My Old Kentucky Home [Away from Home]

Just got back from Lexington--literally. We walked in the door almost 2 hours ago. We left at 11 this morning and through the magic of pit stops, distillery tours, and tourist trap lunch destinations, it took us right at 11 hours to get back. But aside from the monster drive (both ways), the trip was fantastic.

We started out on Wednesday morning and drove all day in the Prius (Don't get me started about how much I hate that vehicle) to finally reach Lexington around 7pm that night. Somewhere there was a time change in there, but your guess is as good as mine as to what time it actually was. The only picture that really turned out from the road was in Huntsville:

As you can see, that one wasn't very good either. Not only did I forget my actual camera and have to rely on my phone for photographic evidence of my travels, but I also happen to really suck at taking pictures, as you can see by my failed attempt at capturing the Corvette Museum for Jason:

Awesome, right? Anyway, once we got to Lexington, we unloaded, ate quite possibly the best tamales in the world (random, I know, but they were so far beyond amazing), and I got to play with my aunt's dog, Molly. Molly is an 8-year-old Yorkie mix with an appetite for life--and anything you happen to be eating at the time. She's a sweet heart, though:

She's a little small (As we all know, I think dogs have to be at least 50 lbs to be considered REAL dogs), but she grows on you.

On Thursday morning, we sat in on the Mayor's Alliance on Substance Abuse meeting (My aunt is the Commissioner of Public Health for Lexington and Fayette County so we got to tag along and pretend to be important), where I got to meet KY Supreme Court Justice Mary Noble. My aunt kept insisting that I meet positive role models of women in law, and to say the least, Justice Noble qualifies. She is a fascinating woman and her work in the drug courts is remarkable. Did I take any pictures with Justice Noble? Of course I didn't. Why would I want to have a record of something like that?

After the meeting, we headed up to Henry County to our favorite winery in Kentucky, the Smith-Berry Winery. The drive up there was gorgeous. We started out on the interstate but most of the trip was a winding highway through the Kentucky countryside. I got a few photos, but they don't do it justice:

 

My problem is that I never think to take pictures when I should take them. I should have gotten a picture of the winery, but I didn't think about it. Take my word for it, though: It's gorgeous. It's a little farm house with a barn that sits on farmland the family converted to a vineyard. We usually buy a case of their Bluegrass Blush (everyone's favorite) but this year they had several new wines and one of them was a blackberry. It was sweet initially but finished tart so you weren't left feeling sick from the sweetness. We were so fond of it that we broke from tradition and split the case between the blush and the blackberry. That may not sound radical, but if you knew my mother, you would know what a great feat it was. The blush might be her favorite thing in the world. 

 Friday was a busy, busy day. The entire purpose of the Lexington trip was so that I could take an official campus tour of the UK Law School but we packed so much more into our last full day in town. We started the day by visiting the Greenebaum Doll & McDonald law office so I could meet Ted Martin, the attorney for the Health Department, and pick his brain. We toured the extensive--but mostly for show--law library the firm boasts and had lunch at a great little place down the street. He made me feel a lot better about law school and practicing in general. I guess that's why my aunt wanted me to meet him. Oh yeah, during lunch, I met a federal judge. He happened to walk by and speak to Ted. Did I have anything clever to say to him when he asked (after he'd been told I was looking at law school) if I ever wanted to earn an honest living? Of course not. All I could say was, "No sir!" Fail. Epic fail, Rossmanith.

On a random note, have you seen this Newsweek cover? It makes me want to puke:

I snapped this picture while waiting in the lobby of the law firm. Just thought I'd share. It's gross.

But I digress. The actual UK Law School visit was pretty cool. The building is kind of old, but not old enough to be historic, just old enough to be old. But the students kind of liked it. The student lounge is called "The Dirty Lounge," not because it's dirty, but because it's worn in. There was one other prospective student on the tour with me who happened to be from Birmingham. We sat in on a torts class where I learned that shared liability in a civil suit is ridiculously convoluted. I'm looking forward to law school, let me tell ya.

