Like A BriefCase: Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky!

Last Thursday morning we woke up early early early.
We drove to Jesse's brother's apartment in Baltimore to drop off our car and had him drop us off at the airport. By 10:30 AM, we were in our rental car in Louisville, KY!

It was a bit rainy so we stopped by a barbecue place called Red State about 15 minutes from our hotel in Lexington. The food was pretty good, but I don't think it was as amazing as TripAdvisor said it would be. I got the pulled pork and Jesse got the beef brisket. Afterwards we decided to go shopping (I needed some face primer) at the "BIGGEST MALL IN KENTUCKY". Um. It was a tad small to be quite honest. But it suited our needs, so we walked around until we basically couldn't walk anymore because we were so tired.

Rainy day, but beautiful horse farms everywhere.

Pulled pork, potato salad, and beer cheese grits

We checked into our hotel and laid around for over 3 hours. We were tired.

Finally we got up and went to enjoy a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Saul Good in downtown Lexington. And it was delicious. Jesse got the chicken and waffles and I got a steak sandwich. Plus we got southwest dip to share. Yum.

Yum.

Friday morning, we woke up and decided to check out the Mary Todd Lincoln house. It was so interesting but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. Jesse and I both enjoy history and learning about our country, so this was the perfect one hour tour. We had lunch at a fast food place called Zaxby's that I had heard about from a friend who visited the south many years ago. There aren't any Zaxby's where I live, so I knew we had to see what the fuss was about. It was good! I don't know if it was better or worse than Chik-Fil-A, but definitely filled our lunch craving.

It was a gorgeous day and the house was so beautiful.

Zaxby's!

After lunch we headed over to Keeneland. I don't know if you know about Keeneland (I didn't) but it's kind of a big deal. There were thousands of people there, mainly getting drunk, but I think some actually enjoyed betting and watching the races. We met up with some of our friends (whose sister/daughter was getting married that Saturday, and was the main reason we went to Kentucky). I had fun. Sort of. I don't think I'm all that into horse racing. But let me tell you, the track and surrounding areas were beautiful. And for $5 a pop (or free if you're military!) it was worth it just to see the "big deal" of Kentucky.

Little statue outside the gift shop.

This doesn't even come close to capturing just how beautiful the grounds were.

Me and my wonderful husband.

We only stayed at Keeneland for about an hour, because we just weren't too interested in watching horses race. We headed over to the Town Branch Distillery (where we also got in for free, I may just move to Kentucky to take advantage of the great military discounts) to taste their beer and bourbon. Now, I'm not much of a beer or bourbon drinker, but hell, I was on vacation. (plus not pregnant) There were 5 beers to try and we tried them all, except for the IPA because, ew. Jesse thoroughly enjoyed all of them, especially the bourbon barrel ale. That seemed to be a huge hit with everyone in our group for the entire trip. He also enjoyed the bourbons, and I enjoyed the tour. I'm not a big drinker but I tried!

Town Branch Distillery

What will eventually become bourbon. It just looks nasty now though.

These horses were everywhere and all decorated differently.

The man taking our picture was a "professional in a past life."

Jesse enjoying the bourbon.

One of the many, many barrels we saw on our trip.

That night we headed over to the Village Idiot for dinner (which was deelish) and then to the Joseph-Beth bookstore, which is really like a big Borders, but we don't have Borders anymore. It was pretty expensive, but I had a good time just looking at all the books, especially the cookbooks.