Let's Go Places: Frankfort, Kentucky

Greeting Friends!  This weekend I put another check mark in my "spend at least one night in every state in the next 10 years" and "tour all of the State Capitols" goals.  I planned to do a lot of hiking but ended up touring breweries instead.  This is that story.

Why Frankfort?

After getting dates for two big trips on the calendar, it was time to return to my travel roots with a simple road trip.  Where could I go that was an easy drive, was in a different state, and bonus points if it was a state capital?  Frankfort Kentucky jumped off the map and said "Pick me!  Pick me!".

I started looking for other things to do in the area, and Mammoth Cave National Park caught my eye.  It was just two hours away, and caves are a great option for March when the weather can be dicey.  I also took note of Red River Gorge, which was an hour from Frankfort in the other direction, and saw the potential for a hiking bender.

I saw that bourbon tours are a big thing in the area.  I wasn't interested in doing a booze weekend, but when in Rome, you should always do a bit of what the Romans do.  About 10 years ago our neighbor did a whiskey tasting party, and the winner was Maker's Mark.  Guess what, Maker's Mark is on the way to Mammoth Cave, so again it seemed like the universe was practically planning the trip for me.

My plan was:

• Thursday: drive to Frankfort.  Do a bit of work in the morning before I left and once I got there to preserve my precious PTO.
• Friday: tour the Capitol and take in the sights of Frankfort, maybe check out Red River Gorge.
• Saturday: Mammoth Cave and Maker's Mark.
• Sunday: More Red River Gorge, go home.

I went back and forth on whether I wanted to go to Mammoth Cave or not.  Red River Gorge was really calling, and I wasn't sure that I would have time to go on Friday or on Sunday.  You have to reserve tours at Mammoth Cave in advance, and even though it was two weeks in advance, the pickings were slim.  After tossing a coin, I ended up booking Mammoth Cave.  I can't say exactly why I made that choice, but spoiler, it ended out being the right call due to weather.

As far as where to stay, I'm always looking to make a move on the travel hacking front.  Airbnb>hotel is usually a better trip experience, but man oh man there was a Hyatt deal that would have given me points upon points.  C'mon it's just a few days, what does it matter where I stay?

I put in my reservation on Hyatt's site but there was a glitch and it did not go through.  I tried again, and again, and the next day I started a chat with customer support.  While I was waiting for a response I just happened to go on Airbnb and saw the sweetest little house in downtown Frankfort.  It was on the expensive side for Frankfort, but the same price as the hotel.  In one instant I told the chat bot thanks but no thanks, and booked the Airbnb.

Thursday - let's go to Frankfort

I rolled into Frankfort right around check in time for the Airbnb.  The second that I walked in the door I knew that I had picked the right place, and felt instantly at home.

I went through the motions of doing the work that I'd planned to do in the afternoon, and then had dinner, which was food from home.  Now it was time to hit the streets to check out the sights.  I walked up a hill and strolled into the Frankfort Cemetery, which overlooks the city.

 The Capitol building was easy to spot.  The scaffolding is a major project to restore the dome.

 I wasn't the only one watching it.  Google tells me that my companion was a turkey vulture.

I walked around the cemetery for a good long while and took in the views.  When the sun started to go down I went back to my Airbnb and chilled for the rest of the night.

Friday - let's see Frankfort

I slept like a dream, and had a bit of time to relax with my coffee before sunrise.  As soon as it was light out, I hit the streets for a two mile run/walk.

I soon realized that Frankfort is a small town.  It's beautiful, but getting two miles of ground was a bit of a challenge.

A bit later in the morning, I hit the streets again and walked to the Capitol.

I got my fill of domes and marble halls.

 

 

There is an exhibit of Kentucky first ladies and their inauguration gowns.  The detail is very precise - if the gown was documented then the doll is wearing a replica of the gown, and if the gown still exists, then a piece of the real gown's fabric was used in the doll's dress.  In cases where there is no documentation of the inaugural gown, something period appropriate was used.  But that's not why I'm showing you the picture or telling you the story.

The reason that I mention it is that I had started chatting with another woman on the tour, and we both spotted the "this thing is not like the other things" situation in the row of first ladies from the 1820s to 1830s.  We asked our tour guide about the "1820s meets Jackie O" dress, and he didn't have any information on that, but if anyone is looking for an idea for a new Netflix series, you might want to do some research into the lady in yellow's hubby, Governor Desha.  When the courts don't see things your way, the best way to deal with it is to create another court system to overrule them.  If your son is convicted of murder, that's no problem because you can pardon him.  And then when people say that they don't care for you as governor, you can just refuse to leave office.

