Family Vacation | days 9 & 10

Leaving Indiana, we headed into Chicagoland to visit Brad, Michelle and Cameron.  

Hannah (19 months), Lucas (4  1/2), Cameron (12 months)

 

 

 

 We visited Brookfield Zoo and had a couple of visits to the park just two block from their house.

Sea lions at the zoo.

 

 

Nemo and Dory!

 

Reindeer - in August.

Cameron, Brad and Lucas in the goat petting exhibit.

Miss H and Daddy.

 

Lucas and Mommy.

 

Family pic with the giraffes.

 

 

I think he might get eaten and the bear would still be hungry!

 

Brookfield Zoo - 2012.

 

Barn and animals for Cameron's birthday!  Lucas and Hannah were so excited to give this to her.

 

 

{hugs}

 

Family vacation 2012: lots of fun, a few meltdowns, great memories, double digit hours in the hotel swimming pools, many restaurant meals and 1,960 miles.  It was a terrific vacation but we were all ready to get home for normal life/schedules/homemade food.

Family Vacation | days 7 & 8

We toured the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory.  Very neat.  We were not allowed to take any pictures on the tour but it was cool to see.  Approximately 1.8 million Louisville Slugger bats are made every year.  About 3,000 bats are made per day at the factory in Louisville.

 

Ken Griffey, Jr wax statue in the museum.

 

 

The Babe.

Derek Jeter.

 

 

The role of women in baseball - this is for my niece, Abby.

 

Our little sluggers.

 

The world's biggest bat sits outside of the Louisville Slugger factory in downtown Louisville. 

It weighs 68,000 pounds and stands 120 feet tall. 

It is an exact scale replica of Babe Ruth's 34-inch Louisville Slugger bat. 

 

The glove sculpture is titled "Play Ball" and was handcrafted from 450 million year old Kentucky limestone.

 

 

From Louisville, we headed north into Indiana. We visited Fair Oaks Farm in Fair Oaks, Indiana.

This is an operating dairy farm and is Indiana's largest agritourism destination. 

 

A cow carousel! 

 

 

String cheese maze.

 

 

Jumping pillow.  

 

 

So mommy really had fun on this, so did Lucas.  Hannah - not so much.

 

 Brent and I are farm kids.  We understand the life-cycle of animals and plants in agriculture.  Even so, this place was cool to visit.  We took the bus tour to the farm to see just a fraction of the 32,000 cows at Fair Oaks.  Every day there are 80-100 calves born at the farms.  The tour shows the feed stuffs that are used to give the best nutrition to the herd, the barns that animals eat and rest in, the milking parlor and even the anaerobic digester the farm uses to turn manure into fuel.  

Family Vacation | days 5 & 6

The drive from southern Kentucky to Lexington was beautiful. 

 

 

Until you see them, you wouldn't believe the beautiful houses and horse farms in and around Lexington. Miles and miles of fence-lined roads and perfectly manicured lawns and pasture.

 

The Kentucky Horse Park was the next destination. 

There were so many interactive things to participate in. 

Lucas is 10.1 hands in horse height.

 

Hannah is 7.3 hands in horse height.

The Kentucky Horse Park has its own police security.  We were there on a Tuesday and it was relatively quiet so this was a fairly funny sight.  We had a hard time imagining what kinds of things this guy must be watching out for. 

 

This is the Big Barn - it is 476 feet long and 75 feet wide, with 52 horse stalls. 

It remains one of the largest wooden horse barns in the world. 

 

 

We took a horse-drawn trolley tour around the Park.  It was fun to see all of the features of the park.  The Hall of Champions houses several famous horses, including three Kentucky Derby winners. 

This is Cigar.

 

 

$185 shy of career earnings of ten million dollars!

 

 

{im}patiently waiting for the pony rides.

Wee!

Lucas rode Twix and Hannah rode Dudley.

 

 

 

That night, we ate at J.J. McBrewster's. It had been featured in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

 

 

The next day we drove to Louisville.  Churchill Downs and the twin spires is one of Louisville's most famous landmarks.  The Kentucky Derby Museum (it's all in one place) was excellent, too.  Watching "The Greatest Race" was a cool experience.  It is the first 360-degree high definition presentation in the world. 

 

 

The Garland of Roses is presented to the Derby winner and is one of the most highly coveted floral arrangements in the world. 

 

Racing a pretend horse in their very own "Derby" simulation game.

 

 

 

Where the horses are saddled prior to the race. 

 

 

The corridor that the owners, trainers and horses walk through to get to the track. 

 

 

Aerial view of the courtyard.

 

There are 52,000 permanent seats. 

In 2012, the 138th running of the Kentucky Derby, the attendance was 165,307!

 

The finish line.

View of the twin spires from the suite Queen Elizabeth watched the Derby from.

 

 

Winner's circle.

Lucas and Daddy. 

We saw the ins and outs of Churchill Downs, including the expensive suites! 

It makes me want to drive back to Louisville in May to see the derby live.  Who wants to go with?!?!