Kickin' up our heels

Hi folks! I know I haven't posted in a few days (ok, 13, but who's counting). Sorry about that. Nick and I have been kicking up our heels and jumping into Louisville with both feet. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave a lot of time for sleeping and writing.

We've been hosting out of town friends...Hi James & Jess...Adam and Deidre!

We've been eating and drinking...Ahhh Friday nights at the Back Door bar! (I mean, $3 mixed drinks all night every night...PLUS $2.50 specials and a half dozen pool tables...I would pitch a tent in their parking lot if we didn't live 100 yards away)

And we've been taking every chance we get to explore our new town.

Here are just a few fun things we've done in the past 3 weeks......

Sunday, August 29th - The Zombie Walk
Ok. I still have no idea what this was all about. We were buying a bottle of wine at our local liquor store and the owner asked if we were going to the Zombie Walk that evening. Never one to turn down an opportunity to try something new I said yes...and as always...asked questions later.

Around nightfall (and after an AMAZING piece of halibut...damn I'm good) we walked out our back door, beer in hand, across the alley and into a scene straight out of a horror movie.

There were hundreds of people dressed (and acting) like zombies. The street was shut down, there was live music, dancing, drinking and fun. As I'm writing this I still have no idea why this happened or what it was all about, but I can say this...it's not every day you can walk out your back door and into the night...of the living dead.

Weird...but fun.

Mammoth Caves National Park

Our friends James and Jess flew in from Philly to spend a few days with us. We wanted to show them something they wouldn't normally see at home so we went to the state fair and went camping at Mammoth Caves National Park.

The state fair was fun, and, seeing as I'm a Jersey girl, I had no idea things like this were such a big deal. My favorite part was the livestock (sooooo cute!!!!), however let's not forget about the corn dogs. Let's never forget about the corn dogs.

Oh, and speaking of food...here's a quick fact...last year the prize winning Country Ham was sold for a whopping $200,000.oo!! That's some expensive bacon.

Then came Mammoth Caves.

Just under 2 hours south of Louisville you will find the world's longest cave system. Actually, they say if you placed the world's second and third longest cave systems head to tail they still wouldn't be as long as Mammoth Caves.

It rained, unfortunately, but Camp Master Jones (my hubby's alter-ego when we're in the woods) was smart and packed a tarp shelter to put over the picnic table, so we had a good time eating, drinking and playing cards despite the rain. Rain...HA...Camp Master Jones laughs in your general direction.

The star of the show...the caves of course! At a lovely constant temperature of 54 degrees year round (that's right...it never changes), they were a welcome respite from the heat and humidity (according to Camp Master Jones a lovely 94 percent relative humidity).

If you have a chance to visit I highly recommend it. It's not often you get the chance to explore enormous cave systems. **P.S. If you're in the Shenandoah area of Virginia you can also check out Luray Caverns...not quite as sprawling as Mammoth Caves, and a bit more touristy, however lovely all the same**

The Zoo!

Ok. I know the zoo isn't the most exciting thing for most folks to do. But at $12 bucks a head it's a great weekend activity. The other reason I'm posting about it is because I simply HAD to show y'all this picture of a bird licking sweat off Nick's head. Gross, cute, funny...you be the judge!

Fishing, Fishing and Fishing...oh, and finding a swimming hole!!!!

Ok. I know no one really cares about this part of the post. I'm not really giving you any info on Louisville or Kentucky in general. I am, however, bragging because on one of our weekly fishing outings (by the way...I think the score is Nick a bazillion fish...me...2) I finally found a swimmin' hole!

For some reason I thought that Kentucky would be chock-full-o swimmin' holes (perhaps I watched a little too much Dukes of Hazards in my youth). When I found it hard to locate one I became discouraged. Sometimes the pool at the Y just doesn't cut it. Well, for those of you who knew about my ongoing search I'm happy to report that I did in fact find one...a GREAT one! Ahhhh Kentucky. re-enforcing stereotypes one swimmin' hole at a time!

So that's the Cliff's Notes of the past 2 1/2 weeks. We also ate, ate and ate some more. I'm working on those posts as we speak, so stay tuned.

Oh, and I'll try not to leave y'all without new posts for that long again. How did you live without me!!??