Louisville

Yeah, Louisville!

Since we've been pouring most of our money into the house in the past year, vacations have been out of the question. Fortunately, Lauren has been travelling quite a bit within the midwest this year, so we've gotten to take a lot of smaller trips to Chicago, Louisville, Nashville, etc.

So, about a week ago, Lauren told me he had a surprise planned for my birthday, and not to make any plans for the weekend. He wouldn't tell me where we were going, and of course that drove me nuts. I tried to get it out of Ben, but Lauren finally got smart enough NOT to tell Ben his secret because Ben can't keep a secret for anything. We all knew we were going to a hotel (Ben says 'otel) with a pool, and Ben packed his suitcase a week ago out of sheer excitement. He packed the entire contents of his top drawer (all of his underwear, socks, pajamas and trunks) and a yo-yo.

So, we left yesterday around noon, and got down to Louisville in the afternoon. We got into our room, changed diapers and emptied bladders, and headed back to the car - Lauren had reservations for us already. We both like independent, retro kind of stuff, and he found the oldeset bowling alley in KY (3rd oldest in the nation), and we went bowling. It was a very fun little place - the owner was the bartender and the manager and drilled holes in the balls. They had 8 lanes, and despite the fact that it was old and small, it has been kept up very well and was pretty contemporary. They even had Lebowski fest posters all over the place. You can trust a place with Lebowski fest gear.

So, Ben and Evan were SO excited... so excited that they were obnoxious. This, added to the fact that they had been in the car for over two hours and didn't have naps of any value, made for a frustrating evening. Evan wanted every turn to be his, and didn't have a problem running into everyone else's lanes. He also wanted to grab whatever ball was heaviest and in the middle of the ball return, where his hands could easily get smashed. We ended up bringing his stroller inside and strapping him in - we were desperate, and it stopped his screaming. Ben would push the ball from behind the line, and it would seriously take about 2-3 minutes to get down to the pins. It even stopped a few times. So, it took us about 90 minutes to do one round, but after Evan calmed down it was pretty fun. The beer helped.

We went to an uneventful dinner (Evan slept through the whole thing), and went back to our rooms. This morning we took the boys swimming, which is what they have waited for all week, and had a blast. We headed into one of the arts districts in Louisville after that, and took in a few galleries (and you know I loved it). We stopped by a winery on the way back - the Huber Winery - in Starlight, IN. It was a nice time of year to go - there was no one there and we had the tasting bar all to ourselves. We strapped Evan in the stroller once again and tasted a few wines, then had dinner there also.

For all the obnoxiousness I have to put up with from Lauren, he can occasionally do something very sweet, and very thoughtful. If we didn't have two extra people in the bed tonight, I'd think about repaying him. Darn... too bad. :)