Lexington, KY

I can’t believe I let Eric talk me into going to Lexington, KY in February.  It’s cold!  We arrived Friday night after working and the temp at 11:30 pm was 19 degrees.  At least it wasn’t windy.  We shared some pretzels and cheese (Outback Restaurant) at the Orlando airport before our layover in Atlanta.  Eric also got a salad at Outback and I nibbled on it.  We had planned on getting a taxi from the airport to Mary’s since we were coming in so late, but the weather was decent, so she came to pick us up.  Flights were good and our bag arrived with us.

Mary fixed us a big breakfast Saturday morning:  eggs, bacon, grits and biscuits w/ honey.  We’re trying to only eat 2 meals on our weekends and that’s our plan for this trip.  We’re not starting out on a good foot.  The best way to make that plan work is to eat a late breakfast.  This morning we were eating at 9am – but it was good.  Plans for Saturday are to do some shopping.  I’m looking for a grey pencil skirt.  Never had a grey skirt and didn’t have one made while I was in Shanghai.  While I didn’t find a skirt, I did come home with 2 pairs of Clark shoes.  Right before we left home my favorite pair of shoes that I wear around the house fell apart.  Now I have a replacement.    We hadn’t planned on eating lunch but Alice needed a snack so we went into a pizza place and got bread sticks and a greek salad to share.

Dinner is at a new Lexington place called Grillfish.  Alice and Bob hadn’t been there but had heard good reviews.  We got there early and had a drink until Bob joined us.

I got a pink lemonade martini and Eric ordered a ‘sidecar’ (brandy & cointreau).  Alice was drinking a Kir Royale to get her in the mood for our France trip this fall.  Mary had water.   Four of us ordered seafood, but Eric ordered steak au poirve – go figure.  He started out with New England clam chowder and got his seafood fix with that.  I got shrimp picatta over linguine and it was good.  This is something that Eric can make at home, and hopefully will.

        

Lexington is developing some of their warehouse industrial districts and they are the new ‘in’ place to go.  They are calling it the ‘Distillery District’.  We drove past it later during the day and it’s going to be quite the place to go when it is finished.  Alice took us to the ‘Crank & Boom’ ice cream shop for dessert.  Parking was quite the challenge, but we found a spot.  There was a line, but at least we were inside the building.  ‘Crank’ refers to the making the ice cream, while the ‘Boom’ refers to alcohol – either as an ingredient or an addition to whatever creation you ordered.  I got their sundae special which sounded great but didn’t quite add up to their hype.  It was too sweet,too chocolately and too gooey.  I should have stayed with something simple, like their ice cream in a waffle cone.  They had some interesting flavors.

Once we got back to Mary’s house, Eric got sleepy around 9pm and went to bed.  Mary got sleepy and went to bed 15 minutes later.  I was up until 10pm before finally giving it up.

For breakfast on sunday, we’re meeting Alice & Bob at the ‘Coffee Pub’.  I’m not sure that Mary was thrilled to eat there, especially once we were told it would be a 45 minute wait.  It was a fairly traditional breakfast menu.  I ordered a Belgium waffle w/ bacon and Eric got a Hash skillet breakfast.

  

We’re trying to stick with our 2-meal plan, but had to snack on some goodies before dinner tonight.  Beer cheese spread (a local favorite) with a soft pretzel or crackers, accompanied by a variety of nuts kept the hunger pains away.

Tonight the supper was at a tapas bar:

We were the first ones to arrive and actually the door was still locked.  It gave us some time to take a few photos.

Since we pretty much had the place to ourselves, we paced our meal, starting with drinks. Left to right:  Kir Royale (Alice) Wellers 12 year Bourbon (Eric), Bourbon & Coke(Bob), Sangria (Ginny).

Next came the cheese & meat course.  The top plate had Serrano ham & artisan gouda cheese.  Bottom plate was a fine goat cheese and cured salmon.  Walnuts, apricot jam and cornichons accompanied the offering.

There were a variety of plates for the main part of the meal.  I ordered beef tenderloin with a green peppercorn sauce, topped with pickled peppers.  Middle photo was chorizo puffs and crab cakes.  Last photo was potato bravos and quinoa salad.

The most unremarkable part of the night was desserts.  Upper left was chocolate covered figs, on the right was a cardamom flan and at the bottom was bread pudding.

Monday morning, Eric planned on meeting his former college professor, Dr. Grabau at 8am sharp.  I stayed home and enjoyed my coffee  🙂  When he got back, he said we had lunch plans……..with Dr. Grabau.  We picked him up at 11:30am and he directed us to a Korean restaurant near campus.  Dr. Grabau was one of two people responsible for Eric and I meeting.  The other one was a Disney campus recruiter.  I had talked to him on the phone years ago, but never met him in person.  He had also spent a little time in China, taking some college students on a 3 week trip, so we had numerous topics to discuss.

Monday night dinner is at home.  Eric and Mary are doing the cooking and everyone liked Alice’s suggestion of weiner schnitzel with brown gravy, mashed potatoes and red cabbage.  We spent the afternoon going to several grocery stores to pick up the necessary items.  Stopping at Good Foods Coop gave Eric the chance to pick up KY grown pork.  That evening he said the local pork was a huge contributor to the awesome taste of the meat (along with the Chef).  We also had to stop at Kroger for some basic ingredients.  Even I have to say the meal was one of Eric’s best.

While our last day in KY was filled with rain, it didn’t stop us from sight-seeing and having lunch.  KY is known for their horses and have horse sculptures spread around the city.

Before leaving for the airport, we had lunch at ‘Crust’.  We ate there on our last visit and it was a request by me.  We ordered too much food (starting to be the norm) but enjoyed every morsel.  Bread sticks come out as part of their normal service and while they don’t look like much, I could make a meal out of them alone.  They look burnt, but are not.  They have tasty bits of goodness on the crust.

A favorite appetizer lately has been a meat & cheese plate and was ordered today.

We all ordered pizzas and they were delicious.

We took one last photo of our visit to Lexington, KY.

We knew we were getting in late Tuesday night, but had a minor blip before leaving KY.  We had boarded the plane for Atlanta, the door and gate was closed when the pilot made an announcement.  Due to bad weather in Atlanta, they had been advised to not take off for an hour, pending weather.  They let us get off the plane and wait in the terminal.  We did leave an hour later and upon arrival did a short ‘OJ Sprint’ through the Atlanta terminal.  We didn’t miss our plane to Orlando, but everyone was lining up to board our next flight.

We made it home safe and sound.  Got our bags, piled into the truck and drove home.  Another storm was on the horizon coming from the Gulf, but it hit Clermont after we were in bed.  We had a nice visit and trip – which reinforced while we live in Florida and not further north.

So we went up there with 1 checked bag and came back with 2.  Eric wanted to bring back another country ham and some local grits and this was the best option.  This way, Eric also got to buy another piece of light-weight luggage for future trips.