Road Trip Day 4

Well the pace started to pick up from here on out.  We were on the move and had places to go and things to see.  We started off the morning at the Kentucky Derby Museum, along with about 4 buses full of children on class field trips, the start of what I like to refer to as the week of field trips.  I think every teacher must be like, so the week after spring break is awful, why don't we just plan some trips so I don't have to be in the classroom with these crazy kids all week?  Lucky for us, we got to share every museum from here on out with bus-loads of children.  Yet another reassurance that teaching was not the career for me!

Everyone must wear beautiful hats to the Derby!

 After leaving the museum and the racetrack (where we saw them setting up for the Derby), we made our way to a unique little store called "Why Lousiville"

Then we got in the car and headed on our way, passing into Indiana first...

Where we went about 30 miles out of our way to visit Santa Claus, Indiana!  (You thought I was kidding when I spoke of Mr. Claus sightings in my other post?)

America's Christmas Hometown

Had to get a picture with the sign

 Yet another Santa spotting....

and another....

My only disappointment in Santa Claus was that nothing was open, no stores, no Holiday World (oh this is a thing), nothing, since the season does not really start opening up for another couple of weeks!

Well after an ever so brief side trip, we were back in the car and passed into Illinois.  One thing to note is that everywhere out there wants to claim Lincoln.  We have Illinois--the Land of Lincoln, Indiana--Lincoln's Boyhood Home, and Kentucky--Birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.  There is a lot of Lincoln pride going on over there.

Since we had visited Illinois on our last road trip, we did not even bother stopping, just snapped a picture of the sign as we drove through the state.  We finally arrived in Missouri late afternoon and stopped by Forest Park in St. Louis.

Forest Park is a really beautiful park.  Last trip, we made our way to the St. Louis Zoo, one of my favorite zoo's and it is unbelieveably free!  But this time we stuck to walking around the park (the zoo is actually within the park), and took in the scenes and information from the 1904 World's Fair that was held in St. Louis.  The below picture is from the World's Fair Pavilion.

The flowers were gorgeous

 After our walk, we made our way to Imo's Pizza for dinner.  We enjoyed St. Louis style pizza before calling it a night and making it back to the hotel.

Our hotel was right near the Gateway Arch, so we snapped a few pictures and walked around the "downtown" area.

Night View from our hotel balcony

After enjoying the beauty of the city, we called it a night.  Stay tuned for my many MANY pictures of the Gateway Arch tomorrow!

Road Trip Day 3

We woke up to a dreary day in Cincinnati but that did not stop our wonderful hosts from showing us around town, driving through all the areas/neighborhoods of Cincinnati and explaining some history along the way.  We ended up down by the Ohio River and crossed the Purple People Bridge to Newport, Kentucky.  

Pretty Mural

 

Cincinnati, OH

Purple People Bridge

While in Newport we ate at a yummy new franchise called Thom and Chee where we tried out their donut grilled cheese, it was pretty amazing stuff!  We said good bye to our wonderful hosts, the Wysong's and headed onto Kentucky (in the rain).

donut grilled cheese

Cincinnati in the background!

 We made our way only slightly south to Louisville, Kentucky and started taking in all the tourist attractions there!

 We first hit up the Louisville Slugger Museum...

CJ's favorite baseball player

World's biggest Bat!

 Then we figured, while in Kentucky, do it up right, so we took the Evan Williams Bourbon Tour...

and did a tasting (Bourbon, still not my favorite)....

Though, CJ and I can both get behind some epic props....

We finished the day with dinner at W.W. Cousins, for the best burger in Louisville, and I don't have much to compare it to, but I would totally recommend this place!  Stay tuned for more of Louisville tomorrow and be prepared for a Santa spotting....

Road Trip day 1 & 2

Almost exactly two years to the day we left, we were on our way on our 2nd road trip.  In 2013 CJ and I left on April 19th, this year we left on April 17th.  In 2013 we were in the airport at 4am, in 2015, we left mid day from work.  We were already doing better this time around!  

Plus if you ask me, all great road trips should start right here.....

We arrived in Blacksburg in time for dinner at my favorite place, Slouvaki and then picked up our stuff for the 3.2 walk the next day.  Amanda graciously let us crash at her place Friday night, so after dinner we headed back there!  We were up relatively early on Saturday but it was so worth it to be able to join together with other hokies to remember the 32 victims!

Obligatory Burruss Hall picture

I asked Kyle to hold my purse while we took the picture.  He is such a great little helper!

Sarah & Matt

Of course we had to grab a quick picture with the Hokie Bird...

32 white balloons for the 32 victims!  (in the background)

getting ready to go through the tunnel

touching the Hokie stone!

Torgersen Bridge

War Memorial

The finish line!

Better picture at the starting line with the 32 white balloons

Kyle and me!

Giant Hokie balloons

After the "race" we walked over to Main street for the Blacksburg Chocolate Festival!  It was totally amazing and made for such an incredible day!  We grabbed some pictures with the Hokie bird art around town!

Then on our way out of town we stopped at Carol Lee Donuts, so I could pick up the famous donuts (I swear 4 years of college and one would think I would have gone there before now). Then we got on the road toward Cincinnati after saying goodbye to Amanda and Sarah!

Quick stop in West Virginia...

West Virginia Capitol

 After stopping only briefly in Charleston, we made our way to Cincinnati and stayed the night with some of CJ's friends.

They gave us the real Cincinnati experience including a local pizza place and Cincinnati Chili.  Three states down, 9 more to go, so stay tuned for more updates!