My sister and I just came back from a little getaway to Lexington, Kentucky and boy was I impressed. I have always lived in New York, but have visited many states throughout my life, however, I had never been to Kentucky before. My Grandmother was from Georgia, so the south has always held a little piece of my heart. Little fact: I have always wanted a southern accent.. Still as an adult, I wish I had it!
The entire trip was planned because we wanted to see P!nk, and when we bought the tickets, almost a year ago, she wasn’t coming anywhere near our house. So we knew we had to travel and picked Lexington for a few reasons. One, the airport wasn’t far from the concert. Plenty of places to stay and other things to do. We also priced out a few other venues and cities and it was much cheaper, for better seats and hotels to come to Lexington. So we booked the flight, and picked a hotel that looked like it had some Southern charm, with modern amenities.
AIRPORT:
We flew into the Blue Grass Airport. It was clean and very easy to navigate, both when we flew in and when we flew out. We got into Blue Grass at 5:30 pm on a Wednesday and flew out very early (5:30 am) on Saturday morning.
HOTEL
My sister booked us a room at The Campbell House (which is now owned by Hilton) because “it had charm and it was cheaper then staying right downtown.” Her exact words, haha! And she hit the nail on the head. It is even under construction and we still enjoyed our stay. They are adding an addition, which will be a bourbon bar, restaurant and a new ballroom. It looks like it will be beautiful when it is complete. The hotel is very big and took us a few times in and out to figure it out. Other guests said the same thing, they were struggling to find the elevator and their rooms. By the end of our second day, we weren’t confused anymore. I have a tour of the outside and lobby (including the renovation project) saved on the highlights on my instagram, just click Lexington, Ky if you want to see! They have an airport shuttle and will also shuttle you within 2 miles, if they don’t have any airport runs to do during that time. We didn’t know the shuttle was available to us for other runs, until our last day, so we didn’t do that, but had fantastic Uber drivers for the three days we were there.
I didn’t plan on doing this post while I was there, so I didn’t get any photos inside our room. It was spacious, however, I would have loved more counter space in the bathroom. We had a pedestal sink, so really no space for even our toothbrushes and toothpaste. We had a little refrigerator, nice USB plugs right on the alarm clock, and plenty of space in the room. Keurig in the room too. Check out the video on my instagram to see the outdoor seating area, the renovations and the lobby. The lobby had a temporary wall built for construction, so it was much smaller then it normally is.
WALKING TOUR IN DOWNTOWN
I saw some booklets and brochures at the airport and grabbed them since we really had no plans other then a farm tour we booked on trip advisor and the P!nk concert. The one brochure had a walking tour and a driving tour, with several destinations listed with descriptions of them and maps. Since we were planning to Uber the 3 days we were there, the driving tour was out, but we thought the walking tour would be perfect our first night. Especially since it was 80 degrees, and to be completely honest, our NY skin needs as much vitamin D as we can get!
After getting checked into the airport, we took an Uber to Triangle Park (photo above) which was the first spot on the walking tour. It was a little park in the middle of downtown with a wall of waterfalls, a fountain (dyed Pink for P!nk’s visit) and a little lunch spot. They also have live music in the park on Thursday nights. It was landscaped beautifully. We walked across the street to the square. The Square is full of shopping, art galleries, places to eat, and a children’s theater.
We took the overhead enclosed walkway from The Square to Rupp Arena to explore a little. We wanted to familiarize ourselves with the area, so we knew where we were going for the concert. It was also under renovations, and looks like it will be beautiful when complete. The Men’s basketball team from the University of Kentucky (Wildcats) play there.
Next, we walked up to Mary Todd Lincoln’s house. It wasn’t open for tours when we were walking around, but looked like it would be beautiful to check out on our next visit.
If you are interested, click here for more information regarding tours, and the history of the home.
On to my favorite part of walking around… The Homes!!! Most built pre-Civil War time. The architecture was beautiful.
I could have continued walking in and out of all the side streets, just looking at homes. However, we only had a few hours left of day light and wanted to get through most of the places on the walking tour.
We walked by Transylvania University and right by the road was this cabin. It has been moved several times and now resides on the campus. Pretty cool and full of history 😍!
We walked through Gratz Park, past the library, by several churches and then we were hungry. We just wanted to get something quick to eat. It was funny that when we flew into Lexington, we asked the locals on the plane what they suggested. One lady said “Goodfella’s Pizza and Crank and Boom” and so many others responded by saying “YES YOU HAVE TO GO THERE!” So it was on our list, but we didn’t look into where they were. So we walked down the street and saw someone with a box of Goodfellas pizza. We asked him if it was good, and he said THE BEST. Googled it and found that they had one right on the next block. Got there and it was a tiny little place, the nicest people, busy, but didn’t wait long, they knew what they were doing. Just a few tables out on the sidewalk, but they were full. So we took our slices to the benches outside the old courthouse.
First of all, we came all the way to Lexington, Kentucky from New York and yes we had New York style pizza the first night, haha! And it was really good! Secondly, this old Fayette County Courthouse which was built in 1899, just seen 32 million dollars of renovations. They debated tearing it down, and thankfully they didn’t, because it is beautiful. We didn’t go in, and I wish we did. There is a cafe and the Lexington visitors center. We didn’t know this until later, but P!nk was also hanging out here right before us. But we didn’t get to share a slice or meet her, haha! Great minds, obviously think alike 😉.
