Over President’s Day weekend, we flew to Indiana (we found cheap flights!) and rented a car to drive to Kentucky. Our goal was to visit Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. The temperature was similar to New York, but with a blizzard on the way (we’ll get to that later).
Our first stop in Louisville, Kentucky: Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, one of the distilleries on the Bourbon Trail.
We went on their tour ($12 per person), which included a tasting flight of 3 whiskies.
The tasting occurs at the end of the tour in this room.
Unlike wine, you don’t need to swirl to aerate… in fact, just don’t do it at all.
I’m not a whiskey/bourbon drinker, but I enjoyed learning about the history and the making of them.
Bourbon chocolate! I bought a box home.
The gift shop had so many random things to buy… seasonings, glasses, apparel, and of course, bourbon.
The Louisville Slugger Museum was nearby, and of course we had to take a picture of the giant bat.
Lunch at Against the Grain Brewery and Smokehouse.
They have their own beers… lots and lots of them.
Amaaaaazing pork belly on sticks! And maple bacon popcorn. And beef jerky.
And brisket.
Next, we went to the Derby Museum ($15 admission, discounts for AAA members!) to check out some horsies. There’s a half hour tour that takes you to the Churchill Downs Racetrack where the Kentucky Derby takes place.
At the Derby, it’s all about the hats.
Since it wasn’t racing season yet, they had interactive simulators where you can place bets on horses with a virtual ticket and see if you “win”.
I didn’t win.
He won.
I rode this horse and won though.
Secretariat!
The resident horse… retired for 22 years…
Old miniature horse. I felt bad for them because it was cold outside!
We tried to make it to the other famous distillery, Bulleit, for their last tour but it was sold out. Last tour was at 3PM and they even had to make another tour at 3:30PM!
Where our tasting would’ve taken place.
So we walked around their gift shop.
I, too, would like to journal about my whiskey experience.
The next day, we woke up early to go to Mammoth Cave for our scheduled tours.
BUT they closed that day because of “weather”! Disappointed, we went to nearby Diamond Caverns. It was $17 per person for a one-hour guided tour.
On the way out, we saw this:
We were on the way back to Indianapolis, which should take 2 hours but…
We got stuck in traffic and a blizzard for 6 hours instead.
To be continued…
(Of course we had to have KFC in Kentucky)
life on macro. 
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