The Fourth of July!

Sadly the long weekend comes to an end! My guests left early this morning for Florida and Bubba has been sleeping most of the day away. It started out rainy, but now it is quite sunny and again quite warm.  Today I felt the need to visit one of my new favourite friends here in KY.  I have been very neglectful in my visitations, as it has been a good three weeks since my last visit! I have thought about visiting often though....but you know how it goes...work and responsibilities get in the way.

While I was there I met two new friends that insisted on coming home with me....

 

This is Franco Sarto...

...and little Puma.

I love my new friends.  Both of them came home with me for less then $40.00!!  I must remember to visit more often.

I had a great visit with Becky and Mike.  They arrived on Saturday afternoon.  Becky and I spent the afternoon getting caught up on work while Mike had a nap.  We did a pretty good job of finishing up a bottle of wine while we chatted.  (and when I say "we" I really mean Becky had about 3/4's to my 1/4) After a little walk with Bubba it was quite apparent that it was Becky's turn to have a nap. Her eyelid's refused to stay open.  Once we were all refreshed we went to the Kurtz restaurant for dinner.  Luckily I made reservations because it was packed and they had a waiting line to get a table.  Dinner was very good and we made sure to have the Bourbon Bread pudding for dessert!

On Sunday I took Mike and Becky out to Maker's Mark for their first distillery tour.  I made sure to print off directions this time!  That helped to shave off 15 minutes of driving time....Hi Jim! We were a little early for the first tour of the day, so we stopped at the Maker's Mark Cafe for a little lunch.  Highly recommend The Bourbon Chocolate Chip cookies.  Have I mentioned I will be dieting for the next little while....

They really enjoyed the tour, but man it was hot! I got to do the first part of the tour which we missed last time.  They take you into a replica of the inventor's house and you get a little more of the history. I didn't realise that Maker's Mark did not have long history like Jim Beam or Heaven Hill.  It wasn't created until the 1950's. Bill Samuel's created Maker's Mark along with help from his wife.  She came up with the name and the symbol for Maker's Mark.  She was a collector of Pewter and I guess the "makers" of pewter create a "mark" that they put on every piece they create.  She thought this would be a perfect name and symbol for the bourbon.  They explained the exact interpretation of their symbol, but I forget now...I am sure it has nothing to do with the bourbon tasting.

After the tour we came home to relieve Bubba's bladder and take him on a nice, long and very warm walk.  That made him too exhausted to protest us leaving him again so we could go into Louisville for dinner.  I took them too Joe's Crabshack on the waterfront.  It was a 45 minute wait, but we were lucky enough to find ourselves in the middle of July 4th celebrations.  There were certainly lots of stands for junk food and red/white/blue paraphernalia! A concert and fireworks display was scheduled  for later that night, so it wasn't too busy yet.  I am not sure how it all turned out, as it rained pretty hard around 9:00.  We were home and settled by then!

So another great weekend come and gone.  I can't believe it is July!  Four months working and living in Kentucky already in the can....not sure how many more it will be.  The way things are going at work it will be longer than 6 months.  That is ok with me right now. I can't say I am ready to come yet.