Kentucky is...Horse Country, Bourbon Distilleries, Toyota manufacturing, great food, just plain wonderful!

"So how was your trip to Kentucky?" you may ask.  Or "Did you take the Bourbon Trail?"  "What were the highlights or surprises?" 

 

Well, we spent two very enjoyable days in Paducah, having driven up by way of Memphis.  Paducah was quite enjoyable; it's an old working river city where barges come and go. It has a wonderfully restored downtown with very interesting architecture.  We stayed in the 1857 Hotel, a charming boutique hotel.  See my post about Paducah. 

We then drove across state to the wonderful city of Lexington and enjoyed a weeklong stay in a VRBO apartment in Lexington's Hampton Court, a very special historic area.  For a bit of history and some current images of this delightful area in Northside view this video.  I would highly recommend this as "headquarters" for a visit to Lexington and bourbon country and horse country.  Lexington is a vibrant city and now one of our favorites.   Hampton Court is a comfortable walk to the modern downtown, or just a few blocks to a corner store where we could buy cheeses, meats, wine, bread, and ... what else does one need?

Lexington is well laid out with two loops, many spokes, and is thriving.  It served us well as we visited horse farms, bourbon distilleries, historic Keeneland racetrack, the largest automobile manufacturing facility in the country, a country lumber yard (hickory and elm for my crosses), and great restaurants.

Here is a glimpse of our calendar for the week.  Not all events are shown.  Click on it to enlarge.

Horse Country
The beautiful countryside is home to many beautiful horse farms, the Keeneland racetrack where we had breakfast at the track with jockeys and mingled with horse people.  We took a great tour, with Shaun Washington as our tour guide.  It turned out that we were his only customers that morning, so we got a very special tour.

Later in the week we took a tour of Coolmore at Ashford Stud and had the opportunity to see some Triple Crown winners.

American Pharoah - Triple Crown - 2015

Justify - Triple Crown - 2018

Just to the west of Lexington is the Keeneland racetrack.  A couple times we drove out there around 7 a.m. and went to the casual restaurant where the jockeys and trainers have breakfast and some fun before going out to work with the horses.  One morning after breakfast, we drove up to the track and were able to walk in and talk with some of the jockeys and even the older gentleman who was there to drive the horse ambulance if there was an accident or incident.  This was very special, not a tour; just open to stroll around and enjoy.

where jockeys and trainers dine

special care for special horses

pride in caring

the grandstands

outriders - in case a horse gets loose

Lexington - a Dynamic City

We enjoyed 7 days in Lexington, a fantastic city of 300,000 and a host to great universities like University of Kentucky and Transylvania University.

Here's a quick look at moments I viewed in and around Lexington, a wonderful city with beautiful new and old buildings. There's lots going on - beautiful horse farms and Keeneland Race Track just outside of town, great restaurants, "Thursday Night Live" downtown, and the Distillery District is the former home of James E. Pepper Distillery but now restored to a great place for friends to gather to drink, dine, eat ice cream, or just listen to the music.
(Enjoy this 2 minute photo video)


If ever in Lexington, take a tour of the largest automobile manufacturing facility in the country at Toyota Kentucky, just 25 minutes from Lexington.  All Camrys and Avalons and some Lexus are made here at the rate of about 2000/day. Reservations are required.