Madeline has a dance competition in Louisville this weekend, and since it‘s her spring break we decided to extend our stay by a few days to enjoy the city and a little time away. We drove down last night and arrived around bedtime. I was able to secure a larger room, but unfortunately it‘s right on Main Street. The traffic noise all night was a problem. Also, we have one king bed, which truly should be enough, but this 11-year-old sleeps like a 4-year old, always turning and rotating. I can‘t even count the number of times she bumped me in the middle of the night.

We slept in this morning and grabbed breakfast in the room from food we brought with us. We‘re at a Marriott Courtyard, so no room service. And I haven‘t been able to find a restaurant in the hotel, just a Starbucks. But there are several really interesting breakfast/brunch places in the area that I‘m looking forward to trying.

I had secured us a 10:30 reservation at a glass blowing studio about a mile away, so we took off at 10:00 to walk to the shop: Flame Run. It was a bit chilly, but since we were moving we were fine. Downtown was quiet but not deserted.

Glass blowing was terrific! We chose two different experiences. Mine was design-your-own, where I chose the item and the colors, but the artist did (almost) all the work. He did have me step in at one point and roll the glass while he got a couple other supplies.

Madeline‘s choice was a galaxy orb, where basically the artist put the colors on a lump of glass, and then she was able to use tools to mix them and form the glass into an interesting shape. She then got to choose whether the artist generally kept her shape or made it round. She chose a weird shape, and I think it‘s going to look really cool.

One of the interesting things about the process which I never realized before is that the glass is red when you‘re working with it, so it‘s impossible to tell exactly what things will look like when it‘s done. We pick up our creations on Wednesday, and I‘m excited to see how they turn out.

After the glass blowing we wandered over to Main Street and into the Kentucky Bourbon Museum. I wasn‘t able to score a tasting, but I bought a few sample-sized bottles to taste. I won‘t open at least three of them until I get home, though, so Andrew and I can taste together.

We asked the cashier at the museum about lunch, and she recommended a pizza place a couple blocks away. Luigi‘s Pizzeria was one of those places where the guys in the kitchen and at the register actually had an Italian accent. The crust was amazing! I had a slice of spinach & tomato and a slice of pepperoni & sausage, and the veggie one was a million times better. Madeline got a 14“ cheese pizza so we‘d have leftovers to take back to the room.

After that, Madeline was ready to head back to the hotel, and on the way we saw this crazy limo that was blinged from bumper to bumper. Of course we had to get a picture! Now we‘re relaxing in the hotel before a team dinner later. And then it will be an early night, because she has a 7:30 am call time tomorrow. Hopefully we‘ll both sleep better!