List of Mini-Missions: Your Ideas Wanted
Photo by MorganDayPhotography.com
The night of Novemeber’s full moon, I could not sleep. The idea for the Bluegrass Romance Project came to me in a flash and then I spent the rest of the night day-dreaming of the 52 mini-missions I might complete over the course of the next year.
In the morning light, I scribbled down what I could remember and then reflected a bit: good but not great.
“I’m new here,” I thought. “What am I doing trying to think of all the stuff to do in the Bluegrass? I need to reach out and ask others who have been here longer to help me create this list.”
There are lots of folks here, after all, who know the Bluegrass area much better than I do (we barely just got here), as well as lots of folks- (you maybe?) with dazzling creative power to think of things I never would.
So I want your ideas. Getting your input not only makes this whole project more fun for me, but hopefully it will make it fun for you too. I want you to feel a part of these missions. If they inspire some of you to follow along or join me in your own ‘bluegrass romance project’, that is even better.
Let’s get going!
Please share with me your suggestions in the comment box below. I need 52 solid mini-missions to write out, cut out and place in a hat before midnight on Dec. 31. On Jan 1,2010, I’ll be announcing Bluegrass Romance’s first mission.
(If you want to know what exactly a Bluegrass Romance mini-mission is, or what makes a good one, read here).
Here is what I have so far. Thanks for helping me fill in the rest in the comment section below.
1. Pack a carry on for everyone in the family, head to Bluegrass Airport and go on a spontaneous weekend adventure to somewhere unexpected.
2. Do cartwheels in a circle around the water-tower (bring video- this is proof you do not take yourself too seriously).
3. Take portraits of 5 different residents of North Limestone. Give these to them as a gift.
4. Buy a dance pole and set it up somewhere in the house. Nothing keeps dinner conversation as interesting as this piece of furniture.
5. Tour a local winery
6. Take Lucca to the Horsepark
7. Interview a U.K. fanatic to find out what the heck the hoopla is all about (I want to have some of that fun, if possible).
8. Research and do a book report-a la 6th grade- on Mary Todd, Abe Lincoln’s dear wife, born in Lexington, 1818. (Visit dollar store for poster board and Elmer’s Glue).
9. Study and take the Motorcycle Learner’s Permit test, go on a Vespa ride, and surprise husband with an afternoon at a Mike Wells Racing.
10. Create a local Italian language club for fellow Bella Vita loving Lexingtonians.
11. Take Lucca on a tour of an Organic Farm. Learn more about Seedleaf.
12. Buy a book at Morris Book Shop just because it is beautiful.
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52.
[...] and Adventure begins January 1, 2010! In the meantime, connect with me on Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget to leave me your own ideas for adventurous and romantic mini-missions. Read more about the project here. Share Leave a [...]
1. Visit an old cemetery and leave flowers for people. Clean up too.
2. Let your partner teach you how to shoot a gun. No really. It’s sexy.
3. Buy a half dozen bb-cakes. Share one each night for a week. No kids allowed.
4. Take self portraits kissing at 3 different stuffy historic sites around town.
5. Go to a bookstore and browse the porny book section together.
[...] have an idea for a mini-mission to be done in or around the Bluegrass? Please share it with us here. Share Leave a [...]
6. Take photos of each other.
7. Get drunk together.
1. Make ravioli by hand together as a family.
2. in response to “tour a local winery”, have your own wine tasting at home (just you and your love)!
3. Watch a foreign film every night for a week, each night from a different country.
4. Learn a new French phrase each day of the week.
5. Take a private tango lesson.
Tina´s last blog ..New Home
One of the things I’d love to do… Get together with a bunch of friends all dresses up in wedding gear and go out. My orginal thought was barhopping, but really it could be anything!
Dawn-
I love #2, #3 and #4. We’ve actually done #1! Last Mother’s Day Ronnie took me to the shooting range. Turns out I have horrible eye-sight, but have a sniper like instinct
Sara-
I want to dress up in wedding gear and go out on the town? Will you join me! Should we buy some wedding dresses at Salvation Army?
Tina!!
You had to know “take private tango lesson” was begging to be on the list. I just wish I could fly one very special tango teacher in from Italy to be our instructor!
