The Travel Adventures

For a week, I am going to depart from stories of Claire and give you a glimpse into my travel journal! Today is the first day of my many travel adventures throughout August, September and October. I haven't had to travel much at all this summer, so we have been gearing up for a travel-heavy fall.

First, last night (Wednesday), we met Aunt Ang and Drew at exit 126 off of I-40. This is half-way between Paris, TN and Fairview, TN. When I travel for a weekend event, Angela takes Claire for Wednesday night - Thursday and my mom and dad take her through Saturday. When we arrived at the truck stop and Aunt Ang pulled up, Claire grabbed her blanket and her moo-ee (movie/DVD player) and headed to her van. So much for the bitter-sweet goodbyes!

Today, I headed out to Louisville, KY for an event. I will return home on Saturday night and fly out for New England on Sunday afternoon. But let's not rush ahead. We've had a fun-filled day in Louisville today.

As most people know, I am a Kentucky girl, born and bred! However, Louisville was never one of our destination cities. We went to Louisville most every November when I was in middle and high school to watch our Mayfield Cardinal football team compete in the state championship. I remember going to Louisville when I was a little younger to watch my sister play in softball tournaments, but I have never experienced much of Louisville.

Today, I became a tourist in my home state. First, we ate lunch at Lynn's Paradise Cafe. Rich, one of our long-standing event team members is one of those people that you love to have on a trip. He is always up on the trendy things from music (he called it early that Knarls Barclay's "Crazy" would be the summer hit of 2006), technology, cool photography and especially restaurants. He watches Food Network and saw that Bobby Flay spotlighted this Louisville hang-out. Well, if you ever want to experience eclectic, Lynn's Paradise Cafe is the place for you. But it is also the place for delicious breakfast, wonderful KY Hot Browns, sweet potatoe fries with cinnamon and my choice today, Fried Green Tomatoe BLT (and I hate tomatoes).

After Lynn's, we did go to the event venue and do a little bit of work. After set up, our friend and event "director of security" arranged for us to have a private tour of Churchill Downs - the home of the Kentucky Derby. I was excited but not at all prepared for the type of tour we received. Our connection for the tour was Churchill Downs Director of Security, Charles. He showed us the typical highlights, a little Q/A with the head of the media area and then a trip down to the original Churchill Downs area. At this point, we were on the ground level and a stones throw from the track and the winner's circle. Our new friend Charles said, "Let's sneak out across the track and get you all a picture in the winner's circle." Besides the excitement of doing something wrong (but we were with the head of security) and the excitement of being in the Churchill Downs Winner Circle where ONLY the KY Derby winner is allowed - this KY girl was about to pee on herself!!! (Just kidding - if you know me well, you know that I am a pro at holding it).

But it was a fun-filled day of basking in my KY heritage. Next stop - back to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for breakfast (I know, when you find something you like, why mess with it!)

I miss you Claire! Sleep tight and I can't wait to see your new haircut!!!!