Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go to Louisville, Kentucky. I had asked the boys to write down five things they would like to do this summer and Tanner and Corey both put down to visit the Louisville Slugger Bat Museum, so off we went to Kentucky. We left after school on Friday and got to Bowling Green, Kentucky where we spent the night. The next morning we headed on up to Louisville. We noticed that Abraham Lincoln's birthplace and childhood home were not to far off the highway so we took a fun little side trip. Abraham Lincoln's birthplace was a very nice National Park, with gift shop, a movie, and small museum. The name of his homestead was Sinking Springs because of the spring that is still there today.

Going up the steps to the "Lincoln Memorial"

In the gift shop

About 10 miles down the road was his childhood home.

We are usually on such a tight time schedule when we go somewhere that we never take little out of the way side trips. We were all glad that we had the time to do a little extra sight seeing on this trip. I think the boys learned a few things about President Lincoln.

The Louisville Slugger Bat Museum

For a family of baseball players, this was the place to go. Bats everywhere that could be touched and swung and rubbed. Bats of famous players, hall of famers, up and coming players - you name it. The actual factory part where they made the bats was very interesting. I never knew there was so much to learn about wooden bats.

Tanner swinging Evan Longoria's bat.

Hanging out in the giant glove.

Kannon swinging David "Big Poppy" Ortiz's bat.

Hanging out with Ken Griffey, Jr.

"We are the Ship" was a special traveling exhibit that happened to be at the museum while we were there. It is all about the Professional Negro League. Corey had just finished a big Social Studies project on this book so it was really cool for him to look at the exhibit.

These bronzed home plates and bats are all along the main street in downtown Louisville. They are like the "stars" in Hollywood. The boys had fun finding them and reading about each player. After spending the entire afternoon at the Museum we walked to the ballpark to see the Louisville Bats play. They are a minor league team affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds.

We also squeezed in a swim at the hotel pool.

Sunday morning we went to church and then we went to ChurchHill Downs. Yes, I know that was not really a very appropriate place to go on Sunday but I promise we didn't do any betting. I wasn't sure if kids could go to the horse races but I guess they can. We thought we would just take a tour of the place but then found out that there were races going on. Fun!

This was the paddock area where before each race the horses were brought out and walked around for everyone to see. Kannon was amazed how little the jockeys were - some of them were not much bigger then him.

After a fun afternoon at the races, we actually went back to the bat museum. We had to pick up a bat Barry ordered and of course we had to hold more bats.

What a fun weekend trip! We wished that Dustin could have come along too but he was at home working a baseball tournament for the younger legion players.