My Parents' First Visit to Kentucky

The moment that Matt and I have been waiting for over six months for finally arrived...my parents came for a visit!! We've been planning and anticipating their visit for so long now that it seems strange that it is now over as I am writing this.  We made out this pretty detailed itinerary for their visit while they were here.  We wanted them to experience as much of Kentucky as possible in the 3 days that they were here.  So, first let me share with all of you the itinerary that we made for them.

 Kentucky Itinerary for Sunday, July 14^th – Wednesday, July 17^th

Sunday

5:20  Pick up from airport

6:00 Eat Dinner at home (Kentucky Farmer’s Market Salad)

7:30  Walk at Waterfront Park and the Big Four Pedestrian Bridge [free]

Monday

7:30 – 8:00 Eat Breakfast at home

9:00 – 10:00 Seminary Tour [free]

10:30 – 11:00 Shopping at Costco

11:30 – 2:00 Kentucky Derby Museum and lunch at the Derby Cafe [$14.00]

2:30 – 4:30 Cave Hill Cemetery [free] & Cherokee Park Auto Tour [free]

5:00 – 7:00 Buca di Beppo for Dinner

Tuesday

8:00 – 9:00 Eat Breakfast at home

9:30 – 12:00 Muhammad Ali Center [$9.00]

12:30 – 1:30 Anchorage Café for Lunch

1:30 – 5:00 Country drive to Turners Station [free]

5:00 – 6:00 Our Best Restaurant for Dinner open until 8:00 p.m.

7:00 – 7:30 Dessert at Pie Kitchen

Wednesday

7:30 – 8:00 Eat breakfast at home and depart

9:00   – 11:00 Patton Museum and Fort Knox [free]

12:00  - 1:00  Abraham Lincoln Birthplace and picnic lunch [free]

1:00 (time change) – 4:00 CST (acutally5:00 EST) Mammoth Caves

(Historic Tour Begins at 1:45 and lasts 2 hours) [$12.00]

6:00 – 7:00 Dinner at Whistle Stop Café

8:00 Arrive back home

We actually did pretty good at sticking to this schedule.  We did so well, that we got to do extra things at night like play corn hole when we had time left over.  Well, now that you've seen our itinerary, let me share some pictures with you from our exploration of Kentucky with my parents.  

After picking my parents up from the airport, we came back to our apartment on the Southern Seminary campus and had dinner around 6:00 p.m.  We had a cobb salad that I made with fresh Kentucky ingredients from the Farmer's Market.  After dinner was finished, we took my parents to Graeter's Ice cream.  They loved it!! Especially my dad.  We ended up going to Graeters everyday that they were here.  While we were at Graeters, my parents got to experience their first Kentucky storm, with especially loud thunder.  After ice cream we went to the Big Four Pedestrian Bridge at Waterfront Park in Downtown Louisville.  We enjoyed walking across the Ohio River on this bridge and we got some good pictures with the city skyline in the background.  Our first night with my parents was great.  It was especially fun to see how much they enjoyed seeing the lightning bugs once the sun went down. 

Just had to slip this picture in of the beautiful sunset taken from the Big Four Pedestrian bridge after the storm.  The Glory Holes stretched from one horizon to the other.  It was absolutely breathtaking.  This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.  

The next day, Monday, we visited the Kentucky Derby Museum and Churchill Downs.  So much history in this place, be we were all surprised to discover that it wasn't as "classy" as we thought it would be.  The chairs in the stands were just green metal folding chairs.  I'm sure the expensive private box seats were better, but it was interesting to see the simplicity of it all.  We ate Hot Browns, and Derby Pie at the little cafe in the museum.  We all loved the Derby Pie, and the Hot Brown were good, but very rich!

Here's a picture of one of the two iconic Churchill Down's steeples.  It was pretty hot out there on the track as we were listening to our tour guide, but it was worth it to be able to actually be where so many famous horses have raced throughout the years.  

