Our 19th Wedding Anniversary Weekend

(Photos by Mike Hall)
Couples like to celebrate big events in their lives in different ways, and Patty and I had our weekend in Louisville, Kentucky, from July 21 and 22 since July 17 was during the work week.  The 19th anniversary is not like the 20th or 25th, but it takes the 19th one to get there.  We like to go to the city, and we wanted an excuse to get out of town.

It was just an overnighter, but we started the trip early enough to make the two days count. Saturday morning we were up, around and stopped for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel on the South side of Indianapolis by 8:30 a.m. We had gift cards from the restaurant bought when Kroger had an extra fuel points sale going on.  We left with just of over a dollar on one of the cards and an application for use at work the next week.  My job deals with getting jobs for other people.

The rest of the way was uneventful as I took barn photos as Patty drove, and I changed to navigator the closer we got to the state line.

The lighting was just right on this scene along I-65 near the Edinburgh exit.

There was a detour and we came into Louisville a different way than the printed directions we had. We had arrived, nonetheless. We took the Main and Market loop to see where things we wanted to go, and looped again, stopping at our hotel, The Galt House.  We decided to get the car parked at the hotel and just walk or take the trolley around downtown.  We were able to check in then and went to the 8th floor of the room tower.  The hotel has another 18-floor suite tower, too.  I took a moment to get a few shots of the Ohio River from the window by the elevator.

We stayed at The Galt House, shown here with the 25-story room tower. At the top floor, see the rounded edge. That is one of the company’s restaurants, where we had our anniversary dinner. Our room was on the 8th floor, and this is a merged view of four photos from the window the the elevators show the Ohio River along Louisville.

We quickly set up camp in the room and went to the main street stop to meet the trolley that took us to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, the city’s biggest tourist attraction. The entrance is a big hit.

The entrance to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory is hard to miss, even on a bad day.

Inside we got the tickets and toured the museum exhibits before the factory tour began.  Patty got a photo of me holding a Mickey Mantle bat, and she posed with a figure of Derrick Jetter.  We were not allowed to take photos during the tour, but a figure at a lathe was a good as I could get, showing the old way to make the bats.

Patty poses with  a model of Derrick Jetter, Elias poses with a bat style once used by Mickey Mantle, and a model of a factory work shows how the bats were originally made.

We got our mini-bats as souvenir of the tour (cost covered the admission), watched a video about Louisville bats in a small theater and checkout the gift shop.  It was lunch time and a nearby tourist booth attendant suggested Dish on the Market (434 W. Market St), a place where we had excellent sandwiches.  We boarded the Trolley to the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, where The Kentucky Show was set to start at 3 p.m.  It is a multi-source audio-visual presentation that I would recommend if you have $7 a person.  The Center is near the hotel, and we walked back, stopping at a fountain in a park in between the two places. Patty loves water fountains.

The park by the hotel had a fountain, which Patty found irresistable.

We decided the pool was too crowded from the scene on the way back to our room, and rested bit and made a reservation for The RIVUE Restaurant and Lounge, the hotel restaurant on the 25th floor of the tower.  It has two rotating floors in the sides of the top floor, with glass to see the view. It takes about an hour to go around once, since we went around twice during our dinner, which took two hours.

The RIVUE Restaurant and Lounge, at The Galt House, has tremendous views of the river, the city of Jeffersonville on the other side.  The two sides of the restaurant had rotating floors so the view changes at the meal progresses.  The interior of the restaurant is very impressive, too.

Katie was our server, and she was the kind of server you wish you could take home with you to serve all of your meals. That would be too expensive though, but we could handle the $140.00 meal.  We saved up for it, and it was worth it. We walked off the meal somewhat by taking a tour the lower floors of the hotel and out to the river.  We made it to where The Belle of Louisville, a paddle-wheel boat, docked and watched it until returned.  Reservations were booked that weekend, or else we would have been on that night cruise.  The pool closed at 10 p.m. and we had to wait for a few times before there was an elevator not filled with wet children. It was another hot day and it was their way of surviving a luxury experience.  It was a long day, too, and we had another day ahead of us.

After a restful night, we got up later than usual-9:30 a.m. we packed the car, checked out and had breakfast at a buffet at the Café Magnolia.  It was a little expensive, too, but that comes with the territory.   I found a way out to I-65 North, and 16 miles up the road we stopped at a flea market where we had been before.  I got a metal poster of a cowboy on a bucking bronco. I can’t show it since it is copyrighted, but it is a cool find.

We went to the McD’s at the Loves Truck Stop for a couple of iced teas and headed home. I saw hiring signs at Love’s Truck Stop, took notes, and later relayed this info to a counterpart who has this area. Back on I-65, we decided to take the long way home taking U.S. 31 to Indianapolis.  We stopped for gas in Scottsburg at a Casey’s General Store and for a late lunch at the Dairy Queen at Franklin.  In between, we stopped at several yard sales along the way, circling to the other lane when we saw something across from us.  I took a few more barn photos, and we stopped at fruit stand, too.

Mike checks out yellow duct tape at yard sale in Crothersville along U.S. 31(Yes I got a roll), Patty picks out with tomatoes, at a regular fruit stand near the Jackson County/Bartholomew County line and a nearby barn was an easy shot.

We were tired, but glad to be home again.  We took a brief nap, and later looked at our yard sale treasures. We did a load of laundry from the trip, had a night snack and I put the photos on the computer.  The next day was a regular work day.  There are more places to see and things to do in Louisville at another time, but not like during our 19th anniversary.

This large chair at Longs Furniture World and Mattress store  at 4108 US 31 S. Franklin IN 46131 was unusual.
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