It’s almost wheels-up time for us after an action-packed Presidents’ Day weekend with Harvey in Kentucky. It’s been a blast for all three of us. I thought I’d run back through my pictures while we wait for our homeward-bound flight and post a few random shots.

 

This is Kentucky’s only Frank Lloyd Wright designed structure. The home was built around 1910 for a Presbyterian minister. It is not open to the public, so we had to be content with a drive-by.

 

Having visited a number of state houses, we feel qualified to speak to the beauty of each one at this point. Kentucky’s capitol building is truly beautiful. This statue of Abraham Lincoln holds court in the rotunda.

Kentucky’s capitol is home to many statues, busts, and portraits of famous and revered sons and daughters. Col. Sanders’ bust has a place among them.

 

When you travel with a garrulous seven year old, you have conversations with anyone and everyone about anything and everything. Once such conversation with our tour guide at the Kentucky state house led us to Ricardo’s Bar and Grill in Versailles, Kentucky, for Ricardo’s famous signature Kentucky Hot Brown. This open-faced sandwich disproved the old adage that “you can’t have too much of a good thing.” Believe me, you can, especially when it’s all piled on a piece of white bread at the same time. We called it “overkill on white.” By the way, in these parts, Versailles is pronounced VER-SALES, not the Frenchy-fied VER-SIGH.

 

Poppie’s wallet fielded a hit at the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

 

There is a section of Mammoth Cave called Fat Man’s Misery because it is a tight squeeze. Poppie renamed it “Old Man’s Misery.” Harvey loved that and parroted it for about twelve hours.

 

Churchill Downs was more fun than we expected. Just being there made us want to come back on the first Saturday in May. Sadly, there are no tickets left for this year. Better luck in 2024 or 2025!

Feast your eyes on this list and keep in mind that the race only lasts about two minutes!

 

We left Churchill Downs in search of the Muhammad Ali Museum, but took a wrong turn and ended up at a stoplight in front of an ice cream shop. That led to bourbon-chocolate-pecan ice cream for lunch. (On New Years Eve, we raised our glasses to making better bad decisions in 2023. This was an excellent bad decision!) Harvey had vanilla. Poor child doesn’t know what he missed.

 

 

We were also pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the Muhammad Ali Museum. Harvey absolutely loved it which was not a surprise since there were lots of opportunities for jumping and punching and all the kinds of things little boys love. A good example: shadow boxing with the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).

Muhammad Ali was such a funny and positive man. He was also brave and kind. In 1979, during negotiations for the release of 63 Americans held hostage in Iran, Muhammad Ali bravely offered himself in exchange for the hostages. Throughout his life, he performed innumerable acts of kindness. Once he saved a 21 year old Viet Nam veteran ready to jump from a window ledge by talking to him. He was very generous with his time and money to many charities throughout his life. He was a one-of-a-kind legend.