Bluegrass, Bourbon & Horses

What a awesome weekend we had in Kentucky!! We worked on Thursday... which was actually super fun work. I had lunch with our Centennial book author and got to see a sneak peak at the manuscript. It's looking GREAT!  I also got to finally met my Helms Brisco Event planner after working with her for 3 years. Yes, 3 years of talking to someone every week and I have never met her in person.  We met for coffee, did several site visits together and she treated J and I to a wonderful dinner at Sabio!  I had the shrimp and J had the Scallops and we switched half-way through. It was amazing food.  {I will say... we certainly ate really well on our trip} Karen is even more wonderful in person and it was so great to finally meet her!

She also surprised us with this amazing basket of goodies, and picked up the race guides to get us started nice and early for the next day. Karen, you're the best!!

After dinner, We arrived back at our hotel and the Hilton reps surprised us with fun goodies....

The hotel was smack in the middle of downtown, with free valet parking, amazing meeting space, a free downtown trolly, free airport shuttles and great customer service!! We will most certainly be going back.

Friday we packed up and headed out to the races at Keenland. Dot brought some yummy tailgating treats and we set up our own little tailgate in the Louisville lot. The perfect spot to see the races from the grounds, and really close to the entrance as well.

Such a fun day!

Dot and I found out it was National Pretzel Day on Friday, so we scouted out pretzels in the stands... and boy were they yummy! {Maybe it was after a long day of mimosas, Kentucky Ale and Keenland Breezes... but still, hit the spot}

Saturday we took on the Bourbon Trail. But not before grabbing a fabulous brunch at Doodles.  I had a Kentucky Hot Brown casserole and Jesse has the Egg Doodle {egg in a biscuit} with cheese grits! We also had some beignets while we waited.  The food was incredible!!

After brunch, we toured three distilleries... Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve and also a local distillery and brewery - Town Branch, who also makes Kentucky Ale.

Buffalo Trace

 

Woodford Reserve

Town Branch

After our distillery tours, we really wanted to do a beer tasting - which we couldn't do on-site at the brewery. However, our tour guide gave us a place to go where we could do a full flight or grab a pint. We pulled up to Shenanigans and entered a liqueur store. Yep. A store. haha... but they had tables and chairs and all the beers on tap, so we grabbed some BBQ tator chips and had us some beers. It was hilarious... but the perfect end to our day of tours!

The night we had an amazing dinner at The Village Idiot.  I had "The Idiot" and I wish I would have taken a picture... it was the best burger I have ever head. It's topped with chipped beef, a large onion ring and all the fixins. to. die. for.  Jesse got their famous crab mac-n-cheese, so we shared meals and enjoyed every bite!  After dinner we found our way over to an awesome Bourbon Bar, Bluegrass Tavern and enjoyed many more Keenland Breezes... which is my new favorite drink.

A Keenland Breeze

Maker's Mark

Triple Sec

Ginger Ale

Orange Garnish

We stayed quite a while, listening to the great music and watching the bar-keep's culinary skills. I believe Dorothy and J could have watched him all night long. haha He was pretty good though. 

Sunday we said goodbye to Dot and Stephen and met some good Kentucky friends for brunch... and got to meet their sweet baby girl, Addy.  I didn't get a picture, but this is her.  She's a doll! 

Such a fun Kentucky weekend. We can't wait to go back!