After Churchill Downs, we drove over to Cave Hill National Cemetery.  This is an incredibly old and historic cemetery.  Colonel Sanders (KFC) is buried there along with quite a few other historic Kentuckians.  We all enjoyed walking through the gardens, reading the tombstones, and pondering life.  I guess it might seem kind of strange to take your parents to a cemetery, but my mom really enjoys going to cemeteries.  No!! she's not Goth or anything, :)  she just likes all the history that's there.  

For Dinner on Monday, we went to Bucca di Beppo.  They have really good family style Italian food. In this picture we're eating a bruschetta appetizer.  It was delicious!!

This picture is so that you all can see the special booth that we got at Bucca di Beppo.  If you make reservations, you can request their one table that is located in the kitchen so that you can watch them cook.  It was a neat experience.  

Since we finished our itinerary early Monday night, we got to play a game of corn hole.  It was Matt and I against my Mom and Dad.  And......they beat us!!  It sure was nice to play on the beautiful Seminary lawn surrounded by all the green and the lightning bugs.  

On Tuesday we went to the Muhammed Ali Center in Downtown Louisville.  My Dad is a BIG Muhammed Ali fan, and we've been looking forward to taking him to this museum for a long time.  Wow, wow, and wow!!! this museum is amazing, it's done so nice.  We all really enjoyed our time at the museum, buy I'm sure my dad enjoyed it the most, as he got to learn more about one of his childhood heroes.  

Here's kind of a random and interesting fact.  The Muhammed Ali Center has the second longest escalator in Kentucky.  It really was quite long as you can kind of see by this picture.  We were already about half way up when I took it.  

Here's a picture of the view from the top floor of the Muhammed Ali Center.  That's the Ohio river, with Indiana on the other side.  

At the museum they had these centers where you can pick and watch any of Muhammed Ali's fights.  My dad could easily have stayed here the whole day, but we still had places to go on our itinerary.  :) 

Muhammed Ali is definitely a man of many words, and this is a picture of just one of his many quotes that are displayed in the museum.  

Here's a picture of the entrance to the Muhammed Ali Center.  It thought that it was a pretty interesting architectural design.  

Taking a break outside the Muhammed Ali Center.  Matt didn't know I was taking this picture.  It was pretty hot and humid the entire time my parents were here, so any shade from trees was greatly appreciated while we were trekking through Kentucky.  

After we left the Muhammed Ali Center I thought it would be a good idea to take my dad by the actual house where Muhammed Ali grew up.  The house is still there.  It definitely wasn't very big.  

After the Muhammed Ali Center, we took my parents for a country drive out to the church where Matt is the intern pastor at - Turners Station.  We saw two Amish buggies on the back country roads, and a doe and her fawn grazing on the side of the road.  It was a really country experience.  We at at Our Best restaurant in Smithfield.  We all ordered fried chicken, and my dad quickly said that it was the best fried chicken that he had ever had.  I definitely have to agree with him.  It was AMAZING!!  I keep dreaming about it.  

Just had to slip this picture in of my Dad and his pickled beets.  He really did like them.  He's frowning because that's all that's on his plate at that moment.  Don't worry, he got real happy once his fried chicken was added to his plate.  :) 

Since we still had some time left over that night after finishing everything on our itinerary and going to the mall, we went to Historic old Louisville.  They have the most beautiful historic victorian houses you've ever seen.  Most of them are well over 100 years old.  After viewing these amazing homes, we went back to the Seminary to play another round of corn hole and see if Matt and I could pull off a win.  We had no luck, and my parents beat us once again.  So, they are the undefeated champions of corn hole.  I think my dad is going to have to buy my mom a corn hole game though, because she really likes it and she's really good at it.  :) 

Wednesday came too quickly, my parents last full day in KY.  Not only does my dad like Muhammed Ali, but he also likes General Patton.  Amazingly Kentucky has a museum for both of these influential men.  So, on Wednesday we took my parents to the Patton Museum at Fort Knox.  The car in this picture is the actual car that General Patton was in when it was struck, which later led to his death.  

