Fall Break and Bunny

Even if the leaves are still green and long sleeves turn uncomfortable in the afternoon sun, autumn is officially here. We know because it is fall break time at universities, which means Isaac's little brother had enough free time to come visit us.

I was bursting with ideas of things we should do, but tried to cut back in order to make his time here a good balance of restful and fun. The seven hour drive from Columbia to Louisville may be beautiful, but it's still quite long and tiring. And it may be fall break, but school assignments are still due in the following days. So we settled on sharing our favorite local areas around Louisville and just one day trip - lunch in Frankfort and a visit to Buffalo Trace Distillery.

Coming into Frankfort, we pulled over at the roadside vista overlooking the statehouse. How lovely is this city with its tree-filled skyline?

Its handsome streets lined with local shops, and even more trees just beyond.

We ate lunch at Gibby's, a local sandwich shop with a wide menu of nearly everything nestled between two pieces of bread - fish sandwiches, barbecue, deli meats, grilled chicken.

All three of us agreed that it was even better than we expected. Classic food done very well.

After lunch, we headed to Buffalo Trace. It was perfect weather to wander around the grounds while we waited for our tour to begin.

Although Isaac and I have visited here before, visiting on a different day and listening to a different tour guide made the experience totally fresh for us too. Our group wandered around a different part of the distillery, watched a short (and slightly cheesy) video about its history for the first time, and walked through a different warehouse with stacks and stacks of bourbon barrels.

Our guide (Don I think?) has been giving tours so long his name tag has faded away. Prior to working at Buffalo Trace, he was employed at Woodford Reserve. So he has been around the bourbon business for many years and had plenty of unique stories and details to share.

After the tour was the complementary tasting - ending with a Kentuckian's favorite dessert - bourbon cream and root beer.

The rest of the weekend we relaxed at home, venturing out to eat some tasty food together.

Thai (and other Asian tastes) at our newly discovered favorite Thai restaurant - La Que. Below is the street view from the Thai restaurant, perfect for people watching and relaxing on a cool night. Also, my curry, rice and mango lassi at an Indian restaurant called Shalimar. This place is a favorite of Isaac and his colleagues for their weekday lunch buffet.

I'll leave by sharing some spoiled pet pictures. Lately we've been letting Cookie hop around in the living room a little bit. It's quite a big adventure for such a small bunny, and she makes some pretty cute expressions as she explores.

An All-American Autumn Weekend

More cool weather, and so we found another excuse to get out and wander around in it. This week's reason was a car show. The annual Ford Fest takes place at a local Ford dealership and is hosted by the Derby City Mustang Club. As you might expect, most of the cars there are mustangs but there were a few other kinds sprinkled in.

The dealership had several of their sparkling new 2017 mustangs lined up to show off too.

As far as car shows go, it's a pretty small one. That was perfect for us, two people spending a lazy hour strolling up and down the lot, enjoying the cool autumn breeze, the sounds of engines revving and oldies music.

Mustangs old and new, and all the years in between, custom and stock, mixed up and parked side by side.

One image that stuck with us was the car couples pampering their cars. A woman carefully wiping the edges under the hood, a man with a face of pure contentment gently wiping down the side of his already pristine mustang.

I guess some people enter car shows hoping to win contests, but it seems like most are just car-lovers who enjoy appreciating and sharing their four-wheeled treasures with one another.

We filled the rest of the weekend with more things we could do outside. Grilling hot dogs and having a picnic at our apartment community, then giving Isaac's car and mine a good wash.

It was a perfectly peaceful - and now that I think back, very American what with the Mustangs and hot dogs - weekend. But we are well into October now and I am growing impatient for more of these trees to change colors so that we have an excuse to go to the mountains. Shouldn't be too long now.

St. James Court Art Show

I wore a fuzzy white sweater, one arm hooked into Isaac's flannel plaid shirt. In my other hand I clutched a warm paper cup of pumpkin chai tea, its spicy sweet scent irresistable. The morning's chill was locked into place by a layer of puffy grey overhead, teasing us with drizzles and hints of sunshine. And around us, a winding maze of artisans, all sorts, displaying their creations. These sensations registered and I recognized. "This is my idea of a perfect outing."

Whenever someone hears that we only recently moved to Louisville, oftentimes they are quick to make suggestions of places we should visit or events we should check out. For the past few weeks, one name has popped up in conversations again and again - "St. James". This weekend we finally had the chance to experience what everyone has been talking about, and it really was a treat.

