Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Kentucky Day 2: Lexington and Lots of Horses

My first full day in Kentucky Kyle and I decided to go to Lexington to see some sights and run some errands.

I've barely been here and this is one thing I know for sure, Kentucky is beautiful. I keep getting thrown off by these beautiful green rolling hills. I keep asking it it's a park or something. Nope, that's just someone's house. I get why horses are such a big deal here. If I was a horse, I think Kentucky would be a mighty fine place to live.

First we enjoyed a picnic in a small city park. It is called triangle park and has a cool water feature wall.


Another funny thing I am learning about this side of the U.S. is that history is everywhere. In California, if something has been standing for over 100 years we have to rope it off, erect a monument, slap a plaque on it, and charge admission. But here, it's not really a big deal. My brother's new place is across from the birthplace of Mary Todd Lincoln. This California girl is expecting a National Park, maybe at least a State Park. Maybe a $5 tour followed by kitschy key chains in a gift shop.

Nope.



Just a plaque. And now the building is some office for who knows what church group (this still counts as the Bible Belt people).

I loved walking around and seeing the old architecture.



They have this cool pedway that connects several buildings downtown. Kyle and I took some time to stroll around and take some selfies.



Trins FOREVER!!



On one particular stretch of the pedway we thought it would be cool to take a picture. But as soon as we opened the door to the walkway (see above collage bottom left) the whole area was burning with the power of a thousand suns and the humidity from a dozen Grenadas. Who ever the master engineer was of this particular stretch of pedway should be fired, or worse, have to sit in it for 3 minutes. There was no ventilation so the sun just ruthlessly magnified through the ceiling, sat there, and multiplied. You can see Kyle doing a mad-Flash-dash to get to air conditioned building at the end.

Maybe the best part of the day was getting my hot little mits on some Blue Bell ice cream. I've never seen an ice cream so vehemently defended and revered as the fabled Blue Bell Ice Cream. As soon as I found a place that sold it, I knew I had to get some.



It was amazing! I definitely understand the craze now. And as amazing as the ice cream was, nothing could have prepared me for my first official encounter with a Southern accent in it's natural habitat. Before coming to Kentucky I knew the accent would be different but I never fully understood that Kentucky considers itself to be part of The South. I probably looked pretty wide-eyed as I heard the manager's "Y'all come back soon ya hear?" goodbye salutation but I was pretty excited.

Also, I got a cake bite the size of my palm.



No visit to Lexington would be complete without a little horse history lesson, so Kyle took me to Thoroughbred Park to learn a little about the famous race horse Lexington.


Such a cute lil guy!


After some time in the city, and painfully SMASHING my finger in the door, Kyle showed me around the University of Kentucky campus. Lucky for me, he is on break from school and work so he was able to show me around where he spends much of his days here in Kentucky. 


The view from Kyle's work. So much green!


The drive back was beautiful. From what I can tell, Kentucky weather is hot and humid with summer storms in the late afternoon or evening. And when I say summer storms, I mean magnificent summer storms!





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