Baseball & Bourbon Road Trip – August 2023 (Dog Friendly)

August 9 – 13, 2023

A short road trip to explore the Kentucky Bourbon trail and the Louisville Slugger museum with our favorite bulldog and travel buddy.

Link to Trip Photos

Day 1 – Lexington, KY – We loaded up the car with our luggage (and Dees!) and drove 5 hours to Lexington, KY. We checked into the hotel, explored the local area, and cruised the University of Kentucky campus on our way to dinner at the coolest secret garden style restaurant.

21c Hotel – A hotel and art gallery. Pet friendly up to 2 pets for a $50 pet cleaning fee per stay. Small rooms, but well-appointed and the art is very cool. Great location in the center of downtown
Kentucky Native Cafe – A magical secret-garden restaurant located behind a flower shop. A great place for dinner or drinks – do not miss this one!
Distillery District – Redevelopped area with several dining and entertainment options.
Ethereal Brewing – Brewery with outdoor patio in the the Distillery District.
Crank and Boom Ice Cream – In the Distillery District across the parking lot from the brewery. I highly recommend the ice cream flight. You can pick 4 flavors – they had some unique options like a delicious bourbon and honey flavor.

Day 2 & 3 – Louisville, KY – We stopped at Woodford Reserve and Buffalo Trace on the way over to Lexington. It was a beautiful drive though the countryside – with immaculate horse farms and fields of Kentucky bluegrass. We spent a couple of days exploring the Louisville area. Helpful tip – if you want to tour the distilleries, book your tour several months in advance!

Woodford Reserve (Versailles, KY) – They have a dog relief area, but no dogs allowed otherwise. We popped in the gift shop for a few minutes and looked around the grounds.
Buffalo Trace (Frankfort, KY) – If you only do one distillery tour- do this one! We did the Trace Tour – which is free and dog friendly (there were a few tour buildings Dees couldn’t go in since it is food production), with a guided tasting at the end of the tour. The gift shop is dog-friendly and they release a limited number of bottles each day. The more rare items typically sell out early – we snagged a couple of bottles of Blanton’s. It was cool to see the barrels rolling by themselves across the road from one warehouse to another – marked by a barrel crossing sign.
Hotel Distil – A classy Marriott Autograph collection hotel on Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville. Half the building is a Moxy hotel (separate entrance). They were pet-friendly with no additional fee, though they do offer a Bur-bone package for $50/stay with a bourbon barrel dog bed, branded toy and treats. Dees is spoiled and likes to sleep in the big bed – so we passed on the extra package.
Against the Grain Brewing – Cool brew pub on the front side of Louisville slugger park. They have a nice shaded patio area, and even brought Dees a big bowl of water as soon as we sat down.
Louisville Slugger Museum – This was the main reason for our trip, Peter really wanted to visit the the museum. We did a tour of the small factory, and Peter got to hold Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron’s baseball bats. The grips are protected and you don’t get to touch the wood – but it was still a cool photo-op. They give you a mini bat as a souviner at the end of the tour. We also popped in the Bat Vault where they keep all of the old bat models on style and they can tell you what pro player has used each style. Overall, really cool if you like baseball. This is not a dog friendly stop – Dees hung out at the hotel and napped while we visited.
Clarksville, Indiana – Since Indiana is right across the Ohio River, we drove over to a little greenway area to walk around and saw we hit another state. It was a very peaceful area and Falls of the Ohio State Park is very close.
Village Market Food Hall – We checked out a little food hall for lunch since they had a dog friendly patio (bringing Dees typically limits us to places with patios). The outdoor area was nice, but the food was just ok.
NuLu Neighborhood – A hip little neighborhood near Downtown with lots of cool local shops. It was fun to spend a hour or so walking around while waiting on the ice cream store to open.
Louisville Cream – ICE CREAM!!! In NuLu and the open at 3PM – plan accordingly. I had a cookies and cream ice cream sandwich that was well worth the wait. They has a small line when they opened.
Churchill Downs – We made a brief stop at the entrance for a photo-op. They have a museum and tour experience – but not dog friendly, so we skipped it.
Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen – Our dinner stop. They had a nice patio and friendly service, conviently located across the street from our hotel. The kitchen made Dees a small plate of bacon as a treat – so he was a big fan!

Day 4 – Franklin, TN – Our last stop was in Franklin to stay with family for the night. We made a couple of stops along the way and then hit the town in Nashville for some live music at a retro-cool little venue.

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest (Clermont, KY) – An impressive, dog-friendly nature park with sculptures woven in. We especially loved the Forest Giants – 3 large wooden troll sculptures by Thomas Dambo. Suggested $15/car donation to enter.
Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience (Bardstown, KY) – We popped in the gift shop here, but didn’t do the tour.
North Italia (Franklin, TN) – Delicious food and cocktails in a newer development complex.
The Eighth Room (Nashville, TN) – Small live music venue with a retro vibe.