These are the actual ivory handled pistols and leather gun belt that belonged to General Patton.  We had a great time at the Patton Museum and then we headed out to see Abraham Lincoln's birth place.  On the way to his birthplace, we passed by the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, and we drove through Elizabethtown where the movie "Elizabethtown" was filmed.  

We planned on eating a picnic lunch at the park at Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace, so we got out and picked a nice shaded area and sat down to eat.  Right away I looked over at my mom and saw that she was practically covered in mosquitos.  She had become a mosquito buffet!!  I quickly stood up and yelled, "We gotta move!!"  So, we did, but not without some ichy mosquito bites.  I didn't think to bring bug spray!!  Well, it's definitely an experience that we'll all remember.  :)  The last I talked to my mom, she counted 15 bites.  Ouch!!  This picture is of the monument built as a memorial to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace.  There are 56 steps leading up to it...one step for each year of his life.  

Inside the monument is and "almost to scale" replica of the log cabin that Abraham Lincoln was born in.  

In this picture, they're all gathered around the spring on the Lincoln farm that is still running today.  It was so nice and cool down there.  

I think we might be wearing out our parents a little bit. :)  But...we still have our 2 mile historic hike in Mammoth Caves to go to.  

I don't have any pictures of our hike in Mammoth caves (The world's longest cave system) because cameras just don't take good pictures down in the cave, but it was so nice and refreshing to be down in a 52 degree cave when the weather outside of the cave was so hot and humid.  After our hike we went to the The Whistle Stop in Glendale, KY, for dinner.  They had the best fried green tomatoes ever!!!  Well, all good things must come to an end and my parents had to head back to hot, burning (it literally was burning with a large fire in the San Jacinto Mountains near their home.) Southern  California.  We had a great time showing my parents around Kentucky, and we can't wait to do it again,  maybe we'll take it a little easier on them next time, and maybe they'll let us win a game of corn hole.  :) :)

I hope y'all enjoyed this post on our vacation with my parents.  

In the Good Ol' Summer Time!

So far Summer has been beautiful over here in Kentucky.  It's been a little wetter than normal, but this past week boasted some absolutely gorgeous weather (with very little humidity. :) ).  Summer time is so green over here in Kentucky.  I'm constantly amazed at how much green is everywhere.  I guess this is probably because I was raised in dry, brown Southern California.  I am learning to appreciate both colors - brown and green.  They both have their advantages and disadvantages.  Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of all this green is bugs, bugs, and more bugs!!  Some of the bugs are actually pretty cool to look at, but I definitely don't appreciate getting bit by them.  Of course the most amazing bugs of all are the little lightning bugs that appear every night!  Matt recently told me that when we are done with Seminary he thinks that he will miss the lightning bugs the most. :)  Of course one of the biggest disadvantages of a "brown" landscape is dust, dust and more dust.  It is kind of strange not having to worry too much about dust over here.  I finally decided to deep clean my car since it's been over a year that we moved here from CA.  I couldn't believe all of the CA dust that was still in all the nooks and crannies of my car.  I honestly don't think I will ever get it all out, and that's fine with me... it keeps CA in my memory every time I'm in my car. :)  So, why have I been deep cleaning my car?  Well, my parents are coming for a visit tomorrow!!! I'm so excited... we've been planning for their visit for a long time now.  We can't wait to show them around KY and all the beautiful amazing places that this state has to see.  So, I thought that I'd better get caught up on my blog before they come out, because after their visit, I will be writing up another post on all the places that we went.  Okay, now for some pictures and stories of what we've been up to since my last post.  Enjoy!!

In order to celebrate Summer we always like to enjoy some good ice cream at The Pie Kitchen or Graeters.  In this picture Matt is enjoying some $.25 per scoop ice cream at The Pie Kitchen.  They were celebrating they're anniversary, thus the low prices.  I just got one scoop, and I won't reveal how many scoops Matt got because he'd probably be embarrassed.  :)  Let's just say he had a pretty achy stomach after all that ice cream, but it was really yummy on a hot and humid KY Summer day. 

