Museum day
May. 11th, 2026 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessI stayed an extra day in Louisville because I've never been a tourist here before. I usually just drive through (I'll be driving thru again in just a couple weeks). One of the ones I wanted to do I couldn't because it's only open weekends but there was one I had been planning on since I first decided to come to the con: the Frazier Kentucky History museum. It's downtown Louisville and it's the start of the bourbon trail.
I was originally planning to do the bourbon trail but honestly I have enough bourbon lying around the house as is and I'm rather worn out from the weekend but the museum looked promising. Last year it was voted best museum in KY and I can see why. It's three floors and I managed to hit it just as a docent was giving the Cool KY talk so that was fun. I had no idea some woman had ROWED across the Atlantic Ocean. Her boat is here. I knew about the paralympian Oskana Masters but didn't know she lived here.
I really liked the one interactive map, by county that brought up fun facts about each county and a song for each. I wish more museums had something like that.
FLoor#2 was jam packed with history, much about the enslaved people, KY's less than stellar showing in the Civil War and about the Underground Railroad (including mapping out one family's life for years) KY was definitely sell African families down river sort of state and oddly wasn't segregated because they wanted to keep an eye on enslaved people who were often rooming with freed people.
They had bits on women I've never heard of including an Indigenous warrior chief, another few women doctors and one who is in my talk, Mary Edward Walker (look her up, she is something else) and more than one display about how white people don't get along even with other white people in the former of Bloody Monday when over 100 Irish and German immigrants were murdered. (the one thing that never seems to change is we find new immigrants to blame and hate)
Floor Three- it's all about the bourbon. I love some of the old bottles
Museum store: I have never seen a museum store without books. It had bourbon though. A lot of only find them in KY bottles (glad they were expensive because with my luck I'd like it and have to come back for it). They had replica vintage ones that I would have liked if I had places to display them.
From there I went to the Louisville Mega Caverns It's actually an old limestone quarry and it was oddly creepy. You approach what looks like a service access into the side of the hill and really it is just that. If not for the painted footprints in the tunnel I would have thought I was in the wrong spot and it goes on being all access tunnelly for about 500 yards before opening into a cavern and then you see the visitor center.
I get snagged by a group of elderly women in front of a 'sign this waiver' computer bank 'don't you jump the line!' I wasn't planning it. I get to the bank eventually and realize you had to have BOUGHT the ticket first. How about putting the purchase area before this then? I talk to the young guy about the walking vs tram tour but it turns out it didn't matter.
It's a random monday at 130 in the afternoon and everything is sold out until 6 pm (and they're taking like two dozen at a time) I give it a pass and slink out of the scary tunnel.
I move on to the third planned event cave hill cemetery and arboretum which is about 300 acres of the Victorian style rural cemeteries that are part park and part memorial. I saw many very unusual graves (pictures hopefully tomorrow) but only found two of the celebrity ones because even though the cemetery has its own app, my phone is trash and couldn't find a signal.
I did see Colonel Sanders (yes that Colonel) whose memorial is modest (his daughter made the bust) and Muhammad Ali, who also had a modest memorial. There are many other less modest ones and the places is filled with 500 plant species and a plethora of historic signage. Even found the person who designed the confederate flag (was not expecting or wanting that)
Much cooler I found TWO magicians including Tobin who invented the cabinet of proteus. I was struck immediately with the idea that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis knew about him and that's where they got Tobin's Spirit Guide in Ghostbusters. Even if I'm wrong, I'm right.
I was there for hours. Came back to the hotel, got lazy and doordashed from an Asian restaurant that was highly recced in a few places District 6 and was trapped between do I get pho or the spicy cauliflower bao (or the spicy cauliflower dish). I should have gone with the big dish or the pho because the bao were small but very tasty. I could have eaten a pound of that cauliflower. Got their ube basque cheesecake too. Not as ube tasting as I would have liked but very good.
Then it was my author's virtual meet up and got some editing and writing done.
It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is # 25 A song from your pre teen years
Had to share some disco (honestly I think disco had great dance music)
still one of my favorite rock songs
I could hardly leave out Freddie
or Fleetwood
here's the whole prompt list
30 days of music
1 a song from your childhood
2 best song from High School Years
3 a song that tells a story
4 a song you like that is covered by another artist
5 A Song by someone Who has Passed away
6 A song you like from a movie soundtrack
7 a song you like with no words
8 a song from your first concert
9 a song you could exercise to
10 a song you know all the words to
11 a song with a long title
12 A song from the 90s
13 has a really good music video
14 you enjoy that’s in a different language
15 was number 1 the week you were born
16 a song that calms you down
17 A song that got you into this artist
18 a song that makes you smile
19 A Song from the 00s
20 A song from the year you were born
21 An 80s song
22 a song that describes you
23 A song that reminds you of your favorite season
24 A song with a one word title
25 A song from your pre teen years
26 A song from your favorite band
27 A song you discovered from a tv show
28 A song that makes you feel empowered
29 a song with food or drink in the title
30 A song in a different language
I was originally planning to do the bourbon trail but honestly I have enough bourbon lying around the house as is and I'm rather worn out from the weekend but the museum looked promising. Last year it was voted best museum in KY and I can see why. It's three floors and I managed to hit it just as a docent was giving the Cool KY talk so that was fun. I had no idea some woman had ROWED across the Atlantic Ocean. Her boat is here. I knew about the paralympian Oskana Masters but didn't know she lived here.
