Louisville Love!

Hi all!  I hope you had a fantastic fall weekend!

I thought I would share some photos from last week's short trip to Toonerville/Luhvull/Looeyville/Looavall/Louisville, Kentucky.

enjoy!

And off we go!  My husband and I enjoyed the beautifully fall colored four hour drive across southern Ohio into KY. Our tunes for the trip?  Vampire Weekend, of course!

As soon as my husband and I checked into the Galt House Hotel and marveled at the view of Louisville, the Ohio River, and Indiana from our hotel room, we headed straight to the Muhammad Ali Center. I loved the architecture outside of the museum (note dorky photo above!)

This was my second trip in five years to the Center, which is five stories of endless history, art, religion, sports, love, peace, and happiness. Seriously.  Ali was the greatest at a lot of things, and there's no way I can post all of the photos that we took. The museum is pure graphic art/media genius;  I will stick with sharing some of my personal faves - the artwork:

My favorite paiting, by Simon Bull

My hand compared to Ali's; the wooden blocks that make up the "Hope & Dream" wall, pictured above.

This sculpture is amazing.

LeRoy Neiman sat ringside and painted live watercolors of Ali's fights. Simply amazing. 

(The dude I'm taking pictures of taking pictures is my husband.)

One of my favorite things about the Muhammad Ali Center is all of the artwork contributed by local children - so innocent and pure, truthful and powerful.

 Ali and Elvis were BFFs! This robe was made by Elvis' costume designer.

The Muhammad Ali center literally takes hours to walk through - so much fight and news footage to watch, a ton of hands-on exhibits, there's just entirely too much to document here.  It's definitely a must-see if you're in Louisville - set aside at least a couple of hours for the full experience!

On our way to Joe's Crab Shack - had to stop so my husband could get a pic of his very own "belle"!

With Thursday's fun over and done, it was time to get serious and focus on my husband's conference presentation on U of L's campus on Friday.  I attempted to fit in with the scholarly peeps in the a.m., but that was a total failure, so I decided to spare myself the embarrassment and enjoy the gorgeous campus until time for my hub's presentation:

A horse, of course! Outside the School of Art.

Behind the bench I sat on to tweet and check email - I was a little concerned!

Such a sweetheart squirrel! He was playful and fun.

We took a pic of the new basketball/event venue, in downtown Louisville after dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory - the KFC YUM! Center! Clever!

Good-night, and Good-bye Louisville

There WILL be a post describing my mortifying "scholarly talk" with a young Yugoslavian gal at the conference.  I'm thinking I have enough material for several posts.  So sit tight! It'll be worth the wait.