Seeing Kentucky

It is true that the majority of the reason why I haven't blogged in weeks is because I've been entirely consumed by school and therefore have done little of anything that is blog worthy, and even when I do, I don't have time to post about it. But, last weekend we had a great time and actually had a good little day trip.

Since the time I announced to all my friends that we would be moving to Lexington (when Grant found out he got into school here), Lauren has been saying she would be coming "fall of 2010" which at the time seemed like ages away. Well it just so happens that the World Equestrian Games were held here this year (the first time in the United States) and it was a BIG deal in the horse world. The city has been gearing up for it since we moved here. When Lauren and Peter bought their plane tickets here a few months ago, I got very excited, seeing as how this trip we had been talking about for years, would finally be a reality.

There was only 1 day that they weren't busy at the horse park with events (but that worked out well since we were busy with school the remainder of the time) and it was set aside as "Layton Fun Day". We decided to do a little Kentucky tour...

Our first stop was a Shaker Village not far from here.

Trying to fit in at the village...

Grant playing around with the farm equipment

Although you cannot tell, it was starting to rain in this picture, which is the reason for the jacket on the head. No, I'm not just going crazy...After Shaker Village, we headed off to find a Bourbon tour. Since Bourbon is such an integral part of Kentucky life, we thought it was something we should do while we lived here, and this was the perfect opportunity.

First we stopped at Wild Turkey, but realized it was not really that nice, and so headed on to the next one...but had to get some good pictures riding the turkey first :)

After some more Kentucky scenery on the drive, we arrived at Woodford Reserve. The tour was actually really interesting and the property the distillery sits on was really pretty.

Thousands of liters of bubbling mash...this room smelled disgustingly like yeast.

Then there were the "Willy Wonka" machines (at least that is what I called them). Sort of wish that chocolate instead of Bourbon came out of them though!

The barrel roll, kinda cool.

Woodford Reserve

And you can't visit Lexington without going to Keeneland. Unfortunately, races opened yesterday and they left Tuesday, but we did get to walk around and Lauren went for a little run on the track :)
And the night before they left, they were kind enough to take us out to dinner. We had a wonderful time and loved getting to spend time with them! See everyone, Kentucky is awesome, come and visit!

Hope you enjoyed your stay in Lexington!