Lexington, Kentucky The Land Of Horses And Bourbon

Welcome to the land of horses and bourbon – Lexington!

Having only driven through Kentucky on my way to Florida, I was excited to be able to spend a week exploring the Lexington area. I ditched my regular habit of intensely researching a destination before I travel there in favor of “winging it” this time around.

Actually my long time friend and travel companion on this trip, Becky, and I, were in good hands. My friend Catherine had left an open invitation to us to come and visit her in Lexington during the spring Keeneland meet. She assured me we would go to the races, and find plenty of other things to do. “There’s lots of places to blog about in my area of Kentucky” she said.

So on a Thursday morning, I loaded up my bright blue Toyota RAV4, picked up Becky, and away we went for the nearly 8 hour drive to Lexington. Strangely this was to be my longest trip actually driving all the way ever!

We arrived at Catherine’s early evening to a much welcomed dinner she had made for us. It was actually an uneventful drive, only hitting afternoon rush hour traffic in Louisville. Once we arrived though, I was tired and just ready to catch up with Catherine, enjoy a fabulous dinner, a glass of French wine, and an early evening to rest up for the week ahead.

Planning our itinerary for the week

As we had dinner, we discussed what we wanted to see for the week. I confess that I did do a wee bit of research on Pinterest for things to do. Catherine suggested a wine tasting at her favorite winery (Equus Run), a dinner at a downtown French restaurant (she knew I would LOVE this!), a day at Irish Acres Gallery of Antiques, and of course a day at Keeneland Race Track along with lunch in the members only clubhouse. She also wanted to take us on the back roads to see all the horse farms, do a driving tour of Chevy Chase to look at historical homes, and drive us to nearby Midway (a picturesque little town). I, of course wanted to tour a bourbon distillery, perhaps fit in a visit to the Mary Todd Lincoln House, and buy a cute derby hat! Becky’s request was to go on a horse farm tour. We realized it was going to be an ambitious itinerary, but totally doable. The only thing that was going to put a damper on our trip was the unseasonable weather Kentucky was experiencing this spring. If fact, we only had one very nice day, which was our first full day on Friday with sunshine and temps in the 70’s. The rest of the time it was either very cold, rainy, snowy, or all of the previous mentioned together! In fact the day we visited the Mary Todd Lincoln House and walked downtown Lexington, we found ourselves getting pelted with ice pellets and had to duck in the visitor center to warm up!

Actually we were thankful to only have to endure that because the northern half of Wisconsin saw record setting snowfall amounts (20+ inches in many areas) while we were away. We would take a few snowflakes and ice pellets!

My first impressions of Lexington, Kentucky

I have to share some first impressions and observations of Kentucky and particularly the Lexington area.

First off, the well manicured acres and acres of horse farms! Once we turned off the interstate, I was impressed with how neat everything was kept up. There was so much green (a real treat coming from the brown dull landscape of early spring Wisconsin), but the standout were the well maintained black fences that I learned later are standard for the horse farms. Another mainstay of the back roads landscape are the carefully stacked Irish stone fences. I don’t think I saw a piece of trash along a roadway the whole week. You can just tell that there is a whole lot of pride (and money) that goes into the maintenance of the area.

I’ve never seen so many horses! Yes, I know this is horse country, but I wanted to know why. What makes this area so special. I later learned that horses and bourbon have something unique in common. That would be the limestone shelf that the area sits on. It is said that this limestone is a natural water filter and when the water passes through this massive filtration system, it makes for some pretty special water that feeds the soil. Rich soil grows some of the best grass in the world and in turn grows strong horses. Of course this water is used in crafting the best bourbon in the world! I had no clue!! Did you?

The area is full of history. Now I hated history in school, but have grown to be fascinated by it now. While we here in the US do not have the history like the rest of the world does, it’s still interesting to learn about our past-the good and the bad. Civil War history is alive and well in this area. I learned so much just by touring the Mary Todd Lincoln house which I will share in an upcoming post.

The thriving food scene. There is an abundance of cool places to eat in the Lexington area. Since our hosts are French, they knew just where to take me to get a little flavor of France on this trip. We dined at Le Deauville twice. Both times impressive and I was assured this was an authentic French dining experience.

Lexington is a nice sized city. The downtown area is compact, so it’s easily walk-able. There is so much to do. Nightlife, museums, and recreation. Since it’s the home to the University of Kentucky and the very old (1790) Transylvania University, Lexington has a hip college town vibe.

The people are very friendly. Looking for some southern hospitality? Everyone we encountered in the Lexington area was so welcoming. On a whim after visiting the Woodford Reserve Distillery, we stopped at a very cool place called the Nostalgia Station Toy & Train Museum in Versailles. Housed in the old train station, we spent more than an hour there while the owner Winfrey Adkins proudly showed us his working train set, and many more trains and toys he has collected through the years. He was the perfect example of that southern hospitality. I felt like he was welcoming us into his home (which I guess in a way he was). More about that stop coming up too!

So that does it for my intro into this very fun Lexington, Kentucky road trip. In upcoming posts I will go into detail all of the places and things we did so if you are thinking about spending some time in the Bluegrass state, you can decide if you want to add these places to your own itinerary. Honestly I never really thought of Kentucky as a destination, but now I cannot wait to go back!

In the next post, a must do in Kentucky….a bourbon distillery tour!

Thanks for reading!

Go explore! The world is waiting.

Lori