Aesthetically, UK has a beautiful campus. Did I think to take a picture of the aforementioned old law school building? Nope. But I did get a picture of one of the more famous structures on campus (other than Rupp Arena):

Memorial Hall is featured on the UK logo and is right next door to the law school. It's no Samford Hall, but at least they tried, right?

So the verdict on going all the way to Lexington for law school? While the campus is GORGEOUS and Lexington is a great city, I just didn't feel at home there.

After I wrapped up my visit (and dealt with the bloody mess that my high heels left my poor feet), we spent the rest of the day shopping. We started out in Lexington and then made our way north. We drove into Cincinnati at rush hour (not our smartest decision of the day) and putted along at 4 mph until we got to whatever open-air mall we ended up at. While getting there was a chore, the shopping center itself was pretty neat. We found a few good sales, spent a little too much money on things that weren't on sale (I can't say no to pretty dresses. When even I whip out the debit card, you know it's serious), and really enjoyed our last night together. And after an entire autumn of searching, I finally found the perfect pair of brown boots. Perfect heel, perfect toe, perfect boots:

Now all I have to do is find a black pair with a higher heel and I'll be set for winter. Did I mention that I'm a shoe addict? Oh, well I am. Everyone has one ridiculous thing that they spend their money on. My ridiculous thing is shoes. On the wonderful Auburn roadtrip to Baton Rouge (I'll get to that trip in a later post), every time the boys would start talking about cars in that really annoying way, Rachel and I would match it with talk about shoes. It's amazing how parallel we could run those conversations.

Leaving this morning was a chore. We didn't get back from Cincinnati until late last night so getting up was the last thing we wanted to do. But eventually we got the car packed and we got on the road. We stopped at the Maker's Mark historic distillery to grab a few Christmas presents and really enjoyed seeing the site. Although "stopped by" is a little misleading because the distillery itself is about 19 of the curviest miles ever away from the Bluegrass Parkway into the middle of nowhere. How many bars did AT&T provide me with out there? I'll let my iPhone answer that for you:

(Yes, I just took that picture. Yes, I forgot to take one at the time. No, I'm not ashamed of it. Yes, the service really is that bad at my house.) And that was before we turned off on the long winding road the distillery was actually on. Then my phone kindly told me I had "No Service" and refused to do anything. According to Verizon, there's a map for that (And seriously, the fact that AT&T is suing Verizon over those ads is ridiculous. I wish they would spend their money expanding their coverage instead of suing competing companies who call them out on it. Just saying). But we made it there and back to the Bluegrass Parkway without incident, even when we thought we heard the banjos.

 

Yes! My awesome photography captures yet another priceless Kentucky moment. Didn't I even remind myself on this blog to bring a real camera?

We stopped at the Whistle Stop Cafe for lunch in Glendale, KY. It was nearly 2 and we were still in Kentucky. This did not bode well for the rest of the trip. But the food was pretty good, despite being an obvious tourist trap. We filled up on fried green tomatoes before our entrees even came out. Needless to say, we took our leftovers with us (We never travel without an unnecessarily large cooler. My family is strange, but sometimes that comes in handy) and they'll make a fine lunch tomorrow.

The rest of the trip was a blur of interstate, terrible drivers, never being in the correct lane in Nashville, worrying about Jason (whose phone and debit card were both stolen while he was in Austin. I hadn't heard from him in 24 hours and I was really worried), and listening to a terribly disappointing Auburn game on the radio.

So now, a couple of hours after I started this travel tale (Hey give me a break. I've been catching up on a ton of email and Facebooking that I missed while my phone was my only source of internet for 4 days. Plus, I had to get the post-game report from George and the boys and those things take time), I've finally come to the end of it. Next time I go somewhere I promise to take better pictures. Maybe. If I remember. And bring a real camera. So yeah probably not.