You have such good ideas. I can’t wait for 2010 to live them out.
THank you, my darling!
• Visit the historic homes (http://www.visitlex.com/idea/historic-homes.php) and if possible dress up in semi-historic clothing for an “impromptu” photo shoot
• Wake up early and drive out to a field to watch the sun rise and have a breakfast picnic
• Spend time as a family making cookies to be delivered to a neighbor
Ualla-
Thank you so much for adding such wonderful items to the list.
How did you know I loved sun-rises!? This will definitely be on the list. I love all these ideas! I have to go vintage shopping for some historic clothing- that will be a fun one! And so will baking cookies, always better to give them away then keep them around the house!
1) Take a dinner cruise on the Belle of Louisville
2) Take an afternoon drive up Paris Pike, which has several world renowned Thoroughbred farms. Beautiful!
3) Spend a day at Bernheim Arboretum in Bardstown. Picnic lunch, hiking, and great scenery.
4) Check out the Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky, the tiny town of Berea, south of Lexington.
5) Spend an evening at the Lexington Opera House taking in a Broadway Live show.
Thank you for these, Tabitha! It is great to get these really locally focused suggestions! I especially can’t wait for the Broadway show at the Lexington Oprah house
I love musicals!
Visit your favorite local pizza place, get one to go and go home.
Have a “friday nite” pizza and movie party in your bed with (or without) your kiddos and special someone
Mom-
You know I love Pizza! Ronnie and I both do. We give this one two thumbs up except we don’t have a favorite local pizza place yet….a good reason to venture out to find one, though!
Any suggestions Lexington folks?
More ideas
1. Find something to do at Fort Knox (more than $6 billion worth of gold is held in the underground vaults).
2. Visit the Corvett factory in Bowling Green
3. Do some art or craft in Berea, “”The Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky”.
4. Go see Mammoth Caves – the United States second oldest tour attraction and the world’s longest cave.
5.Get tickets to WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour?
Also, we need to enjoy a festival! I just learned: Kentucky has more than 700 festivals ever year.
And Kentucky’s slogan is “Unbridled Spirit.” I’m tempted by the challenge to do a photoshoot for it involving something other than horses….can it be done? We’ll see!
1. More about luck than anything, but get a photo of a horse rearing by the end of the year.
2. Shoot the alphabet around town & have a-z by 2011.
3. learn how to make your favorite dessert/a new dessert.
4. Shoot the same tree as it changes with the seasons.
Good luck I can’t wait to see these results.
Marshall-
I love the idea of having an a-z of the Bluegrass! Will pursue that one for sure… Thanks for all the great suggestions. Keep in touch!
Take a dance Class. There will be a Rumba dance class beginning Jan 7th at 7 pm for couples only.
Morgan Knows the details
1. Check the calendar for meteor showers throughout the year. Set the clock for the peak time of the night to view, and wake the family, wrap up if necessary (in pajamas of course), and have a meteor watch party in the middle of the street or the yard. Make it more interesting by making wishes on every one you see! Between shooting stars make up new constellations.
2. On a beautiful day with some clouds, spread a blanket, lay down and find animals/shapes, etc. in the clouds together.
3. Go to a public place… a farmer’s market, a mall food court, somewhere folks are milling about… and sit down away from the bustle. Take turns finding people in the crowd to make up stories for (unobtrusively, of course). Use your imagination to create a story of their lives and what they are doing there that day. Take photos and write down their stories when you get home (or on the spot) to put in a “mystery persons” album.
Lee Ann,
Love these. Thank you. Going along with your meteor shower idea, I’m going to look up where the nearest Planetarium is to give my family a really good look of the stars and heavens.
Great idea! Here’s a link to a good site that outlines meterological events for 2010… good info on the showers worth getting out for, plus full moons, solstices, even a total lunar eclipse a year from now. Enjoy!
http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy_calendar_2010.html
Many many thanks for the link, Lee Ann. Looks like in the Spring there are some neat meteor showers to look forward to. (Better temperatures to lay outside all night I’m hoping too
Check out the aviation museum of KY
Take a candle light tour of the henry clay house
Test drive a dream car or just any new car
Let your husband take your rock climbing in the RRG
Take the cable ride in the RRG
Adopt a dive bar for an evening
Double feature!!!
