Our Return To Louisville

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     "Hail Mary"                                           https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
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​Our Return To Louisville

     When Tom and I were oh-so-happy newlyweds 48 years ago we lived in Louisville, Kentucky for a year and a half while Tom worked on his masters degree in criminal justice at the University of Louisville and I worked as an archivist at the University Archives and Records Center.
     Here we are in front of our first apartment (cheap at $72 a month even for 1977),

...where we had the hot water heater in the kitchen along with a mini-stove,

...and three small rooms full of second hand furniture.

     It had been about 45 years since we'd last been there when on Friday, May 16, we made the 5 hour drive from Columbus to Louisville.
       We'd booked a room at the Cambria Hotel in downtown Louisville and were quite pleasantly surprised at how very nice the place was for its moderate price.

   Louisville being the home of the Kentucky Derby, the charming lobby, which was actually on the second floor of the hotel, had a horse motif.  

...as well as a nod to the bourbon and whiskey barrel-making industries that are also native to this part of the state.

      On the first floor was the gym and a pool,

...and also a cafe,

...with an outdoor patio.

    When we stepped out of the elevator on our floor we were treated to more photos of horses,

...and the hallway had an interesting shape and a pretty color scheme.

    Our room,

...with a city view.

      Our hotel was in a part of downtown known as Whiskey Row.
      Now, back 48 years ago when we lived in Louisville there was no Whiskey Row that we knew of. Back then downtown Louisville was run down, the streets and old buildings empty, and going downtown could be a rather sketchy experience. That is, except for a stretch of riverfront known as The Belvedere that had been recently developed into a pleasant space where visitors could look out on the Ohio River and the bridges and the Indiana shoreline on the other side.
      However now, to our surprise, downtown Louisville had been majorly renovated and brought to life since our days here, and many of the historic old buildings had been repurposed as restaurants, music bars, entertainment venues, art spaces, apartments, and offices.

     Apparently the town has immersed itself in Kentucky's history as the world capital of the production of bourbon whiskey, which is made mostly in the distilleries around Louisville. And so now downtown Louisville is a tourist destination for those wanting to have the Kentucky bourbon experience.

      We found the spotlessly clean streets of downtown  Louisville alive with people out on this Friday night, people who were staying in the hotels, eating in the restaurants, listening to the music, patronizing the businesses and, I expect, sampling Kentucky bourbon in the many establishments offering it.
        After settling into our hotel Tom and I joined the crowds strolling Whiskey Row and taking in the downtown sights,

...passing on our way the new Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts - that is to say, new since the last time we were here.  

(Okay, I looked it up. The Kentucky Center was built in 1983. I guess that makes it not so new). We also passed the likewise not-really-new-but-new-to-us KFC Yum! Center, the city's multi-purpose arena.

    We decided to walk  over to The Belvedere to see if it, too, had changed over the years.

     We found that The Belvedere had also changed. Having gone in the opposite direction of the rest of downtown Louisville, The Belvedere, once a lively, built-up area, was now mostly an empty space.

     However it still offered the same riverfront views of the bridges and of Indiana on the other side,

...and, in the opposite direction, a panorama of downtown.

     We then walked back towards the hotel in search of somewhere along the way to find dinner. We passed a number of bourbon, beef, and barbecue places and most of them looked pretty crowded. However a couple of blocks from our hotel we came upon a promising-looking pizzeria called Bearnos,

...with a sports-themed dining room,

...and great pizza.

     And over our dinner I pondered how much I would be enjoying this evening and our surprising rediscovery of Louisville, now so delightfully different from when we left it all those years ago, if not for the ache in my heart over reason for our return: We were here in Louisville to say our last goodbye to my old friend, Jan.

    To be continued...