Our trip to Kentucky coincided with a heat wave that engulfed the country. Temps well into the 90s each day with high humidity made for suboptimal conditions for anything outdoors. Thankfully, there wasn’t too much on the docket that would be during the worst of the midday heat. We visited 3 new ballparks and got to see a good part of this beautiful state. Here’s a breakdown of our week spent in the Commonwealth.
Saturday
After 11 hours of driving (boo Columbus construction) from New Jersey on Friday, we were ready for a day of exploring in Louisville. Our hotel was a Drury and if you have not had the pleasure, I can’t recommend this brand enough. Everything about these hotels is great and the price is right too. So rare for that combo. We started the day at Waterfront Park, where there was a great playground for the kids. I tried to walk the Big Four Bridge, but that winding uphill ramp was too much work for little reward. Still got my skyline shot (above) from I-65 later in the day. Then it was on to Whiskey Row downtown, which is a great section of the city with historic buildings, several of them now housing distilleries. With kids in tow, we didn’t stop at one or try some bourbon (not ashamed to admit, I’m not a fan anyway). Instead, we visited the Frazer History Museum and got a great introduction to Louisville and Kentucky. From there, lunch was at Bristol’s, where I had a very messy introduction to the Hot Brown. Just a few blocks down is the Louisville Slugger Museum. It was quite busy and I loved seeing all the different caps of fans that were here from around the country. The Tour and Museum are very cool and it makes you think a little differently when you see how one of the main tools of the trade is made.
At night, we made our way to Louisville Slugger Field, a ballpark with a fantastic and fitting corporate name. Home to the Triple-A Louisville Bats, it marked the 9th International League stadium we’ve visited and it ended up being more highly ranked than my initial impressions would have indicated (74 points puts in 4th place for minor league ballparks). The main entrance is housed in a repurposed train station, creating a dramatic and cavernous first impression. However, I wish there were more historical displays inside. The so-called “Hall of Fame” was limited to a few dimly lit glass cases, which didn’t quite do the team’s legacy justice. The ballpark itself features most of its seating on a gently sloped lower level as the 200-level upper deck is reserved for club seating. There is a nice visual highlight: a large, welcoming sign on the façade. While there are glimpses of a nearby bridge and bits of downtown, the skyline views are fairly limited. Big thanks to the team for letting us check out the On-Deck Club, a premium, all-inclusive space located right at field level. That night, Louisville was playing Scranton, and with that came an “Office” theme night. Kate Flannery (Meredith) made an appearance. My wife met her and said she was incredibly kind and full of energy, even staying past her scheduled time.
One of the best between-inning promotions that I’ve seen came when a kid was racing the Bat mascot. Meredith jumped in and put a bag over the mascot’s head so the kid could win. If you’ve ever seen the show, this was incredibly appropriate. As for the game itself, the RailRiders tied it up with a two-out home run in the top of the 9th and sealed the win in the 10th, finishing 4–3. Getting back to the hotel afterward was a challenge thanks to heavy traffic from the Kentuckiana Pride Festival, but it was all worth it for a memorable night at the ballpark..
Sunday
Ugh is it hot and humid. We didn’t expect to spend the whole day at Churchill Downs, but it was that good. The Museum does not open until 11 AM, so we slept in and then headed over to the south side of the Louisville a little before that. The grounds definitely have a vibe as the white walls and gold lettering just can make you feel the history. The Museum does so well to display everything about the Kentucky Derby and how it is such a fabric of this city. Exhibits are thorough, plentiful and interesting. Plus they had interactive stuff for the kids. Highly recommend and allot a good amount of time here. We did the first floor, grabbed lunch at the Café (sloooow service there), then came back and did the second floor after checking out some races at the actual track. It’s just $10 to get in (kids under 12 are free) and it is so cool to sit in the massive Grandstand. There’s enough space that you can sit where you want and we went close to the track for one race and sat in the 300 club boxes for others. Fans circulate the air and it’s shaded, so conditions weren’t too unbearable. Upper concourses are air conditioned and a nice break between races. This was my first time at a horse race and we stayed for 4 of them…of course taking our shot at betting as well. Churchill Downs is special. For dinner, we went back close to our hotel in Hurstbourne and ate at Momma’s Mustard, Pickles and BBQ. It’s a DDD place and the chicken was em-emm scrumptious. Kids have drooled over the Fries on this trip as they’ve had a few good ones.