See what the melting pot resturanut is all about / actually get a fondue pot and live it up at the house
KY has more miles of navigable waterways then any state. Take a trip on a river, in a kayak / canoe / paddle baoat
Go to the original KFC, I think it might be in Louisville
Go antique shopping in the surrounding towns, like Paris, Midway, etc, etc
Go roller skating either by yourself on you roller blades or with the family at the rink
Submit your pictures to more gallery / coffee houses
Make a neighborhood portrait day- just like at school. For kids, for parents, etc. Just give the pics away
Learn to ride a horse
Go watch Elk in Eastern Kentucky. They are the largest heard East of the Mississippi.
Have your husband make a giant swing on one of the natural bridges a the Natural Bridge state park in the RRG.
Plant and grow a tobacco plant / grape vine
Take a tour of the state capital
Take a tour of a thoroughbred farm.
Take the “City of New Orleans Train” western KY to NO LA!!!
Take a coal flight (kinda depressing)
See the victorian architecture in Louisville
The annual Bluegrass festival is here in Lexington
[...] I’m forging ahead. Though the idea for the Bluegrass Romance project came to me on a whim- one full-moon and a restless night’s sleep- I didn’t sign on to it fully until prayers were said and council was sought. There should [...]
Visit the Bat Cave in Carter Caves
Visit Eastern KY during the Summer and ride an ATV up to Collier’s Rocks.
Stay a night in a Cabin at Cave Run Lake in Morehead
Attend Hillbilly Days (festival) in Pikeville during April
Take the fam to Camden Park..an older amusement park I visited as a child in WV
Amanda-These are fantastic ideas! Have you been to Hillbilly Days? I think my husband would like that one. It would be so fun getting the fam in character. Thank you so much for adding to the list!
I’ve been enjoying reading your blog so far, Morgan. Very inspiring! I’m looking forward to reading about the first adventure.
Corinn,
Thank you for reading the blog and following along. I’m excited. I have no idea what the first mini-mission will be, but I know it will bring ADVENTURE
I live very close to Pikeville and yes we try to attend Hillbilly Days every year. I’ve done everything I’ve listed
Amanda´s last blog ..Let It Snow!
Amanda,
That is awesome you have done everything you listed- gives you guys street cred
I’m adding all to the list…Maybe see you at the Hillybilly Days festival this year?
I just saw your reply about the wedding dress idea. We could do Salvation Army or our own wedding dresses
(or I have terrible pink prom dress that is good for being a bridesmaid) I was thinking all girls at first, but mixed company would be fun too.
Visit Cumberland Falls State Park and experience the moonbow in person
http://www.2geton.net/martin/moonbow/index.html
Kris-
What is a moonbow!? Sounds like something I want to see.
I’ve only visited KY but have gone to the Shawnee Nat’l Forest, the Elk & Bison range at the Land Between the Lakes, Mammoth Cave Nat’l Park, and beautiful downtown Paducah’s many stores, restaurants and National Quilt Museum.
Love your mini-mission idea! Makes me long for “My Old Kentucky Home” even more (lived there for 5 yrs. then moved back to OH). Here are some tried and true:
. But the old General Store and “antique” shop are fun, too.
1. Visit the Creation Museum in Northern KY
2. Visit The Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill and step back in time. You’ll be amazed at their ingenuities. Also, a photographer’s dream (old buildings, miles of fences, windswept fields, and no crowds!)
3. Rent the movie Elizabethtown (orlando bloom) and then visit for real
4. Your son would love the Newport Aquarium and Newport on the Levee has lots of entertainment options.
5. Don’t miss the Labor Day Fireworks on the Ohio River in Cincinnati (can be viewed from Newport as well). The most spectacular display!!!
6. Visit Rabbit Hash on the OH river where a dog was the elected mayor for years. I think recently another animal won, though! Bikers love to ride to this town and the scenery is beautiful. The adventure is in the trip rather than the destination
I could go on and on. You have inspired me to plan some mini-missions of my own! Thanks!
