucky Home State Park. The park preserves Federal Hill, the mansion and estate said to be the inspiration for composer Stephen Foster’s classic “My Old Kentucky Home,” the official state anthem of Kentucky. Costumed interpreters guided the group through the house, telling the story of the family’s life there and the time Foster spent at the estate before serenading them with the famous tune.
‘The Stephen Foster Story’
The group returned to My Old Kentucky Home State Park for an evening performance of “The Stephen Foster Story,” a Broadway-style outdoor musical that tells the story of Foster’s pioneering life as America’s first professional music composer. The show features dazzling costumes, high-energy dancing and several of Foster’s most famous songs, including “Oh! Susanna,” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Day 4
• Abbey of Gethsemani
• Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral
• Lunch at Talbott Tavern
• Depart 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. Next, the group visited the Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral. When it was built from 1816 to 1819, this was the first Catholic cathedral west of the Allegheny mountains.
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.
Abbey of Gethsemani
The quiet morning air was a perfect welcome at the Abbey of Gethsemani, a historic monastery that is still home to dozens of Trappist monks. The group visited the chapel, the visitor center and the gift shop and learned about the history of the order and the lifestyle practiced by the brothers who live and work at the large site.
Basilica of St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral
The final faith-based stop on the itinerary was the Basilica of St. Joseph. This historic church is a Bardstown landmark and once served as the Catholic Church’s headquarters for the entire western United States. Visitors saw valuable artifacts, learned about the cathedral’s history and discovered Bardstown’s role in the expansion of Catholicism on the American frontier.
For more information on the itinerary featured on this FAM contact Wayne Cusick at the Kentucky Department of Tourism at 502-892-3215 or go to www.kentuckytourism.com.
