Why We Miss Louisville, part 1

Coming back to Louisville was wonderful! It was a little warmer than the perfect fall weather we hoped for, but it felt nice compared to the 90º plus temperatures we were getting in Arizona. We have really missed out on the seasons this year. We skipped right from winter to summer by moving to Florida at the end of February. Central California has near-perfect weather much of the year. Now that it’s fall we’re in Arizona where a) the winter weather is much like the summers we are used to and b) there aren’t many broad-leafed trees anyway. In Louisville the leaves were just beginning to turn, the days were sunny, the evenings cool: fall is perhaps our favorite season.

We planned not to waste any of our days in town. We rented a car so that we would not be limited by the availability of our parents’ cars. This turned out to be a great idea because we were able to go out and about during the day while most other people were away at work. With no one around we spent a lot of the first few days shopping. Most everyone in Maya’s family has birthdays in October or November so we got them all something. We also got (almost) all of our Christmas shopping and wrapping done. Since we won’t be back to Kentucky for Christmas we got our gifts for everybody, wrapped them and left them behind for everyone. No shipping!

Unfortunately, our energy for not wasting time was cut a bit short t by the fact that we both got horribly sick. It was some combination of the sudden change from Arizona, the natural crud of fall in the Ohio River Valley and the fact that we have lost our limited immunity to said crud by being away so long. It was either that or some kind of 12-day über-flu. First we got stuffed up and sneezey, then really tired and weak with a touch of fever. Then when that was gone, there was lots of nose-blowing and finally came coughing. Lots of hacking coughing. Whatever it was, Maya went through her cycle about two days ahead of Matt. She was just about better by the time we left. Matt wasn’t over his funk until we got back to Louisville.

One of the days that first week while we were still feeling mostly well we went to the Louisville Zoo. Apparently, we can’t stay away. The lemur exhibit was closed because of damage from the wind storm that we heard called “Gust '08” or “Big Windy.” It seems odd that the lemurs should be off display, there isn’t anything in their enclosure to damage. It’s just a big pit with a concrete rock at the bottom… Well, we saw the rock hyrax and wallabies, so that’s almost as good. Going there during a week-day and on a particularly pleasant day afforded us plenty of views of active animals. We got particularly good looks at a gorilla, the emu, the orange outing, and the Sumatran tiger.
In a book about “great zoos ya just gotta visit” which we chanced upon recently, we read that the Louisville Zoo is doing really well for itself considering it is such a recently-founded zoo. It seems it first opened in 1969. That is the most recently-founded of all the zoos we’ve been to: Cincinnati – 1875, San Diego – 1915, Charles Paddock – 1955, Santa Anna – 1960, Santa Barbara – 1963. It does seem that the zoo is growing a lot recently. When we were there we noticed a lot of improvements and revamping going on. We saw workers adding stairs so the lions could get down off their little island and wonder around in their pit area too. The viewing area for the Amur tiger has been improved so that you can get a better look. Of course, they are also in the midst of raising funds for a new polar bear/seal/penguin exhibit. It’s nice to be part of the zoo that is getting better all the time! The birth of Scotty has no doubt helped increase membership. We saw him too. All the elephants are looking a bit more interested with that little guy around.

Since we were going to be in town for a while we organized a Food Night. This is a long-standing tradition for us and our friends, but this is the first we’ve had since traveling. There just isn’t a lot of chance to have dinner parties when you’re not in town. Since we don’t have a place of our own in town, Matt’s sister, Sarah, hosted the whole shindig. It turned out to be one of our better feasts. Everything had cheese as a theme. There were fancy cheeses to put on fancy breads, spinach-artichoke dip, a real gourmet vegetable pizza, baked bree and cheesecake. Great! We ended up seeing a lot more people than we thought we would. In addition to the people we know in Louisville, some other friends from Chicagoland and Cincinnati were in town for the St. James Art Festival, so they came along to the party. Plus this was Friday night, the day before the wedding that had brought us to town in the first place. So several other friends of ours (from, again, Chicago and Murry, KY) were also in town for the wedding and they came along to the party too. Having friends, seeing friends, catching up with friends, eating good food with friends: all amazing. Thanks to everybody that joined us!
On Saturday (4 October), we went to the wedding. Ah weddings! It was held at an historic house in Louisville called Locust Grove. It was built in the 1790s by one William Croghan, who first came to Kentucky with his surveying partner. Croghan later married his partner’s sister, Lucy and thus became doubly connected to Louisville’s founder, George Rogers Clark. If you don’t know, ol’ G.R.C. is like George Washing and Abe Lincoln rolled into one for Louisvillians. The two downtown bridges are named for John F. Kennedy and George Rogers Clark. Clark lived at Locus Grove at the end of his life so today the house is more associated with him than with William and Lucy. C’est la vie.

Also, it’s a great venue for a wedding! The wedding was outside and the weather was just about perfect for it. There was vine-covered trellis to frame the bride and the groom and a bunch of white chairs nestled between the hedge rows. As an added bonus the priest doing the ceremony is an old friend of ours (all of ours). Getting to see him doing his man of God thing was nice. It really suits him. The ceremony was short and sweet then we all repaired to the visitors’ center for the reception. We were once again surrounded by people we have not seen in ages. All the festivities were there, buffet, cake, dancing. We didn’t really go in for any of that as we were feeling so under the weather. Ungh. Best wishes to those newly wedded!