Kentucky Itinerary for Sunday,
July 14th – Wednesday, July 17th
Sunday
5:20 Pick up from
airport
6:00 Eat Dinner at home (Kentucky Farmer’s Market Salad)
Monday
7:30 – 8:00 Eat Breakfast at home
10:30 – 11:00 Shopping at Costco
5:00 – 7:00 Buca di Beppo for Dinner
Tuesday
8:00 – 9:00 Eat Breakfast at home
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
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
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.
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