Monday
The original plan was to visit Mammoth Cave National Park, about an hour and a half south of Louisville. When setting the trip up, I found that there was one decent tour (Frozen Niagara) and the rest we’re either too boring or too long for the kids (or both). Frozen Niagara sold out so fast and we settled on Mammoth Passage tour. I had second thoughts as it really seemed kind of dull and by chance, I thought about the 120 counties display I saw in the Frazier Museum. I randomly selected Hart County, home of Horse Cave and they told the story about how two Harlem Globetrotters came from this tiny town. It also just so happens to have a huge cave right below Main Street. I made a change of plans and we checked out this Hidden River Cave, not far from Mammoth. Definitely better as the opening dome is impressive and there’s a river that runs through it underground (flooded badly earlier this year). The suspension bridge is unique and the tour guide was great. It was a very cool Cave Tour and it lasted about an hour. The kids were terrified though as I learned caves are not their thing. They were almost running at the end to get out of there and I started getting nervous they’d slip. Otherwise, the town was really dead and it’s weird to not see any restaurants on Main Street when you have this primary attraction, so we had to leave the area to get some lunch.
Upon returning to Louisville, we went downtown to the Science Center, which really should be called a Children’s Museum instead. It was fine and the kids enjoyed themselves for a few hours. Dinner was at Doc Crow’s, another good place right next to the KFC Yum Center. This arena is in such a prime location on Whiskey Row as the character, establishments and attractions are top notch. I really want to get back for a Cardinals Basketball game there in the near future. One thing that surprised me….wherever I go, I try to gauge fandom by seeing what team apparel people are wearing when out and about. There was very little of U of L Cardinal red on this trip. The little bit of Big Blue I saw increased exponentially as we made our way to Lexington.
Tuesday
Before reaching the heart of Horse Country, we made a stop at Frankfort. This was a surprisingly charming capital city and we started by going to the Salato Wildlife Center. A great morning stop for a few hours while seeing the animals native to this great state. From there, we saw the actual Capitol building and the inside is a marble masterpiece. I tried to ignore the history of injustices that took place here, while admiring how exquisite the building is. Lunch was at the homey Cliffside Diner and then we went to the main part of downtown, crossing the snaking Kentucky River. Here, we found the Capital City Museum, which might be the most jam-packed and interesting free museums I’ve seen in awhile. They had me at the room dedicated to a local: Miss Elizabeth. The final stop was Rebecca Ruth Candy. Still family owned…the story of Ruth Hanly Booe and Rebecca Gooch is incredible as these two women were pioneers, starting a business in a time when that just didn’t happen. We took tour and got to sample their famous “Bourbon Ball”, invented in 1937 and still delicious today. These are the little things on these trips around the country that I love.
We then set-up shop in Lexington and while the girls enjoyed an evening in the pool, I hopped in the car for another stadium visit, this one an hour to the north in Florence. The Y’alls play in the independent Frontier League and that team name comes from the famous water tower off of I-71. Funny thing is that the tower originally said “Florence Mall”, however an advertisement is not allowed, so instead of scrapping everything, they just changed a couple letters so it said “Y’all”.
The team plays up the theme really well as the mascot, giant slide and other ballpark colors match. For anyone looking for some entertainment, come to Thomas More Stadium on a Tuesday night as they had free parking, $2 tickets, $2 hot dogs and $2 sodas. What a deal! This was a steamy evening at the ballpark with a gametime temperature of 91 degrees and a dewpoint of 72 (heat index = 99). The home team fell on this one as Florence lost to Windy City 6-3. The ballpark is kind of cheap with some odd overhead extension that puts a varied second level further back from the field. Meanwhile the low surrounding first level just didn’t feel comfortable.
