Trip to Louisville

Does anyone remember that cruise commercial which would air around the holidays & talk about the Tryptophan in turkey which could cause drowsiness...the cure they had was "trip to Caribbean" or "trip to Alaska". It always cracked me up & I couldn't help but think of that commercial with this post title. (I promise this post will not include any more of the random things that crack me up.)

Towards the end of April Josh & I took a trip to Louisville, Kentucky for the preview day at Southern Seminary. Josh is considering attending seminary full time & we are trying to discern what is the best/right decision for our family. Ergo making a trip to visit one of his choices.

We had a great time & Southern did a fine job of answering our questions & highlighting what they could provide in an education. The campus is beautiful (designed by Frederick Law Olmsted...the father of landscape architecture...thanks to my Leisure & Recreation Environment class I knew the answer to our tour guide's question about good ole FLO, Kristi do you remember?). We were able to meet several of the professors & deans & get a glimpse of what life as a student & student's family could look like.

We ended up running into a current student who is also a Clemson alum & he was able to answer more questions for us & give us some insight on why he chose Southern. Gotta love the Clemson family!

We were impressed with the faculty & at dinner had an opportunity to sit with a professor & his wife. She gave me some good advice & candid information on the Louisville area. It was encouraging to hear her positive take on the public schools & how she felt about the town. We also got to visit Southern's president's house & see his impressive personal library.

Since our trip coincided with my birthday Josh had a great surprise for me. He got us tickets to opening day races at Churchill Downs! He also sprung for two very cool tours...one of the barn area & the other a behind the scenes look at the race track facility.

On Saturday morning we made our way through the Louisville Marathon & mini-Marathon traffic to the Kentucky Derby museum. We joined a group of folks for the Barn & Backside tour. Since it was the weekend before the Kentucky Derby the barn area was packed. We got to see (from a distance) Uncle Mo & Stay Thirsty...two of the 20 horses running in the Derby (Uncle Mo made the news a few days before the Derby because he scratched due to a stomach issue).

We were on the barn side of the track & got to see several horses doing their training runs. It was very neat to be so close to the track & hear the horses thundering towards us.

Our tour guide pointed out Todd Pletcher (gray hair talking on phone). The trainer who won the Derby last year with Super Saver.

Back at the museum after the tour I got a chance to try my hand at being a jockey. Josh claims that there was no skill involved in the video game...I think he says that because I beat him (& the two ladies in the picture)!

We had some time for lunch before our next tour so we headed to downtown Louisville. There was still a good bit of flood damage. We ate lunch at a Pappa John's because on Thursday night while at a nice restaurant we saw the real Pappa John & figured that when in Louisville we should pay homage to him by eating some of his "better ingredients, better pizza".

We walked down to the Louisville Slugger museum & factory. We didn't have time for a tour but did make use of their restrooms!

Then back to Churchill Downs for our Behind the Scenes tour. We started in the jockey's locker room. Horse racing is unique in that there is one locker room only (well, there is a smaller one for female jockeys). There will be several races on race day so in a sense the jockeys share a locker room with the opponents...no home & visitor spaces. This can sometimes lead to tense & nasty feelings between jockeys between races.

We were able to go to the paddock area where the horses are "checked in" by verifying their lip tattoo & saddled up for the race. Then they make a short walk around the grass oval before going onto the track. During the races spectators can watch from the sidelines but only trainers, owners, & jockeys are allowed in the paddock.

Paddock area with the famous twin spires in the background. The tunnel behind us is where the horses go to get onto the track.

We also got to visit Millionaire's Row. Great view of the winner's circle from here (incidentally the winner's circle is only used once a year...after the Kentucky Derby). You can see the green roofs of the barns in the background.

After finishing the tour we had about an hour to change clothes & get ready for Opening Night races. There were eleven races that night & we stayed for nine of them. The longer ones had the starting gate close to our seats so we were able to get a great view of the start & finish.

Going to the races at Churchill Downs was super exciting & a very nice gift because let's face it, Josh is certainly more into horsepower than horses. All day we had nothing but horse stuff. I have been to the races in Camden a few times & while it was neat to see the steeplechase races there, going to Churchill Downs was an entirely different experience.

What a fabulous weekend!