You always plan a vacation with perfect weather in mind. This tends to not include the hottest day of the year or a meandering tropical storm. But if this happens, you enjoy yourself anyways because you’re on vacation. So we did.
Like many cities trying to attract people downtown at night, Louisville has a First Friday event, complete with trolley rides, air-conditioned shops, and art gallery openings. But what really made the 100+ degree weather bearable were the generous pours of Buffalo Trace bourbon on the rocks. Whether drawn more by art or bourbon, we don’t know, but people flocked to downtown Louisville on Friday September 2 as evidenced by our 2+ hour wait at the Mexican-Southern fusion restaurant, Mayan Cafe. The wait was made enjoyable by mozzarella sticks from a grilled cheese truck and local brews and friendly people at Bluegrass Brewing Company. Yes, we took the trolley home.
Within 48 hours, the temperature dropped about 48 degrees, and we were about 48 miles away in the heart of Bourbon country. In rural Kentucky, there are pretty much 2 kinds of places open on Sundays – churches and bourbon distilleries. We frequented the latter. The 6 distilleries that we visited over 2 days are not especially near each other, but they are connected by 2 lane roads lined with rolling pastures, trees, and plenty of horses. We had envisioned sipping bourbon at the end of the day on the veranda of our centuries old inn, but the stormy weather did not cooperate. Instead, we sipped bourbon in antique wing chairs. The end result was the same. We slept very soundly.
Regardless of the weather, if you have a few days to spare, there are many worse places to spend it than Kentucky. If Pittsburgh hadn’t already stolen our hearts, we might even look into real estate in Louisville.
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