louisville

TRIP PLANNING: LOUISVILLE

May 16, 2014 by jessica Leave a Comment

Even though our trip to Belgium is on the horizon, we’ve been itching to take a long weekend somewhere stateside and settled on a return trip to the Bluegrass State. We visited Louisville a couple of years ago and checked off the major tourist attractions, freeing up this trip to meander through neighborhoods, discovering shops and bars along the way. There are a few must-dos on our list already: coffee at Please and Thank You (I’m definitely buying one of their adorable branded mugs), the races at Churchill Downs (we’ve done this already, but it’s too much fun to pass up), craft beer at Holy Grale (an old church renovated into a bar), a distillery tour at Woodford Reserve, and a stop at the Zappos/6pm outlet.

We leave next Friday in Dave’s convertible (oh la la). Let me know if there are any hidden gems I need to add to our itinerary!

{images via 1, 2, 3, 4, 5}

Postcards from Kentucky, Part 2

June 7, 2012 by jessica Leave a Comment

Of all things to fall in love with, the grates around the trees were one of my favorite details in Louisville.

The Louisville City Hall Annex was built in 1909 and includes statuary heads of animals that were important to the city’s agricultural history.

A fleur-de-lis adorns each street sign.

Tickets for our Mammoth Cave tour. Word of advice: buy these online before your visit. All of the day’s tours were sold out by the time we arrived. Also, we were surprised that Mammoth Cave is on Central Time while Louisville is on Eastern. We had a lot of time to kill.

But that gave us time to take photos of the scenery. That long-sleeve tee didn’t last long – it was 100 degrees.

Thankfully, it was much cooler in the cave – after the 250-stair decent into Mammoth.

Dinosaurs inhabit nearby Cave City at Dinosaur World, a fantastic roadside attraction.

The beasts are full-size replicas with “informative” signs about the species. The general theme was “scientists think … but they’re not actually sure.”

Seriously. Awesome.

A more culturally appropriate stop was at the Buffalo Trace distillery. I didn’t expect the air to be thick with bourbon and I’m pretty sure you can get a contact buzz from the fumes. (They should really sell bourbon-scented candles in the gift shop.)

Each of these barrels contains Pappy Van Winkle (aged for 23 years) and $10,000 in revenue.

And, yes, there’s a buffalo on the property.

Bourbon was certainly a theme to our trip and we successfully completed the Urban Bourbon Trail. The mint juleps at the historic Brown Hotel were by far the best – and most expensive – we tasted.

However, my Wisconsin roots are deep and I still prefer brandy in my Old Fashioned.

Postcards from Kentucky, Part 1

June 4, 2012 by jessica Leave a Comment

Louisville’s namesake: King Louis XVI

We drank plenty of bourbon, including mint juleps at Churchill Downs.

I almost bet on this horse because of the pretty color it was sporting, but opted for another. The horse I bet on lost, but so did number nine.

Later, I placed a $5 bet on a winning horse and came away with $11. High risk, high reward.

I would have loved to stay at 21c, which is a hotel, museum and restaurant rolled into one. The venue has plastic penguins that change location everyday. The second time we walked past the building, there were a dozen lined up on the roof.

He also mysteriously disappeared the next time we walked past.

They even used small penguin pins to post the dinner and drink menus outside of the restaurant.

Artwork extends into Proof on Main, the bar/restaurant of 21c.

I couldn’t resist a ceramic penguin to bring home. Dave isn’t content with its location on the bookshelf and insists on moving it throughout the house.