Sunrise in Shelbyville was a peaceful start to a busy day.
Our morning adventures took us to Louisville, Kentucky on Kentucky Derby weekend - which was a surprise to us! Alongside lots of fancy people with funny accents wearing funny fancy hats, we visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and baseball bat factory. We learned how bats are made - originally from ash or birch and now also from maple. Also, they were originally carved by hand and now by machines repurposed from furniture making. We learned that for a bat not to break during use, the wood grain needs to be almost completely even with less than a 3% slope. Also, bats are marked on their strongest side indicating to batters how to hold them to reduce breakage upon contact with the ball. The boys were gifted with mini bats at the end of the tour. Perfect for whacking each other with. Sigh.
When we had our fill of bats and baseball history, it was time for bourbon. The bourbon factories here are incredible. They are super posh and cater to people way fancier than us. Also, they were packed - with people buying boxes of multiple bottles of bourbon. Not sure if this is related to people stocking up for Derby weekend or if people just love their bourbon but goodness. Not sure what anyone would do with 12 bottles of bourbon?! The kids liked our last bourbon stop - Buffalo Trace - best because they offered a free tasting which included a root beer tasting for littles. My favourite was the sazerac rye but honestly Ian drank most of my samples. Whiskey is definitely more Ian’s thing.
Our first meal at a restaurant was scheduled for today at a hip pizza joint, Miguel’s, on our way to Natural Bridge State Park. Dinner did not disappoint and fuelled us up for an end-of-day hike up to the Rock Bridge. We have heaps of leftovers for tomorrow too which is great since groceries are running low.
The rock bridge ended up being enormous and worth the very steep, very tiring uphill climb the whole way. Hard work but with a big payoff. Wow! We got to see the bridge from underneath and then climb in this narrow slot to walk up on top of it. It was pretty fantastic. What an experience and a great view.
And with that April is over and we move into May with many more adventures to come.