The other Capitol tours that I've done have been at times when the government wasn't in session, but it was a work day in Kentucky.  After the tour I took a minute to sit in on both the Senate and the House.  Things were very calm with the 38 senators, and they voted on and passed two bills in the five minutes that I was there.  It was a totally different scene over in the 100 member House.  A bill passed by an overwhelming majority, but after the vote they opened the floor to any member who wanted to explain their vote.  The time limit was at first two minutes, and then later reduced to one minute, but quite a few of the no votes spoke their minds. [Do I know what the bill was or remember the specifics of the explanations?  No.  But it was interesting in the moment].

I decided that it was time to move on, and hit up my next stop, which was an FLW walk-by.  In general I'm not interested in gawking at private residences, but since Google was kind enough to tip me off that it was on the way, I couldn't not walk past it and snap a pic.

I grabbed a quick bite of lunch at the Airbnb and headed out for the afternoon's adventures.  My Frankfort list was: two museums, a place called Liberty Hall, and the old state Capitol building.  Both Liberty Hall and the old state Capitol had tours, but the times overlapped so I couldn't do both.  By a flip of the coin Liberty Hall won.

I can be very quick when it comes to museums, and I was in and out of the Kentucky History Museum and the Capitol Museum in no time flat.  That's not a reflection on the museums, that's about me and my attention span.

The highlight of Liberty Hall was picking up threads of stories that I've encountered on other trips.  Aaron Burr was a guest, but he did not try to stage an insurrection like he did on Blennerhassett Island.  It turns out that what Kentucky has in common with West Virginia is that it used to be part of Virginia before it figured out that it would be better off on its own.  It was the 15th state, which as I learned last year at Fort Niagara was the state that was the tipping point on the original plan to have one star and one stripe for every state on the US flag.  Other trivia points discussed were:

• I wasn't my imagination that Frankfort is a small town.  It is the 4th smallest US capital.  When I heard that my first thought was that Charleston WV must be in the top three, but I was way off...Charleston is the TENTH smallest capital.  Vermont has the top spot for small, and I'll let you google the others if you are curious.  
• Kentucky is one of four states that is a commonwealth: the others are Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  The word "commonwealth" doesn't have any real meaning in the US, so this is truly useless knowledge.  You are welcome.
• Last but not least, I learned the thing that I never thought to question, which is where the name Frankfort comes from.  If you guessed Frankfurt Germany you are incorrect.  Back in the day an early settler named Stephen Frank was killed at a ford in the Kentucky River in a battle over the land.  The spot became known as "Frank's Ford" which later morphed into Frankfort.  You are welcome for that as well.

 With my head buzzing full of fun facts, I walked to the old Capitol building.

 It is very grand, but tiny compared to its successor.

At this point is was 3:00 and I was at a good stopping point.  Did I want to go to Red River Gorge, or should I call it a day and chillax at the Airbnb until dinner time?  I went back to the Airbnb and pondered my next move.

While I was pondering, it popped into my head that one of my favorite beers is Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale and WAIT A MINUTE I WAS IN KENTUCKY!!!!!  Any chance that the brewery was anywhere close?

Yes, it was in Lexington, 40 minutes away.  Yes, they did tours.  The last tour of the day was at 4:00.  It was 3:15.  I did math for a few minutes and then found myself on my feet and heading out the door.

The story on the Lexington Brewing Company is that they purchased a very old brewery that had run into business issues in the early 2000s.  What puts you in business in the 1800's doesn't always keep you in business.  The previous company came out with a hemp beer and they bet the farm on it.  They printed "this bud's for you" on their bottles, because everyone loves a good pot joke.  Well, Budweiser is not everyone, and they came out swinging for trademark infringement.  This is how the current owners got such a great deal on the brewery.

Their first beer was a red ale that was perfectly fine, but they wanted to put an extra spin on it.  Someone figured out that letting red ale steep in bourbon barrels is a win-win.  The barrels get an extra use before going on to whatever old bourbon barrels go on to, and the beer tastes super delicious.  So that is the story on how one of my favorite beers was born.

Our first tasting was beer, and the guide really talked up a beer called Old Fashioned, which is the regular Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale brewed with a few extra things to give it notes of the old fashioned cocktail.  I was definitely down to try it, as was just about everyone else in the crowd.  Our guide went to pour the first glass, and the tap sputtered and no beer came out.  Sigh, that's life but I left the taproom with an appetite for Old Fashioned.  I had started chatting with other folks on the tour and the joke was that the keg was "broken" so that we would all buy the beer at the gift shop.  For my sample I tried the cream ale, which was fine but not as good as the regular Bourbon Barrel Ale that I know so well and love.

The tour ended in the distillery with samples of bourbon.  Fun fact, bourbon is a US thing.  By an act of congress, there are very specific rules for what bourbon is and isn't.  One of the rules is that it can only be made in the US, but it can be made in all 50 states (because if it's a congressional act, no one is going to vote that it can't be made in their state).  95% of it is made in Kentucky.