I really liked the one interactive map, by county that brought up fun facts about each county and a song for each. I wish more museums had something like that.
FLoor#2 was jam packed with history, much about the enslaved people, KY's less than stellar showing in the Civil War and about the Underground Railroad (including mapping out one family's life for years) KY was definitely sell African families down river sort of state and oddly wasn't segregated because they wanted to keep an eye on enslaved people who were often rooming with freed people.
They had bits on women I've never heard of including an Indigenous warrior chief, another few women doctors and one who is in my talk, Mary Edward Walker (look her up, she is something else) and more than one display about how white people don't get along even with other white people in the former of Bloody Monday when over 100 Irish and German immigrants were murdered. (the one thing that never seems to change is we find new immigrants to blame and hate)
Floor Three- it's all about the bourbon. I love some of the old bottles
Museum store: I have never seen a museum store without books. It had bourbon though. A lot of only find them in KY bottles (glad they were expensive because with my luck I'd like it and have to come back for it). They had replica vintage ones that I would have liked if I had places to display them.
From there I went to the Louisville Mega Caverns It's actually an old limestone quarry and it was oddly creepy. You approach what looks like a service access into the side of the hill and really it is just that. If not for the painted footprints in the tunnel I would have thought I was in the wrong spot and it goes on being all access tunnelly for about 500 yards before opening into a cavern and then you see the visitor center.
I get snagged by a group of elderly women in front of a 'sign this waiver' computer bank 'don't you jump the line!' I wasn't planning it. I get to the bank eventually and realize you had to have BOUGHT the ticket first. How about putting the purchase area before this then? I talk to the young guy about the walking vs tram tour but it turns out it didn't matter.
It's a random monday at 130 in the afternoon and everything is sold out until 6 pm (and they're taking like two dozen at a time) I give it a pass and slink out of the scary tunnel.
I move on to the third planned event cave hill cemetery and arboretum which is about 300 acres of the Victorian style rural cemeteries that are part park and part memorial. I saw many very unusual graves (pictures hopefully tomorrow) but only found two of the celebrity ones because even though the cemetery has its own app, my phone is trash and couldn't find a signal.
I did see Colonel Sanders (yes that Colonel) whose memorial is modest (his daughter made the bust) and Muhammad Ali, who also had a modest memorial. There are many other less modest ones and the places is filled with 500 plant species and a plethora of historic signage. Even found the person who designed the confederate flag (was not expecting or wanting that)
Much cooler I found TWO magicians including Tobin who invented the cabinet of proteus. I was struck immediately with the idea that Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis knew about him and that's where they got Tobin's Spirit Guide in Ghostbusters. Even if I'm wrong, I'm right.
I was there for hours. Came back to the hotel, got lazy and doordashed from an Asian restaurant that was highly recced in a few places District 6 and was trapped between do I get pho or the spicy cauliflower bao (or the spicy cauliflower dish). I should have gone with the big dish or the pho because the bao were small but very tasty. I could have eaten a pound of that cauliflower. Got their ube basque cheesecake too. Not as ube tasting as I would have liked but very good.
Then it was my author's virtual meet up and got some editing and writing done.
It's music monday 30 weeks of music. This week's prompt is # 25 A song from your pre teen years
Had to share some disco (honestly I think disco had great dance music)
still one of my favorite rock songs
I could hardly leave out Freddie
or Fleetwood
here's the whole prompt list
30 days of music
1 a song from your childhood
2 best song from High School Years
3 a song that tells a story
4 a song you like that is covered by another artist
5 A Song by someone Who has Passed away
6 A song you like from a movie soundtrack
7 a song you like with no words
8 a song from your first concert
9 a song you could exercise to
10 a song you know all the words to
11 a song with a long title
12 A song from the 90s
13 has a really good music video
14 you enjoy that’s in a different language
15 was number 1 the week you were born
16 a song that calms you down
17 A song that got you into this artist
18 a song that makes you smile
19 A Song from the 00s
20 A song from the year you were born
21 An 80s song
22 a song that describes you
23 A song that reminds you of your favorite season
24 A song with a one word title
25 A song from your pre teen years
26 A song from your favorite band
27 A song you discovered from a tv show
28 A song that makes you feel empowered
29 a song with food or drink in the title
30 A song in a different language
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