My Big Kentucky Vacation Part 2: It's All In the Name

Looavul. Luhvul. Loueville. Looaville. Looeyville. Lewisville? We had tons of fun for three nights in Louisville, the city that makes fun of its name.

No visit is complete without a tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. We watched as they made their famous bats that come from trees in a Pennsylvania forest. They make about 3,000 bats per day. For every tree cut down, they plant 4 new ones.  Bats are made from white ash and maple trees. Every major league player that uses their bats has a specific model designed just for that individual, which I found interesting.

There is also a nice museum with a lot of baseball history and paraphernalia.

Babe Ruth's notched bat.

We also visited the 21C Hotel, which is both a modern art museum and a hotel. This piece was a small room that you looked into, covered in silk flowers, floral dresses, and other objects of artifice. It's a memorial to excess and took 23 years for the artist to create. Sensory overload!

This sculpture represents a person in quarantine during the pandemic. I especially liked the poop emoji mug!

We took a 90 minute trolley ride around town. There are 45 blocks of Victorian houses in Louisville. Some are restored to their full beauty, like this one. Many are dilapidated and have become student housing.

The nicest homes were in St. James Court. One of the homes is owned by a DuPont. That was the only name I recognized.

The trolley's only stop where you could get off and explore was Churchill Downs. In the front, the horse Barbaro is buried. He won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, but sadly broke his leg in his next race, which ended his racing career and ultimately led to his death.

We passed by the University of Louisville, where this building is a miniature Monticello.

The following day, we did a  4 hour City Taste Tour in this souped up van. As you can see, there was a cabinet full of bourbon. The business is run by three women who either drive the van or act as the hostess/tour guide. We stopped at 5 different locations and there were various Louisville food items that we ate along the way. While neither my husband nor I like bourbon, we did enjoy the food and other drinks offered. I did dip my tongue into some of the flavored bourbons offered (you receive a plastic shot glass that is only partially filled) like cherry, vanilla, chocolate/mint. Nope, I still don't like bourbon.

We stopped at Churchill Downs, where we were given derby hats to pose with and derby pie with a miniature mint julep afterwards. The pie was delicious! It's similar to a chocolate pecan pie.

After a stop on Whiskey Row, we received a piece of 'hot brown' pizza and a taste of Kentucky bourbon barrel beer. My husband had tried a hot brown the night before. It's toast topped with turkey, ham, and bacon and covered in Mornay cheddar sauce. It's not something I would eat, but the pizza was very good.

The tour took us across the Ohio River and into Jeffersonville, Indiana. We visited Schimpff's Confectionery, a historic candy shop begun in 1891. It was a step back in time.

Another stop was at the Falls of the Ohio State Park. The statue commemorates Lewis & Clark, as this was where they met up with their expedition.

Later that evening, we had dinner at a brewery that was inside the minor league Louisville Slugger Field. Unfortunately, the team was playing away the week we were there.

Overall, we loved Louisville. Beautiful architecture and felt like a southern town, even though we were only 6 hours away from home.

Have you been to Louisville or do you have a favorite southern city?