I had been kicking around the idea of visiting the Presidential sites in Kentucky for a while, also hoping to incorporate a visit to the state capitol to ever-advance those pesky but oh-so-fun items on my eternal bucket list. I thought maybe I could hit Louisville during a trip to Florida and save Lexington for a planned road trip that will ultimately end in Arkansas. Then I thought – what the heck – why not just take a day or weekend journey to these cities that weren’t all that far awat to start with? So I did it. Dragging Christi along with me, I slid it in just before I was scheduled to take another – and much longer – road trip with my friend Bob.
So on Saturday, June 2, 2009, Christi and I left my house bright and early a little after 7:00am and took Creed to stay with his Nana. We dropped him off where she was staying that weekend in Dayton, Kentucky, popped through the Burger King drive-thru, and were on our way to our first destination.
We arrived in Lexington at the Mary Todd House just after they opened at 10am. We latched onto the first tour which had just begun not long before. It lasted about an hour and then we looked in on the gift shop – in my constant search to add to my ever-growing magnet collection. Also in this area just a block over was the site of Mary Todd’s birth, so we stopped by there as well, parking illegally to capture a nice photo of the sign. These locations are covered in much greater detail here.
Outside the Mary Todd Lincoln House
Christi in the Todd House garden
The next stop was Henry Clay’s Ashland Estate not far down the road from the Mary Todd House. On this location (obviously) lived Henry Clay, dominant leader of the emerging Whig party, Senator, member of the House of Representatives, three-time Speaker of the House, and Secretary of State under President John Quincy Adams. Clay ran for President in the 1824, 1832, and 1844 elections. He sought his party’s nomination in 1840 and 1848 as well. It was always a sore spot with Henry Clay that he never achieved the highest office in the land, but was stuck to his principle philosophy that he ‘would rather be right than President.”
Henry Clay and his family resided in the house from about 1806 until his death in 1852. After that, his son James Clay was forced to tear down the house due to substandard building materials and rebuild an identical house on the same spot. I was mildly disappointed that only the shutters in the front of the house were constructed from the same wood as the original. So in essence, Henry Clay never actually lived here – and yet he did. Overall still a very nice house furnished with an impressive array of Clay’s belongings.
Yes, I was at Ashland
The state Historical Marker
Henry Clay, the five-time wannabe President
Photos were prohibited in Ashland, but I couldn’t resist this painting in the drawing room of Clay’s hero George Washington with his wife Martha, given to Clay as a gift. Next to it is a cup from which Washington drank.
On the front porch of Ashland
It had been a busy morning – at least by Christi’s standards – and was after 1pm by this time, so we decided to get something to eat. We declined the expensive egg salad sandwiches at the Henry Clay estate and went further downtown to Mia’s Brunch. I had a nice Classic Eggs Benedict. Christi enjoyed her mimosas. A little down the street from Mia’s was a hotdog stand that I couldn’t resist. In my never-ending search across the world for the perfect hotdog, I may have found my best one yet: a chili dog for $1.25 at Sam’s Hot Dog Stand.
Lexington lunch at Mia’s
Nothing like a great hot dog after lunch
Our final stop in Lexington was at the Lexington Cemetery. The main event here was a U.S. Vice President to add to my repertoire, but our first stop was to see the grave of Henry Clay himself. I got a little frustrated when I couldn’t find the VP who I was looking for and had to cry uncle and call Bob to see if he could help me out. Turns out that I had written down the location of the VP’s father who had the same name. Rookie mistake. Then after Bob gave me the location, I found a map at the cemetery even though the office was closed.
The giant Henry Clay monument
Outside the Clay tomb
So amidst the frantic searching for my VP, I did locate the grave of Jim Varney, best known as the character Ernest P. Worrell in such forgettable wastes of time as Ernest Goes To Camp and Ernest Scared Stupid.
Hey, it’s Jim Varney…know whatta mean??
We hadn’t been too far from Vice President John C. Breckinridge who served as President’s James Buchanan’s running mate and Vice-President from 1857-1861. At age 36 when he was inaugurated, he remains the youngest VP to ever hold the office. He went on to serve as a Confederate General and the last Confederate Secretary of War. For whatever reason, his grave stone is less than stellar, but I was happy to find it and add him to my collection of VP grave photos.
Yep, turns out the grave was here afterall!
With Vice President John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875)
Overall I really enjoyed Lexington, the city which I had often driven to, attended a concert in, but never really seen. But it was time to move on to our next city: Frankfort. Christi was hoping for a longer drive to sleep off the mimosas, but we got there in about 30 minutes, arriving at the Frankfort Cemetery at about 3:30. Another Vice-President was here, so I was naturally excited.