Wednesday
We are in Lexington and to get the full Bluegrass / Horse Country experience, we went to the Kentucky Horse Park. Ended up actually spending the vast majority of the day there and the highlight was my wife and oldest daughter Shayla getting to go on a horseback ride. That was definitely a bucket list item for them and the 30 minutes on horseback around the outskirts of the area was perfect. While they were on that, I took my youngest on a much quicker pony ride. This extensive park is equal parts Horse Farm, Equine Retirement Center, Competition Venue and Historical Overview. It really was a great place to both learn and get very up close to these wonderful animals. The heat made it rough, but we had enough air conditioned stops to get breaks. After leaving, the kids immediately fell asleep in the car and we drove around for a little while to keep them napping before dinner and pool. If you want a great meal outside of downtown, head to the strip mall in Wellington, where we loved our Hawaiian dinner at Big Kahuna, then got some awesome ice cream at Crank & Boom. Their Bourbon and Honey Ice Cream is obviously the most popular. One thing I’ve noticed driving around here so far…construction. There’s lots of it in Lexington and this is not the simplest city to drive in.
Thursday
Today was all about exploring Lexington, specifically the downtown area. The LEX visitors center has a cool scavenger hunt to see top sights. It also is a way to keep the kids interested. The city has a varied downtown with mixtures of old and new structures, many featuring bars and restaurants. The tallest skyscraper is nicknamed the Big Blue Building as the Lexington Financial Center towers over everything else. That’s appropriate since this is the heart of Big Blue Nation, the home of the Kentucky Wildcats. Rupp Arena, like their rivals in Louisville, also is a downtown arena in the heart of the city and not on-campus. Right in front of Rupp is Triangle Park and a pretty half-circle fountain. Along with seeing various statues, we visited the Mary Todd Lincoln House, the Children’s Museum and then made a drive to the UK Arboretum as clouds kept things a little cooler.
Those clouds unfortunately built into storms and they popped up and became stationary. I watched helplessly as the skyline disappeared from view in our hotel room with time ticking towards first pitch for the Lexington Legends game. Their social team was terrible with updates and as it became evident that rain would come to an end, I made the decision that we would head over to Legends Field as I saw they had FieldTurf (meaning no drainage issues). The game would be delayed 56 minutes, but it wasn’t just that that would turn it into a long night.
This was a 3 hour and 48 minute game, ending at 11:29 PM. For a league that was one of the first to experiment with a pitch clock and other pace of play rules, box scores show things reverting to the slow times. I understand there were 21 runs scored, but a near 4 hour game for a mid-season 9 inning game is bad. The kids stuck it out though and so did the mascot Mighty Lex who was energetic right to the final pitch. The PA also kept the little sound and video quips going to the end as well. It was an interesting game at least with a lot going on…most notably former Texas A&M Aggie Dylan Rock hit a home run in his 8th consecutive game. The Legends fell 11-10 and that meant the home team lost each game on the trip. I did like this ballpark, as the spires and siding were reminiscent of horse tracks (like Churchill Downs) and the ballpark had a classy look. Getting to the 200s was weird though as there were no access stairs from the middle walkway. Instead it’s a winding walkway from the concourse. Thank goodness the team went back to the classic Legends nickname and the blue/green color scheme…because that rebrand to CounterClocks was terrible.
Friday
Final day as we made our way back home, this time splitting it into a two day trip. We drove only 5 hours today because we wanted a lot of time half-way in Columbus for a visit to COSI. The acronym is for the Center of Science and Industry and it is widely regarded as one of the top science museums in the country. We concur as 4 hours here was not enough to see everything and the kids had a blast. It’s also in a cool location right across the Scioto River, giving me a beautiful shot of the Columbus skyline. I’ll be back in Ohio’s capital come early October, making a visit to Ohio State.
And that wrapped a great trip to the Commonwealth. Three new stadiums were visited and below are the detailed reviews of each:
Louisville Slugger Field review
Thomas More Stadium review
Legends Field review
Stadium and Arena Visits 
