Oh, Kentucky!

When driving from state to state up here, as with other states to an extent I’m sure, there’s barely a change in landscape, so it was just as beautiful as it is up here. Trees and green grass for miles–and fencing! It seemed like there was at least one horse farm down every road (not in cities of course). There’s a stretch down the toll highway that has large horse farms but they’re not that common around our area. If you plan to go to Kentucky and your intention isn’t to travel the bourbon trail or taste the food, do make sure you figure out what cities to stay in and the order, if there’s multiple. Everything is pretty spread out so if you just stay in Louisville, for example, you’re going to most likely be driving at least two hours to get to the next attraction if it’s not in the city. We planned it to have our time divided between Louisville and Lexington and even then there was a drive of at least an hour, hour and a half to get places, which isn’t fun if you had a six-to-seven-hour drive in the beginning and have to make that same drive home plus a ten-month-old. I felt so bad every time I put him back in his car seat because it was always at least an hour drive. He slept a lot of the time but there were still enough moments where he cried and expressed his frustration of being in his car seat. Poor little guy!

We drove most of Sunday with only stops for food, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio have Kosher restaurants, all of Kentucky does not so we would just have to get food from a place like Whole Foods. The Creation Museum has a replica of the Ark and though I really wanted to see the museum too (I love most museums), we only went to see the Ark. Apparently, the Ark was built an hours’ drive away from the museum, you can’t hop from one to the other as we thought. The Ark was super interesting and incredible to see. It’s hard to imagine it’s size just from reading and knowing about it. I would’ve liked to walk through there with an atheist to hear their thoughts and how they’d dispute the evidence laid out. They did point out two things that made total sense. The large animals they had to take (elephants and dinosaurs) were probably babies/juniors and there only needed to be one kind of every animal–not every kind. Think one kind of bear, not every kind of bear. Because from one kind would come the ones we have today, just like with people. This should be a must-see if anyone interested in the Bible ever plans a trip to Kentucky. Also if you’re like me and like to take your time and read the majority or all of the signs, plan to be there early! I could use a museum buddy because by the third floor everyone else was getting tired and just quickly looking at everything. But places like that my imagination takes hold and I get so wrapped up in it–I love it and I was not in a hurry at all.

The next day we went to the Kentucky Derby/Churchill Downs. I wish we had planned to watch a horserace while we were there, it would have been a lot more interesting. Apparently, on days other than Kentucky Derby weekend it’s only about ten bucks to watch a horserace. The museum was interesting but probably would’ve been more so if any of us had been super into horses or jockeys. I’d say it’d be worth it based on preference or if you just want to say you’ve been there, otherwise one wouldn’t be missing out on much by passing it up.

We then went on an underground boat ride at Red River Gorge, and it was actually pretty neat. It used to be a mine but then they struck an aqueduct and it’s been flooded ever since. The mine is forty feet high, and the water fills it to exactly twenty feet and it remains that level year-round. We booked the boat thinking the baby might be able to ride with us, but not surprisingly he was not allowed on. While the boat ride was good and the guide entertaining, if you’re more adventurous I’d definitely suggest going on a kayak, especially the see-through ones. For some reason a lot of the bottom lights were out but when we could see the bottom from the lights that weren’t, it was kind of eerie and thrilling. They put fish in there for some reason but they were hard to see without all the lights. I guess they have to keep populating it because it’s so cold the fish can’t repopulate themselves and they keep lights in there so that they don’t go blind. There’s also ziplining in the Gorge so my husband, mom and I did that while my sister watched the baby. Ziplining was fun although for some reason the first two lines scared me way more than the past ziplines I’ve gone on. They actually had two racing ziplines there, most places only have one, and as with all the ziplines I’ve been on, the guides were super fun and funny.

The last place we went to was the Mary Todd Lincoln house. It wasn’t as interesting as I’d thought it would be but it was still good and I was glad we went. She seems like she would’ve been quite the interesting person and most likely quite misunderstood in that time.

Overall Kentucky was fun and I’d go there again because there were a couple things we didn’t do that I would’ve liked to, but I’d definitely rather fly. And I’d definitely make it a point to go to Mobile to see the insane asylum that’s there–I guess it’s supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the nation. I believe you can also stay overnight there and while I’m not sure I’d have the guts to, I like to think I would. I believe in ghosts to an extent, and I’ve had my own strange encounters, but to experience something as an adult I feel would be slightly different because now I’m not so easily spooked.