But first we stopped by the most popular grave in the cemetery – that of American pioneer and hunter, and one of the first real American folk heroes, Daniel Boone. There was one other famous grave that I had hoped to see – mostly for conversation value – that of Elizabeth Ann Hulette, better known to wrestling fans as Miss Elizabeth. She had died tragically in 2003 and I always thought she was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough info to track her down.
The grave of Daniel Boone. Had he been a President, I would have climbed this fence.
Historical marker indicating Daniel Boone’s Grave. No, I’m serious.
So I was just happy to see the grave of Richard Mentor Johnson, 9th Vice President of the United States, serving under Martin Van Buren from 1837-1841. Johnson was also a colonel in the Army at the outset of the War of 1812, serving under William Henry Harrison. Some claimed that he personally killed Shawnee chief Tecumseh, and this was used to his advantage in his and Van Buren’s election. He had a nice giant monument next to a Kentucky War Memorial near the center of the cemetery.
A nice monument for Richard Mentor Johnson (1781-1850)
Closer view of the monument
Military Monument erected by Kentucky in 1850
Not far from here was the Kentucky State Capitol. This was a bit of a sore spot as I had learned that they weren’t open on Saturdays. With the upcoming after-hours visit to the West Virginia Capitol and the visit to the closed Michigan Capitol, I decided to modify my ‘rules’ of Capitol visiting, making visiting the exterior the primary goal and going inside on either an organized or self-guided tour being the secondary goal. You know how rules are, always flexible. So anyway, we roamed around the outside for about fifteen minutes.
The Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort (also seen at the top of the posting) – the 6th State Capitol I’ve visited
Locked out of another Capitol. Rats.
It was a bit later than I had hoped it would be at this point so I knew that we wouldn’t be able to see all the Lincoln sites in Hodgenville that evening, but we headed in that direction anyway. Christi was excited to find a hotel that would have a pool in it and I had hoped for some internet access. However as we headed south, I figured we might find no such place out in the middle of nowhere.
As I drove toward Hodgenville, I noticed some signs directing me to the Lincoln Homestead State Park. Christi was sound asleep so I veered off to see what was here. I was pleased to find an unexpected location which I hadn’t sought out, the original cabin of Lincoln’s mother and uncle, and reproductions of his father’s cabin and blacksmith shop. When I purchased our two tickets, the lady at the counter handed me a Lincoln finger puppet and told me that she would have given me another but this was the last one. I saw more of them in the gift shop and told her that there were more. She said that they only had 16 to hand out for free and that we were the 16th and 17th visitors of the day. Kind of sad considering it was 5pm. More details of the Lincoln Family Homestead can be found here.
Christi takes a rest in the Thomas Lincoln cabin. Not sure if you’re allowed to do this or not. We weren’t informed.
I was a bit nervous of running out of gas and also of finding a decent hotel out in the boondocks, but the Garmin GPS that my boss Sue had lent me completely saved the day. It took us to a gas station that was just a few miles away (with a convenient Parkview IGA nearby – as you can see below) and found us a hotel in Bardstown – a nice Hampton Inn, which to our surprise and delight had both internet access and an indoor pool. They also had some nice places to eat within walking distance, but that only ended up making one of us happy.
Think this will be enough for one evening?
After we checked in, Christi and I went for a 30-minute swim in the indoor pool, which was very refreshing after the long day in the car. I was excited because right across the street from our hotel was an Okina Sushi restaurant. Christi had never had sushi before, so I was naive enough to think that anyone who actually tried it would love it. After all, that had pretty much been my experience in the past. So I ordered a feast of sushi that was both very good and very reasonably priced: six rolls in all – New York (tuna and salmon), Eel, Caterpillar, Dragon, Crunch (tuna), and California Volcano (crab). Even the sushi chef was surprised at the amount I ordered. But it turns out my eyes were bigger than Christi’s stomach.
Christi takes the plunge
Water everywhere!
She hated it. Dreaded every bite. She did her due diligence in trying most of them at least. She even ate a few pieces of the California Volcano, which I told her was deep fried chicken. I, on the other hand, enjoyed every minute of it, but even still couldn’t quite finish all of it. At least Christi liked the sake and Budweiser. In the meantime, the sushi chef was so impressed with my love for sushi that he made us a free mango roll. It was a nice gesture and tasted great, but I was so full I could only get down two pieces.
One sushi buff, one non-believer
I gained the respect of one sushi chef that evening
Needless to say, I had very few snacks that night before turning in.
Kentucky will conclude in the next posting…
I hate sushi
Christi
August 14th, 2009
As much as you like this trip to be called sluggy sluggersville.. you know we had a great time…I know I did.
Christi
August 14th, 2009