“She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes.”
~
Frank Deford

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Vacation in Kentucky (with a little Nashville, TN thrown in)

Yes, yes, people at work think I'm on vacation all the time too, but it's really been a few months since Colorado :)  A few weeks ago I went to Kentucky to see Mammoth Cave National Park, the world's longest cave system.  It has over 400 miles (!) of explored tunnels and caverns - there's still more that are still to be seen.  I flew into Nashville on an overnight red-eye and spent the day sightseeing there before driving north to my condo near Cave City, KY.  I then spent 4 days checking out some of Kentucky's sights:  one day in the national park (taking 2 two-hour tours - since it was off-season we had only 20 people/tour, which meant the tour guide was able to stop much more often and give us lots of info), one day in Bowling Green (home of the only GM plant that manufactures Corvettes - great tour!), a day in Louisville (think Louisville Slugger bats, museums, bourbon), a day around Bardstown, center of Bourbon country (where I, yes I, went on a tour of Heaven Hill distillery and participated in a bourbon tasting!).  There were stops at state parks (My Old Kentucky Home), national monuments (Abraham Lincoln's birthplace), and other museums (including both Tennessee and Kentucky state museums).

All in all, a very fun and insightful week in the not-so-deep south.  Here are a few dozen photos of some of the interesting and beautiful things I say.  Hope you enjoy them :)

NASHVILLE, TN

At President Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage

Tennessee state flag





Ryman Auditorium, original home of the Grand Ol' Opry


Hatch Letterpress Printers

View from the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge



Music venues and bars on Broadway



BOWLING GREEN, KY

National Corvette Museum



Near Fountain Square

LOUISVILLE, KY







The Seelbach Hotel (now a Hilton)

Louisville Slugger Factory & Museum

Bucolic view on the Ohio River

BARDSTOWN, KY


Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park (there's a log cabin inside that!)


My Old Kentucky Home SP (where Stephen Foster wrote that song)



Inside the Whiskey Museum


MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK






Where the Green River now exits the caves




Cave crickets!

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Every day beauty

Sometimes I'll be walking in my neighborhood or driving in my car and something will catch my eye.  It might be an amazing sunset or the Goodyear blimp flying by, but often it's just the simple symmetry of natural arrays or a pleasant arrangement of objects.  Here are some ordinary things that have their own beauty.  Enjoy.