Brightly Blossom: 'Lou-ah-vul

After the conference ended on Saturday afternoon, Michelle and I headed up to Louisville, Kentucky. Michelle has been to nearly all the states and this was one left on her list. I wanted to join her, because of my temple goal. We planned out perfectly to arrive in time for their last session of the day at 3:15 p.m. We started out on our two and a half hour drive and were making good time. We were about halfway there when I noticed a sign on the side of the road that said, "Entering Eastern Time Zone." What?! I hoped that maybe we were going to cross back over into Central, so I called the temple. Indeed they were in Eastern and we were going to miss the session. The lady on the phone was really sweet though and (after mentioning that at the very least there is a Dairy Queen down the street) arranged for us to do sealings. They let us sit in the Celestial Room as well. It was beautiful as are all the temples.

That evening we arranged to go on a river boat cruise for dinner. We had a little time to wander through the park by the dock and enjoy the beautiful weather.

We enjoyed the ride and had a lovely sunset and view of the city.

The next morning we had breakfast at this great little dive called Lynn's Cafe. They have fun decorations and amazing food. I had fried green tomatoes for the first time. Delicious!

In the afternoon, went to the Churchill Downs museum adjacent to the track.

This was a simulator. If you put your rump down, you would fail. This kind of riding is quite the workout. Those jockeys have got to be in good shape!

Lovely hat collection in traditional derby style.

A tour of the Downs is included with museum admission, and there just happened to be races going on. This lady checks the horse's ID, which is tattooed under their lip, to make sure their is no horse swapping going on.

The track is huge and from the ground, you really only see the horses on the last straightaway before the finish line.

The winners!

I just had to show how little the jockey is. Can you see him? This is the horse owner's family, by the way.

The famous two steeples.

We came the week before the Derby, so there were all sorts of events going on. This was a little festival down by the river. I saw fried snickers and oreos... did you know they are battered and fried?

There was a concert by a Christian band, Big Daddy. They really got the crowd hopping... no, literally.

The next morning we went to another event called Dawn at the Downs. We were able to go up to Millionaire's Row for breakfast and to watch the morning workouts on the track.

This is a glass replica of Churchill Downs. Incredible detail.

The next stop we made was at the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum. Michelle is a big baseball fan and loved it all, except how many Yankees were in there.

Babe Ruth marked a notch on his bat for every home run he got that season.

I got to hold bats used by David Ortiz and Mickey Mantle... but only after putting on white gloves. The major leaguers who contract with Louisville Sluggers have their own individual bats they order with their signature imprinted on them.

A fun little statue.

We had to get out there and use the famous bats in the batting cage. Umm... I have never been pitched fastballs before. I think I only nicked three of the ten.