One of the things that we definitely miss from CA are the amazing sunsets.  One evening as I was walking I saw this sunset and I had to snap a picture because it sure did remind me of our sunsets back in CA, minus all the trees of course.  

So I've already mentioned that we love the lightning bugs.  (For the record, I've learned that in the South they are "lightning bugs" not "fireflies.")  Here is a short video of all the lightning bugs on the front lawn of the Seminary under the beech trees.  This video really does not do them justice.  You just have to see them for yourselves to really appreciate them.

Look at all this green, you'd think it was Spring, but it's Summer.  I love taking the children that I nanny to the many different parks here in Louisville, this picture was taken at Cherokee park, which is definitely one of my favorite parks and it's right across the street from the Seminary.  

On Sundays after church we like to try to go on a date day adventure.  On one of these Sunday's we decided to follow one of those "brown historic site signs."  It led us to Locust Grove.  This plantation is one of the early Louisville plantations and it is still standing today.  It has been turned into a museum and it is a wonderful place to visit and learn more about Kentucky's early history.  One of the interesting things that we learned was that Kentucky was considered the "Western Frontier" at one point.  That was kind of strange for us Californians to hear being that we're from pretty much the Westernmost state.  It was a beautiful plantation to visit and we had a great time.  

Fourth of July started with a not so American breakfast of potato pancakes, ham and eggs.  I think that potato pancakes are probably from Germany.  We've been eating them forever in my family and we love them!  After breakfast we headed out to Turners Station, where Matt has been preaching, to spend the evening and night with one of the church member's family.

The drive out to Turner's Station was beautiful as it always is.  It was a pretty wet and rainy day, but that didn't dampen the Fourth of July spirits.  On the way out there we stopped to see the Ohio River.  It's the closest thing to getting our "ocean fix"  Once we got out to Turners, Matt started teaching all the kids how to play ball tag.  They had a blast!!  The fireworks were incredible.  We can't do our own fireworks in dry California so I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this KY home firework show.  It was amazing, it was like being at a real professional firework show, only a little bit more scary as the firework debris was raining down on your head.  :)  We loved spending time with the people  in Turners Station, they are so generous, kind and well they just have that Southern hospitality thing down. :)  We praise God for giving us this great country to live in and we pray that He will use us to help turn America back to Him. 

A milestone event occurred for Matt this past Saturday... he officiated his first wedding.  He put so much prayer and preparation into this wedding, and God truly blessed on the day of the wedding.  Here in this picture Matt is doing some last minute prep in the car before the wedding.  Oh yeah, he also had to buy his first suit for the wedding.  We were truly blessed to find and amazing deal on a new 3-piece suit, and now he has his marrying and burying suit.  

Here is a picture of the actual wedding ceremony that took place at Campbellsburg Baptist Church in Cambpellsburg, KY.  We both had such a wonderful time getting to know the bride and the groom and we hope to spend more time with them now.  We praise the Lord for giving Matt the opportunity to be able to officiate at this wedding.  We're also so thankful for the bride and groom entrusting their wedding to Matt when it was his first ceremony to perform.  

Well, these pictures began with Matt eating ice cream and now they are ending with me eating the biggest sundae that I have ever seen!!! For one of our date nights on a Sunday we went to Bucca di Beppo because we had a coupon for a free colossal brownie sunday.  They weren't lying when they said colossal were they?  Don't worry we didn't eat it all, just most of it. :)

God is continuing to bless us over here in KY.  He is so faithful to provide exactly what we need when we need it.  Please continue to pray for both of us as we minister to the church in Turners Station.  Also pray for Matt as he has been sharing the Gospel with his co-workers.  Pray that  God will soften their hearts to receive His Son.  We firmly believe in the power of prayer and we appreciate every single prayer that you offer on our behalf.  Until next time, enjoy your Summer and remember to look around and rejoice in what God has done in your life.