We stayed in the downtown area which was cool, but it reminded us of Houston a little in the sense that it is a business area that seems to shut down in the evening. Having said that, we found some cool things to see and do. We first walked to dinner around the corner from our hotel to a place called The Mussel and Burger Bar, which is exactly what it sounds like. I had mussels, which took a while, but were yummy. Jenny had a seafood burger, which sounds odd, but was awesome - I tried a bite too. The French fries were also very tasty.
Next, we spent time walking around seeing cool sights...
A replica of Michelangelo’s David - with a mask added due to the pandemic...
A giant bat outside the Louisville Slugger Museum...
One of several painted horses around the city...
Kentucky - the birthplace of Bourbonism...
Cool architecture...
The Ohio River (we walked along the river for a good distance and saw some interesting sights)...
Day 2 in Louisville involved a visit to the famous Churchill Downs horse racing track, home of the Kentucky Derby. This is a must see if you’re in the area even if you’re not into horse racing. Neither Jenny nor I are into horses or racing, but the history and the magnificence of the grounds and the horses made us appreciate both a little more. In fact, if we’d had an extra night, we would have returned that night to see the races that would have happened in the evening.
We went to the museum which had some informative and fascinating exhibits about the history of horse racing. The Kentucky Derby has been going on since 1875, and now it has grown to attract as many as 170,000 spectators in a non-pandemic year.
The absolute highlight, which you have to get up early to see, is the thoroughbred workout. I will include some pictures, but they will not capture the majesty of these amazing animals. They are quite breathtaking as they can reach speeds of up to 40mph.
If you zoom in on this picture, you can see that all four hooves are off the ground...
And now for a variety of cool shots of horses...
This horse was deliberately being slowed down by the trainer and that’s why his head is down. They don’t run the horses at full speed every day as the horse would wear out.
This trainer stopped and talked to us for a while and ended up being from the same small town (Park Rapids, Minnesota) as one of the guests. It only has a population of 4,000, so it was one of those small world experiences that make traveling interesting.
That’s all for now. I will post more about our next destination Cuyahoga Valley National Park when I get a chance.
And Bitey has been doing fine on the trip still. Here he is relaxing with his people...
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