So I've started to work a "compressed work week" schedule -- 9 hrs M-Th and 4 hrs on Friday. Benefit? Uhhh, weekend starts earlier, duh! (However, waking up even just half an hour earlier is a lot frickin' harder than I thought. I value my sleep way too much.) Anyhoo, last Friday headed out to Louisville around noon to start my weekend. Ironman is on Sunday and Pete and Jackie were going to head down too to come hang out.
Jeremy and his roommates let us crash at their place -- a sweet short ride to Louisville center. After we got in, we explored Germantown and the Highlands area (where KFC Colonel is buried...). Loved the vibe of these places... it was like an eclectic mini-Austin-like feel in an unexpected state. Hit up Lynn's Paradise Cafe and it's quirkiness, wandered past many a Irish bar, and got a drink at Nachbar that had German beer ON TAP ("no way!" "way!") before getting scrumptious world foods at Ramsi's Cafe. I got a vegan Egyptian dish that was... the best vegan dish I've ever had.
The next day Jeremy had told me about this fossil park which the nerd dork side of me was dying to go to. First we hit up downtown Louisville and went to the 21c museum/hotel. Way cool concept -- it's a museum... AND a hotel, duh. OH AND Cincinnati's building one too by the way :D. So anyhoo, this museum/hotel had many a fun art to oggle and play with.
Went further along the main street to see some other tourist attractions, like the Louisville Slugger, Whiskey Row, and the multi-mirror in front of the kids' science museum (b/c we're too cheap to actually go inside). THEN! Fossil park! Right on the banks of the Ohio river on the Indiana side, lots o' fossils. Next, we hit up an authentic Mexican restaurant for dinner. Are we sure it's authentic? Yes. If the servers address you in Spanish and everyone, their families, and their neighbors who are there are as brown as you are, yes. Jeremy might have stood out a little. Chimichangas and horchata (and a lot of leftovers) for me. Yum. 
So our mission was to stay out til 4 am (b/c bars close at 4 in Louisville! How awesome is that?) so that we could just take Jonathon to the Ironman competition straight after that. Went to the winery that Jeremy works at, sampling of 6 wines and chocolate lava cake, then off to bar #1 where I had my first BBC, and ended up back at Nachbar to meet up with another Louisville couchsurfer. Only lasted til 2 am... I could barely talk b/c of how tired I was. Good attempt, Nadia. I think Cincinnati has made me old. So I got my, like, 1.5 hrs of sleep, drove Jonathon to the Ironman start, and went back to sleep til 7ish.
So Sunday was Ironman/hang-out/sight-see-Louisville-in-between-spectator-opportunities day. Peter and Jackie headed over at 10 and we went to La Grange, where the Ironman bike portion looped twice. Caught Jonathon just in time (p.s. I'm a terrible "capture the moment" photo taker). We were going to go to a quarry nearby, but decided to laze in the park where they were holding a mini fair instead and contemplated the business model of expensive fair foods and souvenirs. La Grange is quite quaint, with a train running right through the middle of it. Caught the 2nd loop of bikers, then headed back into town. 
Went to this funtastic ice cream "parlor" that's actually a house (that's for sale... for $799,900) with an awesome view of the city (that's quotably worth "a million dollars", so really, you're saving $200,100). Got myself double chocolate chip and cookie dough cone and we plopped ourselves down on the grass to enjoy this great view. Next we headed to the bike finish/marathon start, where near it there's a little water "park" with jumping fountains and a pool that strictly states "danger! high levels of hydrogen! do not swim!", but of course people ignore the signs and we're swimming and wading in it. I'm sorry, but you canNOT expect me to resist jumping fountains. Reminds of the time we took Maya to the jumping fountains in Austin and it was my excuse to be able to play in them too.
After observing that our pre-ironman was still well and alive, more wandering around downtown and made our way to the BBC parlor. Got yelled at because we didn't realize we were walking in the runner's path on the way there. Then we plopped ourselves down and watched the runners go by. Noticed that around the same timing, didn't see as many familiar faces anymore, which means they had somewhere quit along the way... kinda sad. Went home, got dinner, the non-dd's got their buzz on, all ready for the finale of the race. The sight was pretty epic: lit up 4th st, crowds cheering, people pounding on the railguards to the beat, the adrenaline was felt through the air as runners became ironmen. And of course he made it.
Worked from Louisville on Monday because of the late-nightness. Got back home around 6pm. Oh, and discovered that while KY is the home of bourbon loving, I am not a lover of it, but Louisville still has a solid two-thumbs up despite it.
No comments:
Post a Comment