The hubs and I like to take little trips, just us, and a couple of months ago the hubs was reading about this huge farm and machinery show in Louisville, Kentucky. We decided it would be a fun getaway, and it was only a six hour drive. Last Wednesday we left the kids with Memaw and headed down.
I don't know that either of us really knew how big this show is! It's held at the Expo Center, and covers over 27 acres! Everyone at our hotel was there for the farm show, and we found people from as far as Germany and Sweden. There were license plates from almost every state you could think of.
The hubs loved getting to get into the tractors. In what other place can you try out every brand of tractor? The hubs was a kid in a candy store!
Some of the machinery looked like transformers and tanks. Look at how big they are!
We noticed a crowd at one booth, and went to check it out. This lady had a bald eagle! And she was feeding the bald eagle dead mice, which was really icky to me.
The hubs and I put off lunch until noon - big mistake! The food area was ridiculously crowded, and we ended up finding a back hallway with a food station.
Look at that crowd! After lunch, everyone trickled into the show, and it became hard to move through the crowds.
We left soon after, and decided to go see some Kentucky landmarks. Hello Churchill Downs!
At the suggestion of a co-worker, we went down to the Maker's Mark distillery for a tour. Even though neither the hubs nor I are big drinkers, it was an absolutely amazing fun time! I would recommend it to anyone going near Louisville.
These huge vats of mash and yeast are twelve feet deep. And people have no buoyancy in them, so if you fall in you'll sink to the bottom!
All of the buildings are black with red shutters. The shutters have a bottle shape cut out of them. Learning about the history of the distillery was truly eye-opening, and just so interesting. The matriarch of the family, Marge, insisted on the black buildings for aesthetics. And she decided on the red shutters because when she polled the town, they favored red by 60%. Marge even designed the bottle, and came up with the wax seal and name of the bourbon.
We did get to try samples, but I didn't finish mine. I'm not a huge fan of liquor that isn't mixed with fruity sweet mixers to mask the taste!
As a gift to themselves, Maker's Mark commissioned this Chihuly art piece. It includes four angels, who catch the "angel share," which is what they call the bourbon that evaporates from the barrels while it is aging.
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dip my own bottle! We got a bottle of Maker's Mark 46, and it's sitting on my dining room shelf right now. I'll never open it.
These are the huge aging houses (rick houses), where the barrels sit for up to seven years. They rotate the barrels by hand - all six levels!
We had a great time, and I loved getting to see Louisville. I would like to visit the other distilleries in the area, and discover even more restaurants and things to do. My recommendations - Village Anchor Pub - the truffle deviled eggs are no joke! And Quills makes the best coffee I've ever had. Louisville, we'll be back!
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