The St. James Court Art Show started back in the 1950's as a fundraiser, and in the years since has expanded to become the charming and winding market we visited. Today their website says the event draws over 300,000 attendees to see the works of over 700 artists.

The event takes place in Old Louisville, an area south of the heart of downtown Louisville. We had to park several blocks away from the event, which gave us the opportunity to get a feel for the area. This was our first time walking around in Old Louisville, and we were immediately struck by the character of the buildings.

Old Louisville was the place to live if you were well-off in this area at the end of the 19th century. Since that time, it seems like the neighborhood has suffered a bit from age, but is now quite healed and hip through efforts of gentrification. The website for the art show says that Old Louisville is the third largest historical preservation district and neighborhood in the US, and it is the largest featuring almost entirely Victorian architecture. It even details what sub-genres of Victorian architecture you can see here in their robust glory: Romanesque, Queen Anne, Italianate. What that meant for us is as we walked to, from and around the art show, our admiration was equally split between the artisans' works and the proud homes standing behind.

I mean, look below. What catches your eye?

The metal dinosaur sculpture is very impressive, but that storybook house towering above is totally stealing the show.


































We walked around, Isaac forming a route that seemed the most practical to let us comfortably flow by each and every vendor. Sometimes there were wide spaces with artisans on either sides, other times narrow one-way walkways flanked by booths on one side, and charming homes on the other.

 

For the locals that live in these homes, it seemed like the art show was the perfect excuse for a party. Many fronts porches and patios were filled with people relaxing, and looking through windows we saw children thumping and women floating around with glasses of white wine.

Below was the moment when we emerged from one of the narrow walkways, into this junction of several different pathways, and Isaac realized that we would have to reevaluate his plan of attack. The St. James Court Art Show is quite a beast. His expression was funny - what had seemed like a laidback morning outing now looked dangerously similar to an all-day affair.

One booth caught our eye because of its fun, game-like constructs, and also because the artist was from South Carolina. Just as we were admiring his cheery, interactive pieces, some committee members showed up and gave Jeffrey Kennedy a ribbon for Best of Show. You can check out more of his creations here on his website.

There's a little something for everyone - pens, wood-working, leather goods and visual art featuring famous innovators like Tesla and Henry Ford caught Isaac's attention. I savored the opportunity to be able to meet and talk with the artists in person, several whom I recognized by their works which I've seen for sale in art shops around town and back in Columbia.

In the end, we didn't buy anything outside of some delicious tea and food. But, like I said in the beginning, this was the ideal way to spend a morning. I collected a handful of business cards from my favorite booths, and enjoyed learning more about them all online after we arrived home.

The DIY/craftster inside of me can't help but feel a bit jealous seeing all of these artists proudly displaying their creations. Maybe one day I'll work up the courage and motivation to join the art show as an artist. The hardest part for me would be choosing just one type of thing to make.

Beach Break

A few days' escape back to South Carolina. The drive, as ever, was beautiful and the traffic negligible. The two hour stretch between Knoxville and Asheville, winding through the Smokies, is our favorite.

Seeing family, sand and ocean. I'm not sure much needs to be said. Beach vacations seem to invoke an almost universal experience - the sun burns away worries, salty winds whip away normal life, waves squish and stretch minutes and hours until the only way you can tell the passage of time is by your stomach growling (or shoulders burning!).

Sporadic showers meant watercolor skies and dreamy ocean breezes for hammock naps.

There's always that moment when I recognize that I have tons of pictures of everyone else (but none of me) then try to quickly remedy that - the hobby photographer's curse I guess.

This trip was extra special because it was little Emmett's first time at the beach. It was a good thing that we had a full house, for it seemed that nearly all of those hands were needed to set up base camp for "lil E".

Often it was a small chunk of time before happy, cheery Emmett became uncomfortable, concerned Emmett. Both are equally adorable, but for the purpose of taking nice beach photos, it made for some narrow windows of opportunity. Thankfully we had Grandaddy's arms nearby, which always seem to cheer the little guy up.

Before we knew it, we were leaving Charleston, driving the nine hours back to Louisville. Even though Isaac used 2.5 vacation days, this weekend flew by much quicker than any in recent memory. 

I think visiting the beach on the east coast makes nearly anybody into a morning person, at least for one day. Sand and ocean sunrises are not to be missed, and we enjoyed all three of them.