We googled where Crank and Boom was, thinking we would end our own little walking tour and get ice-cream. When we did, we learned it was in the distillery district and so is the Goodfellas that they were talking about on the plane! Who knew they have other locations. We went to their original location, and that is why it was so small. It reminded me of the Pizza places at home though ❤️.
Thoroughbred Heritage Horse Farm Tour
The next morning (Thursday) we had reservations for a guided tour around Keeneland Race Track and 3 Thoroughbred horse farms. It was drizzling, but held off so we could get out and walk around. The track only hosts races in April and October. So it was off season, but we saw a few practice runs and workouts happening while we were there. It is a historic race track and very well maintained.
We live close to Saratoga Race Track, and spend a lot of race days there, but it was cool to see one in the off season, and really get to explore without the crowds. What we do not have in Saratoga, is Drive Thru Betting like they do at Keeneland though.
Before there were OTB’s people could drive right up and place their bets. This one is still up and running today. I thought that was pretty cool!
Our tour then headed to the farm country (which isn’t far outside of Downtown Lexington) and toured three farms. As a horse lover and owner, I could have continued driving all around just looking at the beautiful properties! They do have a Bluegrass Driving Tour, that you can do yourself. There are signs posted and a map at the visitors center. If we had rented a car, we would have done that for sure! It is on the list for next time!
Matt, our driver and guide from Heritage, was very knowledgable, friendly and I highly recommend to anyone visiting the Horse Capital of the World!
We stopped at Hill and Dale Farms, home of the famous “Curlin” racehorse, and burial ground to the famous “Seattle Slew.” Beautiful stone walls as we entered, beautiful pastures, fences, landscaping and the barns had me wanting to see more!
We continued on to Rose Hill Farm next. It is a farm with all Mares, and now their babies (foals). Which is always very exciting!
“Re-Entry” clearly wanted to come home with me. Her and my Mare could be best friends forever!
Our guide was so knowledgeable, he was telling race horse facts left and right. I couldn’t even keep up. He was also pointing out where movies were filmed and how they used gates from one farm and a dining room from another and a barn from another to film the movie “Dreamer.”
The last farm we toured was Magdalena Farms, home of McPeek Racing. This place was cool because it was the only farm we could actually go through the barns and see the employees working with the horses and foals. The owner was outside, showing a prospective buyer a horse as we were walking around. Interesting to see! The owner created an app, “HorseRacesNow.” One to download if you enjoy Betting on the Ponies.
I do enjoy horse racing, however, I am happy to see retired race horses find new jobs and homes after they are done racing. Some many horses are bred for racing and don’t even see the starting line, which is sad. They retire and have so much left to give and live for. For the last few months, we have been looking for a retired race horse to adopt. I have seen so many amazing retired thoroughbreds go on and become amazing hunter jumpers! We will be adopting through New Vocations Race Horse Adoption Program when we find the perfect match for our family ❤️.
Where We Ate in Lexington
Goodfellas Pizza in Downtown– Just a few slices- YUMMY
Kilbern’s at The Campbell House- We went back to hotel after the farm and race track tour and ate lunch right at the hotel. We had hush puppies for an app and I had flat bread pizza, and my sister had a hot brown.
Carson’s– Before the concert, we took an Uber downtown to Carson’s for dinner. We couldn’t get a reservation for a table, so we went a little early and were able to get spots at the bar. The atmosphere and service was amazing. Apps were good, dinner delish and we had our first Old Fashions. When in Kentucky… Right! I think Bourbon is an acquired taste, but wait until part 2, I might have acquired it a little, haha! We had Grilled Brie and Ahi Poke lettuce wraps. Both were so good! We really relaxed and took our time, since the concert didn’t start until 7:30. For dinner my sister had there NY strip and I had their Black and Bleu fillet which seems to be my favorite when any place offers it on their menu. Carson’s did not disappoint!
Goodfellas in the distillery district– bread sticks for a snack in the afternoon and drinks that were AMAZING!
Middle Fork Kitchen Bar: For dinner on Friday we ate at Middle Fork Kitchen Bar. For starters, we had the shiitake bowl, which is seared mushroom caps, nam pla caramel, sticky rice, sesame, scallion.. SO GOOD!! As was the whipped feta with crumbled lamb… AMAZING!!! For dinner we both had their “hog n oats” dish. It had grits, so I was in, however, I wouldn’t order it again if I went back. Not for any fault of their own, I just didn’t love ground sausage, it reminded me sort of a meatloaf. I ate all my grits, and egg but only a few bites for the meat. But lets remember, I was soooo stuffed from the drinks and breadsticks and then apps, could I have even had room if I really liked the sausagey meatloaf dish? Either way, I think the bar tender said that dish has won many awards, so I think it would be a winner to most! My sister really liked it!
Crank and Boom: After dinner, we were so full, but heard from so many to get ice-cream at Crank and Booms. I got the flavor of the week, Cookie Dough and my sister got the Black Raspberry and we took it back to the hotel to eat in bed later that night! SO GOOD!!
This concludes Part 1 of our Lexington, Ky mini vaca recap. Part 2 will be focused on the afternoon we spent in the Distillery District. We toured a distillery, did some shopping. I really fell in love with the atmosphere down there!
Thanks for stopping by the blog! I appreciate each and every one of you!!
XOXOX
Leandra