On Saturday, May 31st, Chris and I voluntarily set our alarm clock for 5 AM and sprang out of bed to shower before heading to the airport with nothing more than my purse and his wallet. Oh - and our boarding passes, of course!
After a short ride on a little American Eagle jet, we landed in Louisville, Kentucky - home to FAR more than just bluegrass!
We collected our rental car and using "Lola", our GPS, we browsed local attractions to determine where to head. We got as far as Walgreen's.
Ok, I was hungry, so we stopped in and loaded up on snacks for the day. The locals were...less than helpful. They suggested that we go to the mall when we asked about attractions. Um, no.
Hopping back in the car, "Lola" directed us down to the waterfront of the Ohio River, which separates Kentucky from Indiana. PRETTY!
Don't we look like we're having fun? We walked around the park for about an hour and a half.
While we were there, we watched a reeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllly long train make it's way into KY from IN.
After wandering and walking and sitting for awhile to enjoy a nice little swing in the trees, we headed off towards downtown, stopping along the way to capture this funny sign:
Look! We stopped to pose again! We put the IN in Indiana, which is to our backs.
I distract easily, and we had to pause before moving on. De Plane! De Plane!
As we continued to amble our way downtown, we came across the Belle of Louisville, which takes passengers out into the river for meals and parties. What a neat ship!
Our journey took us to the beginning of Fourth Street, where we caught the Trolley, to take us down to the restaurant and shopping area.
Like tourist areas in many towns, we were immediately greeted with...
We resumed our walking journey (I think we covered about 5 miles, total, that day) and visited cute stores along the way...before coming to the local Visitors Center, where Chris got up close and personal with the Colonel.
We were in Louisville, not Cincinnati, but I had to think about Ron White when we passed by Skyline Chili.
After lunch, we headed back down to the waterfront, making our way slowly back to the rental car. More bridges! More Belle!
We got back in our car and went off in search of more sights to see. Shortly, we came across Louisville Slugger field - pretty neat!
Intrigued, we went off in search of the Louisville Slugger Factory.
Since we were right on the board, we decided to hop (ok, drive) over the river to visit the Indiana towns of Jeffersonville and Clarksville.
We turned down the road paralleling the river, and quickly came upon the CUTEST little ice cream shop around - so of course, we stopped and enjoyed!
We wanted down to the Indiana side of the Ohio waterfront, mindful of signs that warned us to run quickly if a loud horn sounded. Looking at the dam on the river, we understood that the water would probably beat us back to the road if that ever actually happened.
We retreated to a park down the road and snapped a picture of the Louisville skyline - both with and without ourselves as models.
We jumped back into the car and headed back across the river to Kentucky.
After consulting with "Lola", we headed to the most famous horse racing track in America - wish Dad could have been with us to see!
We weren't willing to pay $10 just to pull in the parking lot, so we instead captured one more picture (hey, I like my company!) and headed off to our next destination.
Apparently, Thomas Edison once lived in Louisville, KY. For like six minutes. But, by God, there's a house dedicated to him there.
Our time in Louisville dwindled swiftly and we headed back to the airport for our flight home. Alas - we were offered First Class. Why is that a bad thing? Well, as an employee, I and my companions have to be in business dress to ride up front. Our nomadic day had dictated jeans and sneaks instead of khakis and loafers...so we gave up our premium seats (luckily, a pair of soldiers got them) and road back in steerage class.
Faced with going home or enjoying one last meal out, we headed into Fort Worth once we were back in Texas, where I got to treat Chris to his first trip to Joe Garcia's, a most excellent Mexican restaurant/bar near the Stockyards. After a 45-minute wait for a table (tiring after a long day spent walking) and a scrumptious meal, we finally called it a night.
What a fun mini-vacation! Hope you enjoyed following along!
Thanks for sharing your quick trip, Tiff--looks like y'all had a great time. Nice big relaxed smiles. Enjoy your "couple-time" while you still can :-)Hubby and I took a trip to Disneyworld when Kidlet was 17 weeks in-utero and it proved to be a fabulous vacation, though she didn't like riding cross-country in the plane...kicked me the whole way.
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