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!)

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.

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.

Go Cards!

The Hater didn’t know they were so soft in B-more. They let an outside
alcohol ban ruin the party? They couldn’t hang with The Hater’s people
at the Kentucky Derby, where the infield is a party scene
despite a long-time ban on outside booze. Finding creative ways to
smuggle in alcohol is a Derby infield tradition going back decades.
Each year up to 80,000 people pack the infield and drink their own
liquor like fish. That’s how they roll in the ‘Ville.

The Third Turn is where the wildest stuff happens because not only
do they know how to party better in the ‘Ville, they are smarter about
it than Baltimore, too. Baltimore grew tired of the debauchery at
Pimlico and banned outside alcohol. The ‘Ville instead has worked out
an unofficial system so the Third Turn is where the debauchery happens
and those who want to stay clear of it can go elsewhere in the infield.

Maybe Schuler should come to Churchill next May and take notes, then
go back and tell his cowering constituents in Baltimore how to do it up
right ‘Ville style.

Two business plan teams from the University of Louisville’s
entrepreneurship MBA program finished in the top four at the Global
Moot Corp competition May 6-9 at the University of Texas at Austin.

Global Moot Corp is considered the Super Bowl of business plan
competitions, and draws 40 teams from schools all across the globe. 

Each team received $3,000 for their finishes.

To qualify for Global Moot Corp, teams had to finish first at
various other business plan competitions held throughout the year.

Both teams developed their concepts and licensed the technology during UofL’s two-year entrepreneurial master’s degree program.

Members of both teams said they plan to move forward with turning their business plans into fully functioning companies.

Watching his team’s business plan succeed has been amazing, said NecoPlastics team member Charles Price.

Throughout
his master’s degree program, he said he heard of other UofL business
challenge teams succeeding in starting a business based on their
business plan models and that it is something that students aspire to.

Well done UofL business students. You’ve certainly done us proud. Can’t wait to see your actual businesses up and running.

W

“The Mayor’s Healthy Hometown Movement (MHHM)
represents Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson’s commitment to developing a
long-term, multi-phase program that builds on social marketing and
public/private partnerships to”create a community wide culture that
encourages and supports healthy lifestyles by promoting increased
physical activity, better nutrition, healthy public policy and access
to needed resources.”

The Hike & Bike events find thousands of people (last fall it was approx. 5,000 folks) enjoying our city on foot or two wheels. It’s a great opportunity to see the city in a different way, if you’re not a bike commuter, or share the joy of riding around Louisville on a bike if you’re an experienced rider.

The complete bicycle route is about 15 miles, with several turnoffs
available providing alternate routes as short as two miles. For
walkers, a wheelchair-accessible “Hike” of about 3.5 miles will start
at Waterfront Park, cross the Clark Memorial/2^nd Street
Bridge then back through downtown Louisville to Waterfront Park.
Walkers can bring dogs to participate in the hike

I just wanted to share that last part because you know I love events I can bring my dog too. We’re a pretty dog friendly city and I love that about us.

The first place is your home.  The second place is your workplace.  The

third place is where you hang out in between.  Ray Oldenburg wrote the book on it.

A cool town is full of great third places.  If you aren’t motivated to leave home or your workplace, chances are you don’t live around too many successful third places.

Coffee shops and neighborhood pubs are the most commonly thought of “third places.” Happily we’ve got both in Louisville but it’s the coffee shops that really warm my heart. I spent a few days in Chicago last week and explored downtown and several neighborhoods. While I had a great time one thing I didn’t find a lot of were great, independent coffee shops. A few afternoons I had exhausted myself in museums and running around and wanted a cool cafe to enjoy a latte in and read a little bit. I didn’t really stumble onto any. One of Louisville’s greatest assets, says the coffee addict, is the abundance of independent coffee shops we have here. I’d go so far as to say there’s an independent coffee culture here. Meetings, dates, trivia nights, thesis writing, internet startup building all take place in the indie coffee houses that line our neighborhoods. Depending on the shop you choose you can soak up vastly different kinds of energy and creativity. It’s a really nice thing to have.