I’ve been looking to get out for a while now but without ever being able to take off from work during the week I tried to take a day trip on a Sunday, so on motzei shabbos with about 15 tabs open I'm looking for a short haul leaving in the am to return in the evening, that has availability.
About 3 sandwiches and a bowl of ice cream later I have it broken down to 3 places, GSO, BGR, or LEX, LEX was the one with the most time between flights so I went with that.
The flight ended up being:
PHL-LEX 9:05 am AA3920 (4.5k avios)
LEX-PHL 8:15 pm AA3825 (4.5k avios)
Next, transportation. What would be the best way to accomplish a significant amount of ground the quickest? I settled on a car rental, so I'm not tied down to anything like waiting for ubers etc. A quick search on orbitz (using hertz usaa cdp 77694) and I reserved a small SUV for $36 with unlimited miles.
Now what in the world is there to do in Lexington Kentucky? (HT Adam101, thanks) after a little research it became obvious to me that it all comes down to 2 things in Kentucky, bourbon and horses. Later that night I found a very helpful website (
http://www.visitlex.com/things-to-do/) listing all attractions, skimmed through that to see what catches my eye, I came up with a short but decent list it looked something like this:
distilleries
Floral clock
Capital Avenue
National Horse Park
The Arboretum
So I figure vasikin is at around 6am, perfect! So I can have a couple min after shachris to get myself together have breakfast etc, NOT!
Of course it's Sunday and I'm used to getting up at 8, so now I open my eyes and it's 6:25 ahhh I start scrambling grab my tefillin get a couple things together jump in the car. I finish davening and run in to the local bagel shop to grab something for breakfast, but of course it's Sunday so at 6:45 they still don't have bagels, the guy tried to sell me some of Fridays tuna on a wrap, I politely declined (I'd rather just be hungry...) and get on the way taking the 195 to the NJ turnpike to PHL.
I get to the airport at 8:15 making great timing thinking I'm ahead of the game, right? Wrong again! I park in economy parking and get to the bus just as he's about to pull away, the driver saw me, kindly stops and allows me to get on the bus. It's now about 8:25 and I start feeling the tension hoping to still make it through security on time to board. Quickly self check in and rush to security to see the line is until the door. Bleh! Oh well, will have to wait on line, snaking my way forward, after what feels like forever (probably about 10 minutes) they open a second line making things go a bit faster, I'm finally at the front and make it through just in time (sir, do you have anything in your pockets I'm going to have to pat you down...)
Making it to the plane with 2 min to spare I see a very small crowd waiting to board. Yes! Just what I was hoping for, a nice quiet flight!
As we're boarding the plane the stewardess keeps announcing "This is not a full flight, please sit wherever you want, enjoy a full row if you'd like"
Empty flight indeed, we are all boarded up in less than 5 min.
The FA continues: "Everyone please finish taking selfies so I can give the safety briefing, we will be cruising at uh very fast, I know some of you are horse riders but here you must wear your seatbelts... in case of emergency your seat cushion is an approved floating device, hug the cushion to your chest, you 'should' float... We have peanuts pretzels wine and beer for purchase, hey it's 5 o'clock somewhere... we only carry coke products please do not ask for diet Pepsi, please enjoy these free amenities as you never know when American will start charging 25 cents to open the window shade..."
When we reach cruising altitude she puts on an apron and starts acting like a waitress, taking orders from everyone, I request a diet coke, which arrived about 2 min later. Another 2 min and she's walking around offering everyone little cups of nuts or Pringles. I declined, politely saying that I keep kosher so I would have to see the package first, she says "oh sorry about that" and continues serving the plane.
I lean back to try to get some shut eye, and moments later can sense someone coming towards me, the steward is coming over, she's holding 3 packages of snacks presents them to me saying "here you go!"
I proceed to show her the star k on the nuts and the ou on the Pringles, she starts asking all sorts of questions to which I respond as simply as I can, “it’s about different dietary laws and there are different associations the same way you have Delta and American Airlines.
