Kentucky Part 4- Louisville Slugger Museum, Forest Giants, Nashville

We went to Louisville, KY, on our way home from the ark and toured the Louisville Slugger factory.   I highly recommend this tour- it was awesome!  All Louisville Slugger bats are made right here!

 

It was so neat to see the billets that would become bats for MLB players!

All three boys held Babe Ruth's bat, which was much heavier than bats today.  

Marc also held a bat used by Hank Aaron in a game-

For years the bats were done by hand- we enjoyed watching the demonstration-

After the tour we went and drove through the University of Lousville (I am calling this trip a "college tour" as well- we have seen the colleges in every town).  

And we couldn't go to Louisville without seeing Churchill Downs!  We didn't realize, but we were there the DAY of the Kentucky Derby!!  We stumbled across a back street and happened to be close enough to see the horses running on the big screen.  It was a complete happy coincidence.  Apparently there was a lot of civil unrest around this event so they had a lot of security and fencing up.  

We went to a Big Boy diner for the first time-

As we continued south we stopped by Bernheim Forest to see the forest giants.  These giant sculptures are a whimsical, wonderful sight.  The forest and gardens are very nice to hike through.  They also had a lake area designed by Frederick Olmstead's sons.  We learned a lot about Olmstead's landscape designs on our January trip to the Biltmore.  

We also made a quick stop to see Kentucky's stonehenge.  It's a fun little spot in a private yard and is totally free to the public.  You just park in their driveway and look around.  I love Americana like this!

Our last day of our trip was spent in Nashville.  For some reason I took almost no pictures, but it was a great day.  We started off at Andrew Jackson's home The Hermitage.  Because of covid they were not admitting many people and we could not go in the house, but we enjoyed the beautiful grounds and gift shop.  Then we had a wonderful lunch at a nice place near Vanderbilt, and we toured the college.

After touring Vanderbilt we went to see The Parthenon.   Unfortunately because of Covid they were only letting a few people in at a time and we couldn't go inside, but we enjoyed seeing the beautiful exterior.  Lastly, we went to the beautiful and expansive Tennessee State Museum.   We spent a long time here learning all about the history of Tennessee, especially the Civil War and Reconstruction.  It was all very interesting and we enjoyed the day.  :)

We got home around dinner time and grabbed some supper.  I love how Anastasia cuddles up with Marky (and all of us).  She loves her siblings.  

We came home to beautiful, refinished floors!  They did a great job!  

We are so happy we did this!  It was a HUGE job emptying our entire first floor, but it was so worth it.  I have spent all this week reloading our china cabinets and book shelves.  It's like the entire main floor received a deep clean.  We are getting our throw rugs and sofa cleaned and the foyer and den painted.  We are officially refreshed!  Thank you, Lord!

Kentucky Part 1- Kentucky Horse Park

 Last week we had to empty all the rooms on the first floor of our home so they could refinish the floors.  We moved to the basement, but then decided we would rather get out of town while this process went on.  

We ruined these floors by not having felt pads on our chairs.  Tucker and Charlie used to have a little table and chairs set right over this spot (the old island wasn't as long).  They wore the finish off the floor.  

And of course the dishwasher disaster is the real reason we had to refinish the floors immediately.  

Before color-

It looked so amazing as they stripped the finish off.  It really looked like brand new wood!

We left on a Tuesday after co-op classes.  I took a picture of Anastasia sleeping because she almost NEVER does in a car.  I think she slept a total of one hour the six days we were driving around Kentucky.  

As always, I drove so Daddy could work.  He worked in our hotel late into the night every night.  Don't let the traveling make you think he's not working.  He works hard every day!

We stayed in hotels for five nights and every single night we swam.  It feels like such a vacation when you swim at night.  The other hotels had indoor pools, which feel even more special for some reason.  

Having a meeting of the "best friends club".  :)

We found a Peppa Pig game for Anastasia to try.  She LOVED it.  :)

On Wednesday we drove to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.  It was such a great stop!  I had never even heard of it before, but was looking for things to do in Lexington and it came up.  It is HUGE and has an amazing LARGE museum with the history of horses and barn after barn of famous horses to see.  

The grounds are beautiful.  

Julia, Tucker, and Charlie even went for an hour-long trail ride!  Such a fun surprise!

I am reading Don Quixote right now and found this interesting-

They had some of these stack-stoned walls that do not use mortar.  

We drove around Lexington and saw the University of Kentucky and their football stadium and Rudd basketball arena.  

We finally made it to the next hotel, and Annie rode in on the luggage cart.  :)  There were several chuckles from the folks in the lobby as we rolled through.  :)