#june2013

june was pretty solidly split between two things: travelling and wedding planning. and we did a lot of both. in fact, it seemed like if we weren't doing one thing, we were doing the other. but we had a great time in our travels and the wedding is coming along quite nicely. 

places we went: 

puerto peñasco, mexico

williamsburg, virginia

san diego, california

as for wedding planning, we accomplished so much -- we've chosen a theme, a photographer, & a caterer, and where we're going to host our welcome dinner, our ceremony, and our reception! i'm kind of impressed with ourselves. and i promise, one day, when i feel like my entire day isn't spent on wedding stuff, i will start writing some blogs on things we are learning and our progress. (first i have to finish my million and half posts from our road trip!)

                            

how was your june?

that's a big bat: the louisville slugger museum

there was really only one thing on my list of things to do in louisville: see the big bat. luckily our hotel was pretty close and we could walk to the museum. as we walked we passed tons of little bat statues that tell the history of the louisville slugger. each statue had a plaque next to it describing the model number, year of creation, and baseball player who used that model. it was pretty neat to see the differences in the louisville slugger over time or depending on players' specifications.

what's cool about this museum, is that it's a factory as well. so while we didn't have an opportunity to go through the museum itself, we did get a chance to see some of the bats get branded with the louisville slugger logo through the factory windows.

  

 

facts about "the big bat": it is a replica of model R43, the 34" wood bat that was designed to Babe Ruth's specifications in the 1920s. it's 120 feet tall, 9 feet around, and weighs 68,000 pounds.

inside the museum, they have a large wall of all of the baseball players who've signed a contract with louisville slugger throughout the years. i tried to capture the enormity of this wall by taking a picture of one square, nolan ryan, rcg's favorite player. as you can see, his one small square is just one of hundreds on a panel, and there were over 20 panels on the wall. it's pretty impressive.

 

can you find nolan ryan's square in these two pictures?

on the left: middle column, fourth up from the bottom
on the right: fourth column from the right, eleven up from the bottom.

disco balls and red penguins: downtown louisville

  

like i mentioned before, csv and i barely planned out our road trip. sure, we had an idea of where we wanted to sleep each night, but we had no hotel reservations. so each night, while i drove, csv searched our aaa books and priceline to find a hotel for that night. we struck gold in louisville; finding a fancy hotel in downtown louisville for $60!

(we got the idea to search for our hotel rooms the day of from my dad, who went on his own awesome road trip two years ago. to read about his trip, check out his blog: mischief's motorcycle ride across america.)

 

on the morning of day three, we walked from our hotel to the louisville slugger museum, and discovered how adorable downtown louisville is. there is beautiful iron work on the sewer grates, random artwork in the streets, including red penguins on top of buildings and a gold david statue, and the buildings have beautiful architecture.

another thing we discovered on our walk was the louisville science center with an awesome outdoor exhibit on disco balls and mirrors. 

 

louisville fun fact: did you know that 90% of the united states' disco balls are made in louisville?

me neither. pretty cool, huh?

  

another fun fact about louisville: the belle of louisville is the oldest mississippi style steamboat in existence. she's 99 years old this year!

who knew louisville was so cute.