Kentucky, Day 2

Wow- I can't quite believe how many things we were able to cram into one vacation! Wednesday was our last day of vacation... we started the drive home that afternoon and finally pulled into home sweet home early yesterday afternoon! Mommy told me that she took TONS of pictures so that someday when I'm older I can see everything we did on my first vacation!

We ended our trip with a visit to the Kentucky Horse Park! They have over 2100 acres of land and hundreds upon hundreds of horses of all shapes and sizes!!

Panoramic view of ONE SIDE of the Kentucky Horse Park:



Cute pony!


Inside the museum


Pretty bronze statue.. these were all over the park!

Secretariat's statue

Silly draft horse watching us!

Kentucky, Day 1

Today we entered the state of Kentucky! If you are keeping tracking, that is the 10th state that we have traveled through (including Pennsylvania)!

1st we had to stop at the Verizon store where the stupid man wasted over an hour trying to troubleshoot when Mommy told him that her wireless card was broken and she needed a new one. Turned out, it was broken and she needed a new one. :p

After that, we took the factory tour at the Louisville Slugger Bat Factory! It was so neat!



They started out by showing us how the very first bats were hand carved!

We went in the factory where there was no photography allowed. At the end, the tour guide gave me my very own bat! It was tasty! :)

Then we toured the museum there... this is one of Babe Ruth's game bats from the season when he hit 60 homeruns.

Here are Mommy and I with a very special exhibit! These are the Phillies World Series players' bats!

Daddy tried the batting cages!

After the Slugger Factory, we drove by the very famous Churchill Downs Racetrack! This is where the Kentucky Derby is held.



That was it for today! We drove through the Kentucky Horse Park, which is where we will be exploring tomorrow!

Nashville!

Sorry to leave everyone hanging! Yesterday Mommy's wireless internet card broke and she couldn't post anything until finding a Verizon Store today! Here's what we did yesterday in Nashville!

First we took a tour of the Belle Meade Plantation. It was a mansion and farm built in the 1853, before the Civil War. They raised horses there and famous horses like Barbaro, Secretariat, War Admiral, and Smarty Jones can all trace their bloodlines back to that farm!

Here's the front of the house:

Back of the house:

Grave of one of the family's most cherished horses:

This picture does not even begin to do justice to just how big and massive the barn was!

This is just one wing of the barn:

Far away shot of the house

After that it was off to the Country Music Hall of Fame in downtown Nashville!

These are the real "blue suede shoes" from the Carl Perkins' song that Elvis covered!

Outfits worn by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and others!

Of course we weren't done for the day! :) After that, Daddy dragged Mommy into a Dukes of Hazzard Museum and Store!

Maybe the busiest day so far!!

Today we explored the city of Memphis, TN. We started out at Graceland where Elvis Presley used to live!

We saw lots of memorabilia...


Toured Elvis's collection of cars and motorcycles...

I loved it all!



Here is Elvis's mansion...

And here are a couple of the rooms we got to see. We also got to tour the grounds and two of his planes!




Next, it was time for some lunch. Mommy and Daddy ate some BBQ at Blues City Cafe on the very famous Beale Street.


From there we went to an old motel called the Lorraine Motel. This was were a very famous man, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.


Then we cruised along the banks of the Mississippi River...

Then we went to a famous hotel called the Peabody Hotel. They have DUCKS in their FOUNTAIN in the lobby! Every day at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. the ducks are marched to (a.m.) and from (p.m.) the fountain!



I loved those silly little ducks!!

Our final stop of the day was Sun Studios. This is the famous recording studio that "discovered" Elvis, Johnny Cash, and tons of others. So many famous musicians have recorded there. U2 recorded their Rattle and Hum album there (Mommy loves u2)! When we arrived, the employee told us that kids under 5 years old were not allowed on the tour! :( But here's what they did b/c they felt bad... they gave Mommy a free ticket for the tour. They offered Daddy any food or snacks he wanted from the cafe while Mommy took the tour. Then, when the tour was over, they let Daddy and I go in the studio to look around at everything!


Mixer that u2 used!

The Studio


This microphone is one of five original microphones from Sun Studio. It was the vocal microphone. It has been used by Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more music greats!