Chaney’s Dairy Barn

Our travels this summer might not yet be back to what they were in pre-COVID times, but we did actually go somewhere this year! Since we weren’t quite as busy as we have been on previous vacations, I’m just going to take a look at the whole trip instead of going day-by-day.

On Monday, we left for a short trip to Bowling Green, KY. Any visit to Bowling Green includes a meal from Zaxby’s. Fortunately, we have always done carryout, so that wasn’t even any different from our usual dinner.

On Tuesday morning, we drove into Nashville to visit Cheekwood Estate and Gardens and see the Nature Pop! Lego exhibition by Sean Kenney. Both the sculptures and the estate were breathtaking!

We also drove down to the Cumberland riverfront to get a look at the Nashville skyline.

We were going to get lunch at Hattie B’s, one of the locations in Nashville known for hot chicken, but the line was unbelievably long, so we went to Chaney’s Dairy Barn and had ice cream for lunch instead!

Our day ended with a beautiful double rainbow!

On Wednesday, Bunny and I went with her grandparents to tour Western Kentucky University, where she is planning on attending after she finishes at community college:

And on Thursday, we visited the Aviation Heritage Park in Bowling Green, where we saw not only an authorized replica of Marine One, but also an aircraft flown by every astronaut who walked on the moon!

We also had an early birthday celebration for Bunny that night:

We were up early on Friday morning to head home, but we did stop for donuts at the Donut Bank on the way:

It was a little challenging coming up with fun things to do outside in the summer heat, (I wanted to go to a Bowling Green Hot Rods game, but between the temperatures and the fact that I’m still a little hesitant to be in a big crowd, even outdoors, made me table that for the time being), but we found something to do every day, and it was so nice to get away for a bit!

When we travel, I like to look for fun experiences we wouldn’t necessarily be able to have back home. One such experience in Bowling Green, KY, was visiting Chaney’s Dairy Barn, which offers family farm tours on Mondays and Fridays during the summer for $8 a person.

It was a hot, sunny day, and we were very grateful that our wagon ride from the ice cream parlor to the farm, even though short, was covered!

We got to see a seven months pregnant cow and two calves, including one that was less than a week old! We just missed out on seeing their new robotic milker, but we did learn a lot about how technology is used on dairy farms!

Ladybug even got to help out with a demonstration…she had her finger hooked up to a milking machine, which she thought felt very weird!

After our visit with the cows, we returned to the ice cream parlor for our free scoop of ice cream (a highlight of the tour!) and a look around the gift shop.I tried the most Kentucky sounding flavor they had…bourbon crunch. It was delicious!