Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow and All That

(By Michelle on June 24, 2009 from Imagine Louisville Blog)

Friends, it’s time for me to hang up my pom poms and turn over the role of “Head Cheerleader for Louisville.” I am just one woman supremely passionate about this city and really wanted to get the word out about so many of the great things here. I’ve done my best to do that with this site and hope you’ve enjoyed the content along the way. I don’t have as much time to devote to this site anymore and the Friend of Lou campaign does an awfully good job talking about awesome stuff here in Louisville so I feel pretty good about putting this site to bed.

That being said I hope if you love Louisville you’ll sign up to be a Friend of Lou, send this Friend of Lou link (http://www.FriendofLou.com) to one person or really just tell someone something you love about Louisville today in honor of this transition.

Thank you for reading. And remember: Mark it 8, Dude (Lebowski Fest in Louisville July 10-11, 2009!)

Staycation #1: Sports & Leisure

Batter up. The first Louisville staycation on our agenda is one for the sports lovers among us. It was hard to choose which great sports attraction to tell you about first, I mean do we go with The Greatest or the place that houses the greatest two minutes in sports? Or do we go with the place with the giant baseball bat?

As hard as it was I decided on the Ali Center as being the number 1 sports attraction on our Louisville staycation agenda. Why? Well he’s the greatest for one, for two it’s a gorgeous building and for three it’s got a variety of things to do, see and learn. Plus it has a very convenient downtown location in walking distance to lots of other great attractions and great restaruants. Park once and walk to lots of great things. Like what?

Well you’d do well to tour the Ali Center and then walk a few blocks down Main Street to the Louisville Slugger Museum. You’ll know you’ve found it when you see the absolutely gigantic baseball bat. Lots of awesome baseball stuff here and you just know you want to buy one of those miniature Louisville Sluggers for yourself.

If you’ve timed it right now is the time to take a nice long walk down Main Street in the other direction to Slugger Field, home of the minor league Louisville Bats for some live baseball If it’s lunchtime grab some fried macaroni and cheese at Browning’s at the park before settling into your seats. I promise you won’t regret it.

Last but not least hop in the car and head to Churchill Downs and Kentucky Derby Museum. Or, if you’ve planned a two day staycation (highly recommend by the way) you should make a day of it at Churchill Downs and reserve a spot on the Barn and Backside Van Tour and the Behind the Scenes Walking Tour.

Themed Staycations? Coming Right Up

If you haven’t noticed summer is here. I don’t care what the official calendar says about summer solstice and all that, I’m declaring that summer 2009 is on. While I’m a fan of big expensive vacations I’m also a fan of staycations. You know what I’m talking about: hitting all those places and attractions in Louisville that we tell visitors they must see and do but that we actually never get around to ourselves. This summer I’m planning some themed staycations for myself and I’m going to tell you all about them and encourage you to engage in them yourself. And if you live in the region (Cinci, Indy, Nashvegas) I highly recommend you take a weekend and do a couple of these themed adventures. I promise it will be worth your while and the short drive here.

While I reserve the right to come up with new themes on the fly these are the ones I’m planing:

Sports & Leisure
Art lover
Foodie Paradise
I’ve got the attention span of a 6 year old
Louisville as home base for day trips
Good gracious it’s hot and air condidioning is nice

If you’ve got suggestions for other themed staycations let me know.