Vacation 2011, day 2

Day 2 of our vacation was ON Father's Day!

We had celebrated the week before in Neenah, but it was still special to honor Andy on the actual day!
We woke up, though, in a horrible storm. The winds were just fierce and upon checking the radar, saw we were already in a tornado watch AND there was a giant band of red weather coming our way. We were a little concerned with this....we had no basement to hide in, our cottage was 1/2 on stilts, and we had outdoor plans for the day!
Day 2's weather marked the beginning of Andy's lesson for the trip: God is in control, all the time. In fact, by the end of the trip, it had become a game...and the final score for the weather game was God: 8; Andy: 0. We NEVER had to change our plans because of the weather and nearly everyday, there was some threat of rain/storms/hail etc.

After hemming about what to do because of this storm, Andy said "Even if they don't race the horses, we're going to Churchill Downs! Let's go!" As we drove into Louisville, suddenly the sun started peeking from behind the clouds and the weather was beautiful the rest of the day!

Above, you will see the family standing outside of Churchill Downs, famous for the Kentucky Derby.

Do any of you know Andy and I used to be really into horse racing? We LOVED watching the races on tv and then while living in Arkansas, went to a horse racing track one weekend. After we all watched the movie Secretariat this past winter, we knew that if we were ever in the area, we'd have to see WHERE the horses race the Kentucky Derby!

We went through the Kentucky Derby museum and a great tour of Churchill Downs.
The Kentucky Derby started in 1875 when there were just 37 states in the USA, and the race horses are always just 3 yr old horses!

In 137 runnings of the Kentucky Derby, only 11 horses have won the triple crown (winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes).

Horse racing is actually the longest continual run sport in the USA! Who would have guessed?!

When we took the tour, we had a great tour guide who has spent many years hanging out at Churchill Downs. He actually gave tips on HOW to get into the Kentucky Derby since tickets are so hard to come by! He teared up a bit, telling stories of races that he had witnessed. You could tell that horse racing was a special hobby to him.

Above are some of the outside photos Andy captured....Colin saw the track and yelled "SAND! I play in it?!?!?!" The bottom photo is Pat Day, who was the jockey that holds the all time race winning record at Churchill Downs. He is known by saying that he always wished he was 5 feet tall (He is 4'8") and when they made the statue of him, they made it 5 feet tall--he got his wish, sort of!

Some other interesting facts we learned:
The race horses have a tatoo in their mouths that identifies them on race day; to verify the correct horse will be racing.

Secretariat holds the record for fastest race time, ever. He lived 19 years and when he died, they found the size of his heart to be much larger than normal--experts believe that is why he was so fast!

Since the weather cleared off, we were able to see the horses race. I could have stayed all afternoon, it was so fun, but we did have other things to do AND the kids were getting hungry for lunch! We watched the first race and each picked a number horse that would win. This horse below was not the winner...but....

after the racing, we were heading out and there was Red Maserati's jockey! He was kind enough to pose with us for a photo. So cool.

After leaving Churchill Downs, we ended up at Mark's Feed Store, a BBQ restaurant in Louisville that used to be an actual feed store! I believe this might be the best BBQ we've had...coming close to or even better than Bubba's in Eureka Springs, AR! YUM! It was our first "non chain" restaurant of the trip for Ellie...and the experience was perfect! A funny memory from this place was the comment a waitress made to me after our entire family used the rest room. We were all walking in a line to leave the restaurant (it was packed at 2pm!) and the waitress said 'It's like you have a herd or something!'! Hmmmm. Fun place and yummy food, nonetheless!


After our late lunch, we went into the city of Louisville to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Totally cool....and I am not a baseball fan! Andy got a free tour and special souvenir bat because it was Father's Day! Below you will see the kids and Andy trying out bats and standing next to legend Hank Aaron. The bat Ellie is holding is one that was used by Babe Ruth and you had to put on special gloves to even touch that bat! Colin was a hoot--if you look closely, you will see he is holding his bat strangely. If you think he's about ready to turn his bat into a guitar, you are right! That is exactly what he did!

As I said, we went on a tour, which was very neat. Only 50 employees work in this plant and they make all the bats for major and minor leagues there!

We learned some interesting facts:

40,000 white ash and maple trees supply the logs for the Louisville Slugger bats each year. Ideal trees are at least 80 years old. Now, before we got concerned about that number, they were quick to tell us that for every tree they REMOVE from the forest for their bats, they PLANT 4 trees. And, 1.8 million wooden bats leave their factory each year. THAT is a lot of bat making!

Major league players order 100-120 bats per season and in the major league, the team buys the bats. For the minor leaguers, each player has to buy their own bats!

Until 1980, all wooden bats were turned BY HAND! Now, they have machines and the time it takes to turn a bat is 30 seconds!

Colin fell asleep before the tour was over...but all of us received a small souvenir bat. When we arrived home in Neenah, Colin said "Where my bat go?!" When I asked him what he was going to do with his bat, he said "Play my gee-tar, Mommy!" (Of course!)

After the bat tour, it was 5pm and none of us were hungry yet. Andy had stumbled upon a large park area (HUGE, as in 20ish acres) on the riverfront. They had play equipment, restaurants, and a great splashpad. As you can see, the kids had a blast splashing around (in their clothes!)!

This splashpad wasn't even crowded...and we can't figure out way. If we had a place like this in Neenah, it would be MOBBED on a hot summer afternoon!

Day 2 turned out much better than we had ever hoped when we woke up in the middle of the storm!