Anniversary Trip to Berea

Bryan and I went to Berea, Kentucky for an overnight on Saturday. We packed Jonathan off to Nana's and headed to breakfast early Saturday morning. Bryan is NOT a breakfast person, but since it was our anniversary weekend, he agreed to go to breakfast at this new place in town called Wild Eggs. After a delicious meal of eggs benedict for me and biscuits and gravy for Bryan, we armed ourselves with Starbucks and got on the road.

Berea is an arts and crafts community about thirty miles south of Lexington. It is centered around Berea College which, founded in 1855, was the first integrated college in the south for almost forty years. Today, Berea College admits only low income students who, in exchange for full tuition scholarships, are required to work 10-15 hours per week in order to offset a portion of their college expenses.

Neither of us had been to Berea before, but we were very happy with our trip. We stayed at the Boone Tavern Hotel and Restaurant. One of only two Kentucky hotels on the national historic registry, the hotel was very nicely located within walking distance of several very nice arts and crafts shops. The room on the second floor and on the right-hand corner of the building was ours.



We learned by talking to the person at the front desk that our room was the only room with a queen sized bed until fairly recently. We also learned that the hotel is closing for renovations next month and is aiming to gain four-star status. I hope they don't do too much to change the rooms. All of the furniture has been made by Berea College students over the years, a fact that I find fascinating.



It was really cool to know that our room was decorated thanks to the generosity of a fellow Louisvillian.



There was even original artwork hanging in the room. Over the bed hung this picture, which, as the story hanging beside it advised, is a picture of the lady who donated the money to decorate the room. It was commissioned by a soldier that she and her brother met on a Greyhound bus trip to visit their grandparents.



Also cool is the fact that the hotel still uses actual keys:



The one unfortunate thing about Berea is that is a dry county, meaning no alcohol. Luckily Bryan and I found this out ahead of time and packed our own. Here is a self portrait of us breaking the law and enjoying wine:



And here we are after figuring out for the first time that our camera has a timer. This is despite the fact that we have had this camera for almost three years:



The hotel had a restaurant where we ate dinner. What should have been a lovely steak dinner, however, turned into a disaster. Apparently some sort of service breakdown occurred, leaving Bryan and I with no entrees an hour and fifteen minutes after we ordered. We ended up pretty much ignored by our server (and we were sitting in the middle of his pathway) and decided we'd waited long enough (particularly considering that we were talking $30.00 per person for an entree). We ended up being met by the manager who gave us all our food including dessert for free. The food turned out to not be so great anyway, but it was still better than the Cracker Barrel we were going to eat if our food had not been ready right when we were leaving.

Overall, definitely a nice trip. I purchased a hand knit bright pink hat as an anniversary gift to myself. I am sure it will make an appearance on here at some point...