The first day brought clouds and a touch of rain so we decided it would be a good "inside" day. What better place to ensure you wouldn't get wet but a cave? We headed off to Mammoth Cave to do a tour. Side note- Mammoth Cave is in Central Time Zone. If you are staying in Louisville or somewhere close to there, you will be on Eastern Time Zone. Anyway, we were underground for about an hour and a half. We learned that the cave system is known to be 405 miles. It could be longer as there are people constantly exploring and studying it. Our tour took us through narrow pathways and three large rooms. This cave is obviously enormous but I still like Jewel Cave and Wind Cave better. While Mammoth is large, it lacks the ornate stalactites and stalagmites, the "drapes" and "bacon", and the "honeycombs" that the other caves have. I'm still glad we did it though! 28 National Parks down, 31 to go! :)
The following day was another rainy and cold day. What better thing to do in the rain but to board The Ark! ;) Gary and I boarded The Ark 2x2 and proceeded to spend about 3 hours on board. The Ark is massive, to say the least and very beautiful. We had a lot of fun imagining how it would have been to be on board. We bought a couple of very clever t-shirts in the gift shop. Mine is a 40 day forecast of nothing but rain (haha!) and Gary's is an advertisement for Noah Shipbuilding Company. :D On the way home we saw a sign for Buffalo Trace Distillery so we decided to stop for our first visit on The Bourbon Trail. Luckily for us, our tour guide was a self described "whiskey geek". We learned how whiskey is made, how Buffalo Trace (used to be known as Ancient Age) prefers to make their whiskey, how whiskey is stored, why whiskey is aged in barrels, etc... We enjoyed a tasting that was accompanied by yummy, bourbon infused candy. :P I would recommend this distillery and tour to anyone who wants to learn all about the process.
The next day brought sunshine so we headed out to Fort Knox (where we didn't see any gold) to visit the General Patton museum. I learned so much! The man was a genius in warfare and thank God we had him on our side! From there we headed on to the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln, which was surprisingly very cool! It's worth an hour stop, especially if you get a very enthusiastic park ranger that can tell you the history of the monument. Still not done with the day, we braved the winding and hilly Kentucky state roads to get to Maker's Mark Distillery. It is a BEAUTIFUL campus! About 2 miles before you get to the entrance, you see these gorgeous, black warehouses that look like barns. When you get on site and do the tour you find out that these are the storage warehouses for MM bourbon. Along the tour you will see an amazing new room that has been cut into the hillside, exposing a limestone wall. You will also get to see a wondrous Chihuly display! That was a fun surprise as I love Chihuly. Overall though, if you are a bourbon "newbie" like me, I would recommend Buffalo Trace if you want to learn but if you want to see a pretty distillery, I would go to Maker's Mark.
You can't be in Louisville without touring Churchill Downs. I was so happy to go and felt the history the second I set foot on the grounds. Our tour took us to the holding stalls, the betting windows and into the stands. We learned some history of some of the winners and we got to see the Winner's Circle. Such pageantry! Gary and I decided we need to go back for race day someday. :) Since we are such big baseball fans and in Louisville we had to go to the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that they offer tours! We got to see how the retail bats are made and we got to see and hold some of the custom bats that the pros order. One of the highlights for me was being able to see the bat Joe DiMaggio used for his streak. Made me even more proud to be a Yankees fan. :)
Our last day in the area took us to Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. It is a 1,200 acre working horse farm that houses horses, holds horse competitions and seeks to educate the public on what gentle and beautiful animals horses really are. We went through the museum where we learned the history of the horse and the role it has played in helping to build our modern day society. We went to a show where we met 3 competitors from previous races. The highlight was meeting Go For Gin, who was the 1994 Kentucky Derby winner and Point Given, who was the 2001 Horse of the Year since he won 2 of the 3 Triple Crown races and four $1 million races in a row. The way these horses move with such grace and majesty is really something to behold.
Whew! We really did see a lot while in the area and we felt like we still had more to see. We will definitely be back someday! Onward to Nashville and even more fun!
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