April 30, 2006

Louisville: Very Charming.




The Louisville Zoo.

Originally uploaded by macwarriorny.

Earl and I kicked off our day in Louisville by going to the Louisville Zoo. I found it to be appropriately named since it’s in Louisville and there were a lot of animals there.

As far as zoos go, we found it to be quite nice. There weren’t a lot of people there at all, but the animals seemed happy and the various exhibits were interesting. I have a whole bunch of pictures of the animals that I’m going to post on the .Mac site when we get back home in a couple of weeks. It was good place to visit.

After the zoo, we drove up Bardstown Rd. through the “artsy” area of the city and stumbled upon the Karma Cafe. A wonderfully earthy type cafe, we had some lentil soup and grilled veggie sandwiches. It would have been perfect had it not been for the couple sitting near us with not one, but two very, very unhappy toddlers that were screaming their heads off. We did our best to ignore the ruckus, but we were unable to have a conversation because the screaming was too loud. The parents were content in letting their kids scream for a while until they noticed that every person in the restaurant was starting at them with disapproval. Then a woman, another customer, came up and offered to hold and walk the toddlers around to calm them down. I think that was the last straw, they asked for their food to go, paid the check and promptly left. I think there was applause after they left the building.

While we were having lunch it began raining like mad and continued throughout most of the afternoon. We had originally planned to walk around the area but since the weather wasn’t cooperating, we decided to check out the local mall and see what they offered. We ended up at the “Mall St. Matthews”, whih would have been considered top notch had it not been missing an Apple store. After doing a little research, there’s no Apple store in the entire state of Kentucky.

That’s just wrong.

Now we’re relaxing for just a bit before meeting up with Earl’s work associate for dinner and perhaps a trip to the casino on the Indiana side of the river. Tomorrow Earl has to attend a couple of meetings; I’ll be exploring the downtown area on foot. Tomorrow night, after Earl’s work commitments, we hit the road and head to St. Louis for an overnight stay.

Shocker.

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Today while we were touring around Louisville, I found something that I never thought I would like. Hold on to your socks, I actually liked…

“Wal*Mart Neighborhood Market”.

Intrigued, Earl and I stopped into this store to pick up a couple bottles of water. I had read about this new type of Wal*Mart on the internet and I wanted to see what the hype was all about.

These little stores are no bigger than your average grocery store. There’s no annoying television monitors blaring advertisements on a continuous loop. This format of Wal*Mart is devoid of anything except what you would find in a grocery store. There isn’t even a red smock to be found, with the color schemes favoring a more earthy approach in green and tan. While not as swanky as my beloved Wegmans, I would actually welcome a store like this into our neighborhood back home.

Who would have guessed?