Day 19

We left Nashville early as we wanted to get to Louisville so Monica and Emily could have as much time as possible with their friends. We dropped off Monica at the Ben Dixen's, who were old friends from Vermont, and then headed to see Emily's college friend Devon who lived nearby. We greeted Devon, her fiance Jason, and their cute baby Kairi and then headed out to lunch at a local restaurant. The first thing Emily and I noticed was the fact that this 8 month old did not stop smiling. She just kept grinning ear to ear the whole time and laughed playfully with any attention. Emily and Devon did a lot of catching up while we ate and after stuffing ourselves we headed into downtown Louisville. Our first stop was the famous Louisville Slugger factory where we saw the GIANT bat which dwarfs the building, searched through the gift shop (of course they were out of mini Red Sox bats thanks to Red Sox Nation!), and looked at some of their historic memorabilia. We didn't feel like shelling out the 10 bucks for the official tour so we soon left and walked along the waterfront, which featured the Ohio River separating Kentucky and Illinois. Devon pointed out the hilarious fact that the Illinois town on the other side of the river had built a huge, expensive, clock to help enhance the look of their waterfront. The problem, however, is that the clock faces out to the river and in doing so gives Louisvillians a great view of the time but not to the Illinois residents who paid for the thing! We continued to walk along the water seeing the Spirit of Louisville steamship, enjoying the mild weather and sunshine. Louisville was bigger than I expected and had more going on than I had expected as well as a safe, clean feel. We then headed to Churchill Downs, where we got to view the track and get a flavor of the wealth and tradition that make it so famous. After visiting this playground for the rich, we headed to Devon's parent's house to feed their dogs. I was shocked to see a small horse running around their yard! But wait...it was not a horse but in fact the largest dog I have ever seen! The dog turned out to be a friendly, affectionate but gigantic Great Dane! After visiting with the dogs and seeing her parents house, we headed back to their apartment and said our goodbyes.


Our next destination was back to the Ben Dixens where we would crash for the night. We had a fun night visiting with their family and Monica enjoyed catching up and exchanging old stories from the Vermont days. The Ben Dixens were an interesting family who were originaly from Denmark, had moved to Vermont, back to Denmark, and then down to Louisville. It was amazing to hear the drawls while the kids spoke as they had only lived in the area for 4 years! Mrs. Ben Dixen was a very gracious host who took a keen interest to us and was enjoyable to converse with. We sat outside for a long time on their porch talking the night away, before heading down to the basement for some pool. I was happy with my play despite the fact that i had not touched a pool cue for a long time! We stayed up later than we should have but a fun time was had by all.