Girls Trip to Kentucky

Planned a girls getaway this past weekend with some friends I had met when we lived in Alaska, two of them are fellow Coast Guard wives.  It first started out as an idea we were just tossing around, but when I realized I could drive there, that's when things got serious!  Lexington is about an 8.5 hour drive for me and I was game.  Turns out, it was exactly what we all needed.  A few days to unwind and be crazy and funny and just chill out doing stuff girls do.  Sherry still lives in Juneau, Suzanne now lives in Seattle and Beth lives in Cleveland...a few other gals from Alaska were invited, but were not able to make it.  We picked Lexington, Kentucky as our meeting place because Suzanne got us all hooked on a show called Justified, which airs on FX (new season in January, check it out!)...and its based out of Lexington. 

My favorite US Marshal, Raylan Givens

I love him. Seriously. Love.

Its okay because I think Jay loves him too...

She'd been trying to get me to watch it for over a year and finally I did it. After the first few episodes, I was HOOKED.  I haven't been that hooked on a show since Sopranos.  I was obsessed, so much so that I went out and bought Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and downloaded Season 3 from iTunes so I would have no break in episodes.  I stayed up til 2 AM some nights watching the show because I just couldn't stop!! Sometimes Suzanne would watch it with me and we would text back and forth discussing it in the middle of the night!  Even Jay, who never watches TV, wanted to see what all the hype was about and HE got hooked!  So, given the obsession we all have with this show, it only made sense that we would want to travel to Lexington and make a vacation out of Kentucky.  While there, I knew I wanted to have "real" Kentucky Fried Chicken, we wanted to do the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and we all wanted to drive three hours south to Harlan, the real-life town that the show features as being the dysfunctional place where Raylan and the other characters grew up.  We just had to see it!  It's like being a Twilight fan and going to Forks, WA...only, on a much smaller scale! 

Day ONE:

I left my house at about 930 AM Thursday and it took me over 8 hours, but I really enjoyed the drive.  The weather was bright and sunny and the fall colors along the way were beautiful!

We booked this vacation rental house for the four nights we were in town - definitely the best route when staying for an extended amount of time! 

Had to try the Kentucky beer! 

The girls and their beers and me and my Margarita - Cheers! 

At around midnight, I thought it would be a good time to put in the Insanity workout DVD that I promised to show them.  Both Sherry and Suzanne jumped right in.  Suzanne blew me away with her skills, being that it was her first attempt at the program...I've never been able to "power jump" like that even when I'm sober!  I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile, but by program's end, Suzanne was not feeling so well....the fun came to an abrupt halt when we realized she over did it on the 'Drunk Insanity' (hence the passed out Suzanne during the cool down...)

Day TWO:

We decided to reserve this day for Kentucky fried chicken and the Bourbon Trail.  According to google, Ramsey's Diner was the place to get the best fried chicken in town and it just so happened it was on Tates Creek Road, which is a road they mention a few times in Justified, so we just HAD to go...

Sherry, Me and Suz

The street sign above us is Tates Creek! 

Cornbread and cinnamon butter...O.M.G. 

(There is a reason why the only thing "petite" in Kentucky are the horse jockeys...)

My real Kentucky fried chicken!

Sweet potato casserole, fried corn on the cob and my cornbread. 

(Not alot of dieting going on during this trip...) 

Finally, I got to try a Fried Green Tomato!!

Even the 'Healthy' gets fried in Kentucky...

After lunch we made our way to our first and only stop on the Bourbon Trail, the Woodford Reserve Distillery.  It was a fascinating experience and I could probably go on the tour several more times and still learn something new.

Fermentation. 

Our tour guide told us to put our hands over it to feel the heat, but advised not to lean over and take a big whiff...the carbon dioxide would knock you out.

This bourbon was just barreled that day

Sherry sniffing the pure alcohol, had to watch her to ensure she didn't chug it...

These storage buildings have been on the property forever, two of them haven't even been used for decades due to the high demand

Bottling.

As soon as I walked in here, the Laverne and Shirley tune started playing in my head and YES, I started singing it :)

This little building was for the IRS agents who planted themselves here to monitor production after Prohibition ended.  Being former IRS, I thought it was important to take this picture.

We got our sample after the tour ended, I took a sip and almost fell down - YOWSA!  Sherry finished it off for me.  Anyone who can drink Bourbon straight up is a total stud.  I am a wimp and will stick to my Margaritas...

 

Day THREE:

We had planned to go to Harlan on this day, but we learned that the last horse race of the season at Keeneland Race Track was going on, so we decided to head to that instead.  Can't get more Kentucky than a horse race!! 

We got a free photo op with "Bucky" Sallee, the Bugler...

He's 82 years old and retiring after 50 years at the track

This experience was a lot of fun in many ways...had no idea people tailgate at horse races!?  The people-watching made it all worth it, but the horses are so amazing to watch.  Such beautiful creatures, especially when they are running!  Suzanne has a gift, every time she'd see the horses come out she would go with the one that gave her the 'gut feeling' for a win.  She was right every time!!  I finally bet on one, $20.  He was not one of Suzanne's picks, but I just liked it's name "Gangsta Rap"....he was actually ahead for the first part of the race but fell to 6th in the end.  It was about 50 degrees out and we were freezing for most of the day, but it was a blast!

