Louisville, and let's get this straight it's pronounced Loo'l vil, was our second long term stay of the year and like Dallas Fort Worth, Texas it's hard to organize all the things we did over the month into a simple structure. Several major attractions like the Louisville Zoo, the wonderful Kentucky State Fair, and Yew Dell Gardens rather naturally fit on these seperate pages while the decorated horse sculptures of Gallopalooza were so numerous they almost overwhelm their own page. For the rest they are sort of mostly divided into similar blocks like I did for Dallas Fort Worth.
Our plans for most Sundays included a trip to the heart of Louisville both for the free parking and it was only packed and not jam packed. There were several of these sculptures, bike racks, both? scattered throughout the downtown areas and intermixed with the Gallopalooza horses gace the whole area with a colorful festive character.
Downtown also has fountains and the Louisville Slugger Factory showroom and museum allowing you to actually pay for the privilege of purchasing your very own souvenirs to carry home. Lori liked the street corner architecture so it's here.
She also liked the other red stone building that looks like it started as a firehouse but right here is closed and sadly in need of repair. This other photograph just shows the general character of the older parts of downtown and I don't think the while building is the same as either of those above.
The downtown Louisville Waterfront has been developed into a major asset with a series of parks and attractions along a wonderful hiking, biking, strolling, meandering riverwalk. I'm pretty sure we did the whooooooole thing, in the heat, as Johnny Cash would say One Piece at a Time
. On the east end near the marina and small boat docks stands the remaining facade of the house built by master stonemason Christian Heigold in 1850 which has surived multiple floods and moves until it currently stands on the north end of Frankfort Avenue
Of the many playgrounds along the riverwalk I think my favorite was what some call the Petting Zoo
and I fondly refer to as the Chicken Park. Also checking out the waterfront website above I seem to have missed a number of areas mostly near the east end, the Lincoln Memorial, and the pedestrian bridge across the river to Jeffersonville. Maybe understandable when I had this whole page finished with August pictures then I discovered more from September.
The actual Riverfront Park has these great waterplay features along one side at least partially created by diverting a local stream to make it an asset rather than a dirty ditch. On a warm summer day the kids loved to run screaming through the waterjets at naturally extreme volume while others enjoy the pools.
Luxury condos like Preston Pointe now fill the gap between the downtown high rises and the riverfront parks. The west end of Riverwalk extends just past the riverboat docking with the Spirit of Jefferson
shown here while the Belle of Louisville
was out on the water.
Looking across the Ohio River is Jeffersonville, Indiana with LST 325 visiting from Evansville, Indiana docked here for tours. Owned and operated by a veterans group various websites indicate it has been bounced from port to port and hopefully now found a permanent home in Evansville.
Looking back from the Jeffersonville, Indiana side the city skyline changes dramatically from daytime above to the blue hour
just after sunset and finally full dark as the lights shine across the Ohio River. I was trying to capture one of the barges passing the city to the locks just west but they get lost in the overwhelming lights of the Louisville. If you really want the whole truth we were visiting a highly recommended ice cream shop along the waterfront.
The Louisville Glassworks is a coop venture that allows individuals to rent the studio for demonstrations and classes in the hope of attracting more students and buyers to support their learning experience and budding artistic business. I had a chance to experience glassworking in high school chemistry class and have always loved it although not enough to settle down for the ten years or so it would take to get really good at making things.
The Frazier History Museum just one block from the glassworks was presenting a feature on the role of armor in warfare manly focused on the European knights which were the main battle tank in the middle ages and how firearms changes the equation.
The David Armstrong Extreme Park was rebuilt and renamed in 2014 adding a 24 foot full pipe which was not available when I took these pictures of kids under 50 practicing their moves mostly without helmets or any other wimpy protective gear. Hay man ya gotta be kool!
Getting a little further out of downtown St James Court in Old Louisville is a quarter mile concourse extending south from Central Park. Centered on this fountain it is lined on both sides with these historic mansions and houses lovingly restored to their original splendor and in some cases probably beyond. With the large mature trees it is a great place to walk in August.
Most of our trips between the motel in the southeast of Louisville to the downtown area were on Frankfort Avenue to avoid the freeway crowding and passed a rectangular hill fenced around the top. From Reservoir Avenue (that probably should have been a clue) these stairs lead up to the gatehouse for the Crescent Hill Reservoir which has now been restored and opened for tours. During our visit it was locked up and beat up and only a path around the reservoir was open. This goes on the bucket list for a return visit.
Our travels also passed the Kaden tower frequently which incidentally has a Ruth Cris restaurant on the top and I just liked the color in the sunset. Iroquois Park west of the airport is one of the highest points in the area with a smoggy long range view of the city. In the heat and humidity this is the best I did.
Coming out of an underpass near the motel we frequently saw the groundhogs in the field at the top. Since I was born on February second groundhogs are friends of mine and I have a not that great 1200mm lens with a 2X teleconverter that with some careful positioning could capture this guy from the other side of the road. Even from a couple hundred yards away he was very skittish and it took a lot of patience to wait for him to come back after getting the camera setup.