UMTravels

Well — today it was up and out early (7:30) for bourbon, bourbon, bourbon. You know you are on holiday when your first dram of bourbon is at 9:45 in the morning.

Jim Beam was our first stop:

Neither Swanda or I had been to Jim Beam before and at least I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the staff. If course, it being the first visit of the day, everything was pretty quiet.

Next we are on to Heaven Hill and the Bourbon Hall of Fame:

This facility opened about six months before our visit in 2005 and the tour has only gotten better. You can tell that the bourbon industry is following the wine industry in the sample and buy business.

Next we have lunch at the Old Talbot Tavern:

Next stop was Maker’s Mark. At this point we are about an hour behind schedule:

Think dipping bottles into hot wax to make them your own. However — think about the chap that when told to bounce his freshly dipped bottle on the counter on the rubber mat — misses the mat and slams it onto the granite counter and shattered the bottle. Scene two: contents of bottle (with glass) flow into the melting pot of wax and down onto the burner warming said wax — and panic ensues. That is today’s humor.

Lat to town. Traffic dreadful (you would think we were in Seattle, but with smaller roads). Late to the restaurant by an hour — turns out we are now a party of 12-14 (I lost count). Many appetizers were dinner. Many drinks were fun. Will have to remember what the place was called. It was a house. It was called Maury’s — and is apparently the “after-hours” bar/restaurant for Keeneland — the horse track we are visiting on Sunday.

More drinks in the second floor lobby which we commandeer each night, rearrange the furniture and drink heavily.

It’s spellcheck and off to bed thinking of an Alaska cruise in July that just isn’t going to work out.