The hard stuff isn't really my thing, so I appreciated the lesson but sipped my samples lightly.  There was one final treat at the end of a liqueur with coffee notes that was very good.  After that we were released into the gift shop.  I debated a bit: I wanted to try the Old Fashioned, and it was risky to get four bottles when I wasn't even sure if I would like it, but also I probably couldn't get it anywhere else.  The liqueur was very good, but it was $40 and the odds were strong that I was the only person in my house who would drink it, so if I passed it up that's a lot of Bourbon Beer Ale that I can buy instead.  Follow me for more financial advice!

The tour ended and I headed back to Frankfort for dinner.  I picked Bourbon on Main because everyone was raving about it, it was literally right across the street, and I'd picked up some yummy whiffs as I was walking around that day.

 I got a river side seat.

My dinner was a sidecar (bourbon and orange juice plus other yummy stuff) and their house burger.  Normally I'm not wild about eggs on burgers - yes I like eggs and I like burgers but it's a bit much to have them together.  However, this was the exception to the rule.

 After dinner I walked across the street to my home away from home and called it a night.

Saturday - Bourbon and Caves

I only had two destinations planned for the day, but the timing was tricky.  Mammoth Cave was two hours away and in a different time zone.  I sketched out an outline of the times so that I knew what time I had to leave to be where in both time zones.

I got in another two mile run/walk and then hit the road for Maker's Mark.  It started sprinkling a bit as I walked into the visitor's center, which was not a surprise.

You know what was a surprise?  Whisky Jean, the resident distillery lobby cat!  The sign has her name, insta handle, and a note that she does not like being touched and just wants to sleep.

The little sprinkle of rain that greeted me turned into a situation when lightning was reported in the area.  Normally the tour is partially outside and includes a bit of walking, so they had to reroute us inside.  To make it up to us, they started with the tasting.

Yes the glass on the right that's half full is water.  The samples were arranged from left to right in order of price.  This was quite the dilemma, because the cheap stuff is all that I've ever had and I'm perfectly satisfied with it.  But I do have to admit that the more the price went up, the more my appreciation went up.

I also appreciated Maker's Mark's trademark humor.  It looks like Bourbon Barrel Ale has a lock on the bourbon beer market.

By the time the tour was done, it was raining like nobody's business and I felt pretty smug about my cave tour.  I headed for Mammoth Cave and caught lunch before the tour.

My experience at Mammoth wasn't as full as I would have liked because it was raining so hard that I couldn't really explore the above ground part of the park or do any hiking.  I did the Frozen Niagara tour, which is fairly short.  I can definitely see coming back here to see more.  As it was, this was a decent intro visit.

After the tour I made the two hour drive back in the rain.  I wasn't super hungry so I picked up some fine, fine grocery store sushi and tucked into an Old Fashioned.  Oh my gawd it was divine.
 

Sunday - an epic Reuben on the way home

When the sun rose on Sunday morning, the deluge was still going strong.  I realized that it was not the right day to go to Red River Gorge.   I will admit that I considered stopping by Lexington Brewing again to get more Old Fashioned, but that would have meant staying in the area until 1:00 since that's when liquor sales start on Sunday.  I do love the beer, but I love getting home in time to have dinner with my family a little more.

It stopped raining just long enough to make it worth stopping by Cove Spring Park, so I was able to get a quick hike in after all.  It was a far cry from the hiking bender that I had planned, but it was better than nothing.

There was nearly as much water on the trails as in the stream.

With that I got ready to head north, and I took a minute to plan where I would have lunch.  I was just in the mood for a good sammie, but where could I get one in northern Kentucky?

Oh wait, I gotta pass through Cincinnati to get home, so there was no reason to compromise on the sammie.  Google screamed at me to go to Carl's Deli.

Google knew what it was talking about.  There was a line out the door, but things moved along briskly and I got the Reuben of my dreams.

There was too much meat for my liking, so I pulled about half of it off per my normal Reuben Operating Procedure.  I tossed it into my cooler, and had an epic sammie with the leftovers the next day back at home.

Let's Wrap it Up

• Spending a few days in Frankfort Kentucky: 10/10
• Chosing the Airbnb over a hotel: 1000/10.  The place where I stayed really made the trip.
• Getting the idea to go to the Lexington Brewery out of nowhere and having it work out: 10/10
• Bourbon Barrel Old Fashioned: 1000/10
• Not getting to visit Red River Gorge due to the weather: a solid reason to go back
• Having Google pick my lunch spot: 10/10
  

One More Thing Before We Go

The Kentucky State Flag tho.  That's a message I haven't seen in a while.

 (source)

Who's been to any of these places?  What's your favorite beer?