She seems to get it, I chose the nuts and Pringles, because they where kosher.
She comes over half hr later holding a nature valley bar showing me the ou "like this?" 2 min later with a bottle of titos vodka "this too?"
Over all by the best flight experience with AA I've ever had, and I made sure to tip her as well.
Once we landed, there was really amazing weather
I breezed right over to the hertz counter singed, got keys (if you drive under 75 miles please bring in a gas receipt, because the needle doesn’t move)
went to get the car and I'm off.
I wasn't sure what to do first, but my mind was made up for me as I'm pulling out of the airport I see national horse park
not knowing anything about horses the first thing I did was drive around a bit to get a feel for the place.
I met a bunch of nice people riding horses, and found my way to the arena.
Once inside it’s very quiet and has seating like a baseball stadium only the turf is different I start watching with the small crowd, as the horse does a couple walk a rounds and a couple of tricks.
I had no idea what was going on until speaking with some locals. I learned that this is a rating for how well the horse is trained, I got bored after 25 min so I got some pictures and started heading out, I asked around a bit about some bourbon tours and found Woodford Reserve not too far, drove down there and got in for the 12:20 tour ($10)
They had a nice little café inside and a cute wraparound porch outside that has tables and rocking chairs.
It was really peaceful there so I waited around there until the tour was to begin. The tour was entertaining and informative, we first took a bus down the hill, and toured the fermentation area. The fermentation area has a spot at the door to explain the ingredients, and he explained that the water is the most important.
We took a flight up to check out the tanks, on the left was the mixing tank
and on the right were six fermenting tanks
it ferments for 6 days and every day they make a new batch. He also explained all the slang terms. Next was down to the stills
He said they are the only American booze company with 3 stills.
Then storing
They fill the barrel and roll it out the window
And down the track
And store them in a warehouse for aging
and finally bottling
It came to an end (about 1:15hrs)
With a tasting of the classic Woodford and the double barrel
From there I headed down the road to check out another distillery “The Old Taylor” that’s being restored (supposedly due to open in 2016.... doubtful from the looks of it)
At about 2:30pm I headed in to a local Wal-Mart got a phone charger and something to eat.
I headed over to the floral clock
(um not so floral this time of year...)
I didn't realize beforehand but the clock is behind the Capitol buildings on Capitol Avenue so I got that in as well although they were closed (Sunday)
along with the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion
Front of the Capitol is under construction
And from the front of the Capitol heading down the stairs
I also stopped by Captain Jack jouett home but it was closed:
It's now about 4:15 pm I start heading to the Raven Run Nature Sanctuary
Stopped for some pictures at a random farm
And at Kentucky State University on the way
It was around 5:15 when i arrived and they closed at 5, so she suggested that I head over to McConnell Springs, "that's where it was founded and it all started" I'm not sure what she was referring to by that but why not, it's near the airport either way.
I tried finding mincha at chabbad but there was no minyan as the shluchim were at the kinnus. I davened and headed for McConnell Springs.
By the time I got there it was already dark so I just snapped some pictures and left
I thought about hitting up Red Mile, but did some quick online research and it looks to be pretty much just a casino, forget that, not what I came for. Now it's getting late and I quickly checked out Rupp Arena (wildcats)
and Lexington center before heading out. I wasn’t sure what it was before I got inside. Lexington center is a small mall and convention center, connected to Rupp Arena. Lexington center was open but it was empty, and Rupp center was closed
Inside Lexington center
Some galleries
And the Hilton on the next corner
Headed back to the airport with plenty of time, (it’s about 15 min from Lexington towers) tried to get to the club but it closed at 5pm. Boarded, got a quick view of the cockpit
landed on time thankfully because at this time I'm wiped and ready to go to sleep!
Total cost:
9k avios + $12
$36 hertz
$17 gas
$10 Woodford
$20 walmart
$5 tip
$15 (roughly) gas and tolls to phl
Total: $115 and 9k avios
Thanks,
Adam101, Emkay
sorry for the low quality pictures, all taken on the s5.
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