You know, if KY was my state I’d see if some agency like a state visitors and conventions bureau would be interested in this blog. If you are creative enough, there might be $ involved for such a great compilation of things to do.
http://www.visitlex.com/whattodo/topten.php
It’s all I got.
I could just wait until tomorrow to give you my ideas, but what the hey
Hope it helps!
1) Visit Mammoth Caves
Pack a picnic lunch and enjoy it with the family in Gratz Park.
2) Visit Dinosaur World, near the caves.
3) Take a trip to the Ky State Fair and enjoy the rides and food.
4) Tour a bourbon distillery, I highly recommend Buffalo Trace’s Hardhat Tour.
5) Wander the grounds of the famous castle on Versailles Road (if they let you) or book a room!
6) Browse the Woodland Art fair in August, buy something made by a local artist.
7)Attend Gallery Hop (upcoming dates Feb 19 and April 16)
9)Attend any event during the World Equestrian Games.
10) Shake your booty and watch some drag at the Bar Complex or Pulse.
11) Watch a live show at Buster’s
12) Attend a Rollergirls of Central Kentucky roller derby practice or go roller skating at Champs.
13) Visit the state capital in Frankfort.
14) Visit the Florence Mall (Y’all!)
15) Eat cheese fries at The Ho on UK’s campus.
16) Make bourbon balls or derby pie with the family. Then share them with friends!
17)Go to Open Studio in December on UK’s campus and browse the ceramics bowl sale!
18) Take a day in Louisville, visit 21C HotelMuseum, Kentucky Glassworks and the Louisville Slugger Museum.
19) Bring a book or sketch pad and relax under a tree at the Arboretum.
20) If you are feeling artistically inclined, take a workshop lead by a local artist.
Laurie-
These are some of the finest suggestions yet!
THanks so much for adding them to the list. I’m especially excited about the seeing the Rollergirls and learning how to make some Bourbon balls!
On the Elizabethtown thing, that movie was actually shot in Versailles, which I can see you have already been to. Funny, because, I’m from Etown and it looks nothing like Versailles!! These Hollywood guys are too much!
I don’t think anyone has listed the Bourbon Trail. Definately something I have been wanting to do. I found your site on Megan Smith’s blog. This is such a great idea! My husband is from a different state and there is so much that we have not experienced even thought I have lived here my whole life. Can’t wait to see the mini-missions for the rest of the year.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this…Try out spalding donuts for breakfast. Down on winchester road by the old Big Ass Fan Co. Only the BEST donuts in Lexington, or anywhere! Get there early, they go fast.
Hi Morgan,
Here are some romantic mini-missions that are fun, exciting and inexpensive:
#1 – Rent a raft and float down a calm river. The world looks different when you’re floating by.
#2 – Rent a canoe and paddle on a local lake. You’ll feel far away from the world were most people can reach you.
#3 – Go to an ethnic restaurant and try a new type of food (Malaysian food is delicious).
#4 – Go for a romantic weekend getaway in a nearby town. You don’t have to travel far away (i.e. Italy) to be secluded & private.
#5 – Since you’re from Portland, go for a walk along the river or around a lake with your honeybunch. A forest walk would be good too.
#6 – Go for a scenic drive in the National Bridge State Park.
#7 – When was the last time you & your honeybunch went for a bike ride?
#8 – Take a massage course together.
#9 – If your honeybunch has a personal hobby, ask him to introduce you to it. Just make clear that this is just an introduction – one time only. Also make clear that there should be no competing, showing-off or any further commit to attend.
#10 – Introduce your honeybunch to one of your personal hobbies. Be patient, encouaging and show him how much you enjoy doing it. Make clear that he doesn’t have to understand why you like it but that you like doing it.
#11 – Surprise yourself and do something that you though you & your honeybunch weren’t capable of doing. Nothing physically exerting (i.e. hang-gliding), nothing scary (i.e bungee jumping) but how about… taking a Italian language course or maybe doing an ATV tour?
All the best!
Greg,
)
These are such great suggestions! I’m looking forward to when the weather heats up– really want to rent a canoe. I think that would be a beautiful photoshoot too.