Louisville, KY - final thoughts

We found Louisville the be a nice city with clean streets yet a few homeless people lying along the sidewalks, even in the tourist area (or maybe that was the point but the ones we saw never asked us for money).  We felt very safe and comfortable walking around.  The view of the river is nice and I am sure that when the weather is nicer, there are probably some recreational activities surround the water.

There is a lot to do in town but not necessarily things that caught my children's attention.  We may go back someday (when the weather is warmer) but it is not on our "must do again" list.

There is no budget report for this trip due to a computer glitch.

Louisville, KY

After checking into our hotel, we set off on foot to explore.  We found that our hotel was on a min strip right in the center of where we wanted to be.  We were withing walking distance off all of the popular museums and tourist sights to include the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum, the Children's Science Center, the Muhammad Ali Center and Fourth Street Live.

All along the road, there are replicas of the bats used by famous major leaguers.  We had to sett off to find the one for Cal Ripkin, our hometown hero.

 And, we found it

 

 

 Fourth Street Live was just a few blocks up the road.  The city has closed off the street to vehicle traffic and erected a roof over the entire block.  The effect is that it is now one big outdoor mall, flanked by buildings housing restaurants and retail.  We didn't spend any time there at all, as out goal at the time was to find the CVS and get a few provisions.  It would be nice to get back there when we could see what it is like in the evening.

We were getting hungry so I asked the kids what we wanted for dinner.  We were in Kentucky so, of course, the kids wanted Kentucky Fried Chicken fro dinner!  I pulled out my handy dandy smart phone and searched for the nearest KFC to our Louisville Kentucky hotel.  The nearest KFC was in Indiana.

OK, I know that Indiana was not fr away but somehow, I could not bring myself to leave Kentucky to go to a KFC in Indiana.  We settled for Pizza Hut instead.

On Sunday, we set off for our sightseeing with our primary destination being the Children's Science Museum

There is a shuttle which is free and runs up and down the main strip but, alas, it does not run on Sunday.  It was not a hateful walk but it was a little chilly despite the sunny day and we had not brought a stroller on this trip.  The kids whimpered a little bit but we made it to our destination.

The Louisville Slugger factory and museum was right across from the Science Museum so, after the kids started exploring the center, I snuck across the street for a couple of pictures and to check out the museum.  I think it would be a great way to spend the day if your party consisted only of adults or even older children but I knew that mine would not be interested enough to last through the walking tour of the factory.

The kids split up so I didn't get a lot of pictures but here is Lil' Bit building a structure which she would shortly  test out in a simulated earthquake.

 

 

The kids had a lot of fun at he museum and rated the experience as high on their list.  We stayed there a few hours, taking a break to grab lunch at the Subway next door.

 

After we got out money's worth and the kids saw everything they wanted to see, we set off on foot to head back to our hotel.  Big Boy was rather excited to stumble upon the Louisville Cardinal's team but and then was even more excited a little bit later when the Harlem Globetrotters bus went by.

 

And, we could not resist stopping i to say "Hi" to Colonel Sanders... even though he did not have a restaurant nearby.

Big Boy made a new friend

 

 







Louisville, KY

Or should I say Loovall, Kentucky?  After checking out Indiana, we headed toward out hotel on the river in Louisville.  We were staying at the Gault House Hotel which we had booked for a very reasonable rate through Priceline.  As we wandered through the city looking for our hotel we ran into a giant mass of pedestrians all donning red shirts.  They were clearly headed toward a large event and obviously had to park quite far away and walk.

Well, remember how my husband sent us to Louisville to avoid the sports crowds in New England that weekend...?  It turns out that our hotel was right next door tot he  KFC Yum Center which was the location of the huge Syracuse Orange, vs. Louisville Cardinals basketball game.  The place was crazy.  And here we were arriving just prior to game time.

The hotel has a parking garage which is open to the public and was filled with basketball fans.  We managed to find a place to park and headed to check in.

At the front desk we were confronted with the sad news (sarcasm) that our normal sized room was not available and we would have to be upgraded to a suite.  Not bad for a priceline room in the $50 range.

This is the view from the doorway, past the pull out sofa bed and into the hallway leading toward the bath and bedroom.

The little kitchenette

 

 

I think I measured the bathroom out at something like 600 square feet.  It was much larger than my bathroom at home.

 



 Our direct view of the Yum Center

View of the river taken from elsewhere in the hotel.

Exercise center (extra fee required) with a panoramic view of the entire city

 

Exterior of the hotel and breezeway tot he second building of the hotel.

Louisville KY and Clarksville, IN Jan 19-20

We were trying to figure out where to go and I was playing around with our airline website looking for flights when my husband reminded me not to go anywhere near New England as it would be crowded with football fans in town for the playoffs.  Remember this comment, it will be relevant later.

We came up with Louisville, KY as our destination.  Not being able to resist the opportunity to visit two states in one trip, I did a little research and found that we would be incredibly close to Falls of the Ohio State Park, also known as Fossil Park.

Immediately open landing, after picking up our rental car, we headed through Louisville and across the river into Indiana.  We took a very nice hike through the park but never saw anything resembling a fossil.

View of Louisville across the river

 We found a glorious huge hill and the kids took turns rolling down

 

 

It was a beautiful sunny day and the walk in the woods was invigorating after sitting copped up in a plane all morning.  But, our trip to Indiana came to a close after about an hour in the park.  We were ready to find some lunch.

Budget report:  $2 for parking at the park.