Wild Lights!

Friday
This morning we left for a mini break down to Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville is southwest of Cincinnati and, like Cincinnati, is located on the Ohio river, but on the south bank, with Indiana to the north. We are just spending the one night, as we need to be back for church choir on Sunday morning. It’s about a two hour drive, and we arrived a little before noon. It was a last minute decision to come away, and having made the booking, we discovered that tomorrow there is a huge event taking place, Thunder over Louisville, with a large air display in the afternoon, and a firework display in the evening, both of these based on the riverfront. One of the things we wanted to do was walk along the riverfront, but we weren’t sure how much would be blocked off, and if parking would be a problem. However, it worked out OK - we found somewhere to park quite easily, and whilst they were busy setting up, and a few areas were fenced off, we were able to walk most of the way along. The one thing we weren’t able to do was to walk across the Big Four bridge to Indiana to see the city skyline. The Big Four bridge was built as a railroad bridge in 1895, and decommissioned in the 1960s, and is now a pedestrian and cycling bridge, 1/2 mile long, plus the circular ramps leading up to it at each end. The bridge was unfortunately closed both days. One bonus to our walk, however, was we got to see a number of the planes practicing for tomorrows air display, so we got to experience some of the thrill without the crowds! I have put a second collage in the extras, with shots from the riverfront and downtown Louisville. Having finished our walk along the riverfront, we went to check in at our downtown hotel, then walked about 20 minutes through downtown to the Slugger Museum and factory where baseball bats are made (also shown in extra collage). We then walked to the Mohammed Ali center, though it was too late to visit, as it closed in 30 minutes. After an early dinner, we headed to the subject of my blip, Wild lights at the Louisville Zoo, an amazing Chinese lantern display, featuring all sorts of zoo animals, birds, insects and flowers, a number of the lanterns were animated, for example a larger than life peacock, whose tail opened up and displayed different colours! It was truly a feast for the eyes!