Where We Stayed, What We Ate, & Turning the Beat Around in Louisville, KY

Our early anniversary trip to Louisville turned out to be an amazing trip, but not in the way I had planned. It seemed like every time I would find something we wanted to do in Louisville, there would end up being a catch. The activity would be closed on that day, or it would only take place at a time that would not work out for us. So we ultimately decided that we would just free style this vacation, and not really have too much of a game plan, which is so not how I operate on a daily basis.

I had booked us to stay at a Bed & Breakfast, The Inn at Woodhaven. We were so excited when we got there because the house was so beautiful! And our room, The Derby Room, was fabulous. It was just so lovely with its brick wall & exposed wood beams. It even had a sitting area with tea & the local favorite, bourbon, set out for us. And I can't not mention the double jet spa tub and the bed that was like butter! 

That evening we went to a local steak house for dinner, and then went for a long walk at the nice Cherokee Park.  As we walked, we planned what we would do the next day, which involved the zoo & a tour of Churchill Downs. We also played the Alphabet game, taking turns coming up with animals and countries that started with alternating letters. And only got stumped on "U" for animals and "O" for countries. After the walk, we had a wonderful bubble bath before going to bed.

When we woke up the next morning, it was pouring. Usually Adam and I love rain but on your vacation when you've made only OUTDOOR plans, rain can really, well, rain on your parade.  After breakfast at the Inn, we set about figuring out something we could do with the day. But we had trouble agreeing on an activity we were both passionate about. I was getting pouty and overreacting, thinking the trip would be a bust. And I came this close to crying before it occurred to me the best part of vacation is getting to relax. I don't do a lot of that on vacation, I usually need a vacation from my vacation! So instead of just doing some activities that we sort of wanted to do, we decided to focus on relaxing, and enjoying our beautiful surroundings.

The first step in relaxing? A mid-morning nap that felt so decadent. We got up about lunch time and found a delicious Italian place, Saints. Their food was sooo amazing, the perfect comfort food. Afterwards, we grabbed dessert at The Homemade Pie  Kitchen & Ice Cream Shop. They had a little bit of everything, I tried their ice cream flavor, Crème Brule. It truly was the best ice cream I've ever had, and I took some banana pudding back to the room with us for a little dessert later on that night. After lunch, I went and bought some bath bombs, and we went back to the room, where I took an extremely long bath. When I got out of the tub, Adam was asleep, and I joined him for a afternoon nap! Two naps in one day? Scandalous.

When we awoke, it was time for dinner (sensing a pattern here?), so we dressed up and headed Downtown. We explored downtown for a while, even heading to Waterfront Park, to get a few shots of the lit up skyline before trying to find our dinner spot for the night, HammerHeads. We were convinced the GPS was leading us astray because every turn took us farther and farther away from where a restaurant looked like it would be. But our GPS didn't fail us, and it landed us at the small restaurant smack down in the middle of the neighborhood.

Hammerheads is such a unique place. Different from most restaurants, with some creative flair. We both had fried mac n' cheese ball dipped in hollandaise sauce, and I had shrimp and grits for the first time ever. The food was soo good, but I couldn't finish half of it because I stuffed myself silly all day long.

That was basically our whole trip, at least the part involving Louisville. But even though things didn't go quite as planned, we managed to have a memorable weekend. Better yet, we came home rested and revived and feeling ready to take on the work week. And I guess that is what vacation is for.

P.S.-I stole the phrase "Turn The Beat Around," from Brad Goreski on that show, It's a Brad, Brad World. And I think it is an awesome phrase for taking a negative situation and turning it into a positive situation. Plus, it makes me think of the awesome movie Pitch Perfect and you know, I just love to hear percussion.