When the horses come out on the track they are itchin' to run, so they have these "assistants" who walk along side to help control them since the jockeys are really no match for them and probably have to save their energy for the race...they stay with them and lead them all the way into the chute.  Fascinating. 

And they're off!

One of the 11 races that went on that day... 

So beautiful! 

And I thought I was short...

I read the average weight of a jockey is 115 lbs

A female jockey!

Suz and Me

Later that night, we decided to go "out on the town".  Sherry treated us to dinner in downtown Lexington and then from there we tried to find a place to hang out and listen to good music and possibly dance...there was NO SUCH place.  Was disappointing, but we just went back to the house and had our own little party watching Justified and drinking :)  But not before I snapped some pics of the evening...

A really bad picture taken for us at dinner by a drunk college student, despite my efforts to teach him how to focus it and use the flash...

Had our dancing shoes on... 

Mamas Night Out!

Suzanne's expression cracks me up...

Day FOUR:

"In the deep dark hills of eastern Kentucky

That's the place where I traced my bloodline

And it's there I read on a hillside gravestone

'You'll never leave Harlan alive'"

This song was covered by both Patti Loveless and Brad Paisley, about the coal mining in Harlan, Kentucky.

We stopped on the side of the road to snap this picture - we could not have tried any harder to be tourists!

And yet, we stayed to snap several more pictures...

Harlan is a small coal mining community of less than 1800 people.  It is quite a ways off the main drag, so the locals knew we weren't just "passing thru", they knew we must be there for something and it was evident that we were not welcome!  Needless to say, we didn't stay long.  However, it wasn't a wasted trip, we laughed our way through it and made some awesome memories.  It was just one of those things we had to experience and now we can say we did....even if there may be a "Wanted" sign posted all over Harlan with a picture of my vehicle. 

The picture of this door signifies the point when our little day trip to Harlan went south...in our efforts to try to blend in, we did exactly the opposite: Going down the wrong way on a one-way road...trying to back out of a narrow dead end street, and then having cars come up behind me..."entering" through "exit" doors...wearing earrings and makeup...we just stood out like sore thumbs and it just kept getting worse!  We couldn't have left there quick enough...

Even though I was driving, I did manage to snap some pictures

There were churches (Baptist and Pentecostal) on every corner 

I took a wrong turn somewhere along the lines when I was trying to high tail it out of town and my GPS didn't turn me around, so I just followed it.  Turns out it was a cool route through the hills that lead us to the highway.  We passed an actual coal mine, so we stopped to take a pic (in an unauthorized vehicle zone, I might add, breaking laws left and right in Harlan...) 

The view was awesome, so I pulled off on what I thought was a "look out" point, but really it was a rock quarry - but we still got some amazing scenic pics!

Day FIVE:

Got up at 4 AM to get on the road by 5 AM in an attempt to get home before the big storm Sandy brought to us.  I wasn't so concerned about the storm back home, I just wanted get past the mountains of West Virginia before the predicted several feet of snow hit.  By leaving that early, I beat the storm and was home by 2pm!

A much different scene on the trip back... 

All in all it was a great trip with friends I hadn't seen in awhile.  A much needed break from my mommy duties, a chance to let loose, laugh and have a good time.  Despite the lack of Kentucky hospitality, I feel fortunate to have seen a part of the country I never knew anything about and now have memories to last a lifetime.  Can't wait to plan the next girls trip!

Zac's First Field Trip

Zac's first class field trip was to Belvedere Plantation, a pumpkin patch down in Fredericksburg, VA, about 45 minutes south of us.  Each chaperone was assigned a small group of kids to watch after.  They gave us a bag with rubber glove, bandaids, wipes and a barf bag "just in case"....um...??  To top it all off, my group consisted of Zac, his buddy Ethan (who was also on his baseball team) and...Matthew S.  THE Matthew S?  S as in "Satan" Matthew S?  As soon as I saw his name on my list, I asked the teacher if she had a leash.  I have heard stories about Matthew S...and when I saw that he has his own separate desk positioned away from the other kids tables in class, I knew this was going to be interesting.  I think they figured I could handle him since the other two in my group are two of the most well behaved kids in class, she probably felt she needed to even it out a little.  He is the one that is constantly on yellow or red on the daily behavior chart and is known for his misbehavior in class.  Zac calls him "the bad Matthew".  Surprisingly, bad Matthew wasn't so bad for me - at least, nothing I couldn't handle anyway.  Overall, it was a fun outing and my little group of boys was great.  Here are some pics from the day:

Bad Matthew (red) and Ethan (orange) 

Bus load 

I often wonder what the bus driver of elementary school kids is thinking... 

Good thing about long bus rides, kids fall asleep! 

My group 

The tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch 

They each got to pick their own pumpkin 

Ethan and Zac 

Bad Matthew throwing a fit because he didn't get a hole he could reach 

The bouncy pillow looked so fun, it was all I could do to keep from joining them!! 

Climbing the big hill to go down the tube slide 

Shooting out the tube slide