Louisville, Kentucky – February 2021 – Sam and Katelyn's Travels

February 14, 2021 – February 20, 2021

Where We Stayed: Hyatt House Louisville – East

Trip Highlights:

The best BBQ we’ve ever had
Kentucky Derby Museum

Favorite Restaurants:

In February 2021, we drove down to Louisville, Kentucky for a week to work from a hotel and eat takeout. And, honestly, that’s about it. Given the pandemic and snowy weather, we spent most of the week in our hotel enjoying delicious food from several nearby restaurants, working from a new environment and playing lots of board games.

We managed to try out a variety of international restaurants while we were there, including Cuban food from Mojito in Havana and (Gluten free) ramen and fried chicken from Chik n’ Mi. The Cuban food wasn’t Sam’s favorite, but I loved it.

However, our favorite takeout actually came by surprise. On our first full day working from Louisville, the entire city shut down due to a (very minor by our typical Wisconsin standards) snowstorm. So, rather than driving to pick up takeout from a restaurant 15-20 minutes away, we opted to pick up barbeque from City Barbeque, a restaurant across the parking lot from our hotel.

And OH. MY. GOSH. It was the best barbeque, ribs in particular, that we have EVER had. We ended up picking up food from this place four times over the course of the week. The good news is that they are actually a chain, so there are restaurants in Madison, outside of Chicago, and in Ohio on the way to Philadelphia, so it’s safe to say we’ll be back!

We took Friday off from working to chill out and play board games and go to the Kentucky Derby Museum, our one touristy stop of the trip. The museum is actually on the grounds of Churchill Downs, where they hold the Kentucky Derby, and the museum ticket allowed a short tour of the grounds as well.

Neither of us are particularly fans of horse racing, but the museum was incredibly well done, and a really interesting look at something that we honestly know nothing about.

The most fascinating thing to us was that the actual race is only two minutes long! It’s also the origination of the phrase “get the lead out” which referred to jockey’s previously using lead to make themselves seem heavier to meet the weight requirements ahead of the race, and then dropping the lead just as the race begins to make themselves more nimble. This is, obviously, no longer allowed. Overall, I think it was a great way to learn a little more about the city we spent a week visiting.