Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace and some Harned history!

Today was about sight seeing.  We started our day off in downtown Bardstown, which is in the heart of Kentucky Bourbon country.  We visited the Bourbon marketplace (although we did not sample), and visited a church or two, and quickly decided to move on to what we were really in Bardstown for - to visit the Harned cemetery in Boston, KY.  It took us a bit of time to find the cemetery - it is behind someone's house, and I had been told that it was on a gravel farm road.  So - we put the address in the GPS, and came to this...

Jim Beam's Boston Distillery

So more Bourbon.  Finally, we just stopped and asked someone.  They explained that part of our confusion was that all the mailboxes are on the same side of the road.  It still didn't explain why the GPS thought we should be at the Jim Beam distillery.  Also, the gravel farm road was not gravel at all, but a beautiful, lush grassy sort-of road...

Anyway - we found the Harned cemetery.  My great, great, great and more great grandparents are buried here.

Harned Cemetery, Boston, KY

Bailey and I at the grave of Miriam Comstock Harned,
my fourth great grandmother
Harned Cemetery, Boston, KY

We visited another cemetery at the Boston Christian Church which was full of Harneds.  Mom was told that "Harned, in these parts, is like Smith everywhere else."  We soon tired of looking at graves of Harneds, and we had seen the one cemetery we had wanted to see. 

Off we went to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace for a little history, as well as more stamps for Bailey's National Park Service Passport book. 

Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace - Memorial Building
Hodgenville, KY

The National Park Service refers to the above building as "the original Lincoln Memorial."  Inside of it is this:



Replica of the one room cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born
Hodgenville, KY

Bailey determined that she and I would "not make it in that little cabin.  We need space, man." 

Also at this site is the Sinking Spring, which was the water source which made the Lincoln's decide to build at this site in the first place.  The air was significantly cooler down here, although the humidity did not change. 



Sinking Spring at Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace
Hodgenville, KY



After leaving the Park, we decided to trek up to Shepardsville to go to the Zappos.com outlet.  It was terrible, but someone had to go...

Lastly, tonight, we went to the Stephen Foster Story musical at the Old Kentucky Home State Park.  Stephen Foster wrote the song My Old Kentucky Home, Oh Susanna, Way Down Upon the Swanee River, and many other songs.  Bailey saw her first lighting bugs (fireflies)!

 Busy day, but we have to get to sleep.  Tomorrow is Mammoth Cave National Park - more stamps and a tour of the caverns, then we drive to St. Louis!

Night ya'll!