So how was Kentucky?
Kentucky was an absolute blast!!
This was the first time I had ever gone on vacation strictly with a girlfriend (yes, I have not had a lot of long-term success with women...hopefully, until now). 4 days in Louisville and Lexington. What was there? There was no plan at all - we made it up as we headed down I-64 for 5 hour drive down to Kentucky.
We stayed the first night at an absolutely wonderful B&B in Louisville, The Columbine, which just set the whole tone for the weekend, and which we cannot reccommend enough! We arrived on Thursday, checked in, chatted with the owner, Rich, about all kinds of things from the War in Iraq, to our moron of a President, to global warming to the lost maps of Antarctica. We really could have talked all night, but he did have other guests to attend to and we ended up heading for the Belle of Louisville, a stern wheeled paddleboat that gave us a very relaxing tour of the Ohio.
Friday, after a scrumptious breakfast, we did a walking tour of the old Victorian houses in Louisville. You know - the ones that look amazing but you just feel in awe just walking in (or by) them...and of course, way out of our price ranges. After, we went to probably the main attraction in Louisville, Churchill Downs. No racing that day, alas, but got a really cool tour and the museum was quite cool. We saw a movie about Derby Day...I knew it was big, but I didn't know it was like Super Bowl Weekend big. For that weekend, Louisville probably doubles its population. After that, we hit the American Printing House Braille Museum. The high point of that was taking about 10 minutes to figure out how to put the paper into the braille typewriter. I typed out a quick message that we still have, which reads "Alexandra Johnson, I love you madly!"
After that was the (in our opinion,) the high point of the food down there. We stopped in Bardstown, a small city about 20 minutes south of Louisville to get a hotel. There, we made our way to The Old Talbot Tavern, which was built in the late 1700s. We had burgoo, which is this thick hearty beef and tomato stew...real stick to your ribs food. Southern fried chicken and potatoes...and bread pudding to finish. We were planning to go to Lexington that evening for some horse racing, but alas, the food set us in, and we got, as said in The Boondocks, "The itis." Basically - we went back to the hotel and fell asleep fast.
Saturday was busy. First we hit the Maker's Mark Distillery, which is the oldest working bourbon distillery in the world. Got the tour - the entire place smelled sickly-sweet...you could almost taste the bourbon in the air. Almost everything is still done by hand there...I hope they do well - they were just bought by the same company that owns Jim Beam. We made a bee-line back to Louisville for the Louisville Slugger Museum. From what we heard, if you have to do two things in Louisville, it's Churchill Downs and the Slugger Museum. (This of course assumes you like baseball.) :) There's a bat about 6 stories high that juts out at an angle into the Louisville skyline. We missed the tour which actually made bats in front of you, but still had much fun.
Finally, that evening, we headed for Lexington to The Red Mile, a harness racing track, would you believe it, in the heart of downtown Lexington. This was the first time I'd been to the track, but in KY, you gotta see the horses. I won my first bet, on I'm-The-Goto-Girl, paying off my $2.00 to get back $11.20. Alex won on the third race on Worker B, paying her $6.80 for her $2.00 bet. Much fun, but would have preferred to see thoroughbreds.
Anyway, the main questions...did Alex and I have anything to talk about in 4 days on the road? Absolutely! The only time we were really quiet was the Friday evening after eating at the Talbot Tavern. And no, we're not sick of each other yet. Far from it...I think this trip gave us a chance to see what it will be like once (assuming all continues on this wonderful pace) we move in together. Do we want to travel more? Oh, yes. I want to get a nice map of the US, and put pics of the skylines of cities we've traveled to over those cities on the map.
Our first traveling experience together and it was wonderful. We had an awesome time, would love to come back to Louisville (it really is a fun town, esp. for like a weekend) and want to travel more. I think this is an excellent sign to our future together.
Pictures to be posted soon!
This was the first time I had ever gone on vacation strictly with a girlfriend (yes, I have not had a lot of long-term success with women...hopefully, until now). 4 days in Louisville and Lexington. What was there? There was no plan at all - we made it up as we headed down I-64 for 5 hour drive down to Kentucky.
We stayed the first night at an absolutely wonderful B&B in Louisville, The Columbine, which just set the whole tone for the weekend, and which we cannot reccommend enough! We arrived on Thursday, checked in, chatted with the owner, Rich, about all kinds of things from the War in Iraq, to our moron of a President, to global warming to the lost maps of Antarctica. We really could have talked all night, but he did have other guests to attend to and we ended up heading for the Belle of Louisville, a stern wheeled paddleboat that gave us a very relaxing tour of the Ohio.
Friday, after a scrumptious breakfast, we did a walking tour of the old Victorian houses in Louisville. You know - the ones that look amazing but you just feel in awe just walking in (or by) them...and of course, way out of our price ranges. After, we went to probably the main attraction in Louisville, Churchill Downs. No racing that day, alas, but got a really cool tour and the museum was quite cool. We saw a movie about Derby Day...I knew it was big, but I didn't know it was like Super Bowl Weekend big. For that weekend, Louisville probably doubles its population. After that, we hit the American Printing House Braille Museum. The high point of that was taking about 10 minutes to figure out how to put the paper into the braille typewriter. I typed out a quick message that we still have, which reads "Alexandra Johnson, I love you madly!"
After that was the (in our opinion,) the high point of the food down there. We stopped in Bardstown, a small city about 20 minutes south of Louisville to get a hotel. There, we made our way to The Old Talbot Tavern, which was built in the late 1700s. We had burgoo, which is this thick hearty beef and tomato stew...real stick to your ribs food. Southern fried chicken and potatoes...and bread pudding to finish. We were planning to go to Lexington that evening for some horse racing, but alas, the food set us in, and we got, as said in The Boondocks, "The itis." Basically - we went back to the hotel and fell asleep fast.
Saturday was busy. First we hit the Maker's Mark Distillery, which is the oldest working bourbon distillery in the world. Got the tour - the entire place smelled sickly-sweet...you could almost taste the bourbon in the air. Almost everything is still done by hand there...I hope they do well - they were just bought by the same company that owns Jim Beam. We made a bee-line back to Louisville for the Louisville Slugger Museum. From what we heard, if you have to do two things in Louisville, it's Churchill Downs and the Slugger Museum. (This of course assumes you like baseball.) :) There's a bat about 6 stories high that juts out at an angle into the Louisville skyline. We missed the tour which actually made bats in front of you, but still had much fun.
Finally, that evening, we headed for Lexington to The Red Mile, a harness racing track, would you believe it, in the heart of downtown Lexington. This was the first time I'd been to the track, but in KY, you gotta see the horses. I won my first bet, on I'm-The-Goto-Girl, paying off my $2.00 to get back $11.20. Alex won on the third race on Worker B, paying her $6.80 for her $2.00 bet. Much fun, but would have preferred to see thoroughbreds.
Anyway, the main questions...did Alex and I have anything to talk about in 4 days on the road? Absolutely! The only time we were really quiet was the Friday evening after eating at the Talbot Tavern. And no, we're not sick of each other yet. Far from it...I think this trip gave us a chance to see what it will be like once (assuming all continues on this wonderful pace) we move in together. Do we want to travel more? Oh, yes. I want to get a nice map of the US, and put pics of the skylines of cities we've traveled to over those cities on the map.
Our first traveling experience together and it was wonderful. We had an awesome time, would love to come back to Louisville (it really is a fun town, esp. for like a weekend) and want to travel more. I think this is an excellent sign to our future together.
Pictures to be posted soon!
posted by ValhallaOne @ 23:18
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