As most of my regular readers know, my father lives outside Cincinnati. I try my best to make it out to visit him twice a year, and recently I’ve begun to incorporate that into a slightly larger trip. This spring, I began in Cleveland and did some fun things in Ohio before heading down. For my fall trip, I’m doing the opposite, and starting in Louisville.
Kentucky is a state I’ve spent a lot of time in, since Dad is on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River in the Cincinnati area. And I’ve been to Mammoth Cave, which you can read about here. But Louisville is mainly a blank spot for me, as I’ve only been for part of a day once, shockingly for a work meeting. So that will be the focus, before heading up to Cincinnati where, as always, I will try to do something new in the area worth writing about.
It will be a fairly quick trip, and the itinerary is below. Some things are pre-arranged; others are just reasonably likely or a basic part of the plan. As with all of my itinerary posts, please don’t hold me to anything in particular as things have a way of changing.
Day One – Los Angeles to Louisville
Why Louisville? Well, it’s close enough to Cincinnati, cheaper to fly in and out of, and I haven’t had a chance to write here. Great! My flight gets in fairly late so there’s not much else to say here.
Day Two – Louisville
My first day in the city will take me two places, in theory. First is the Frazier Museum, which specializes in local history. Yeah, those of you who are regulars know I LOVE places like this.
Then it is to the first of two bourbon distillery tours. After all, I can’t visit Kentucky and not write about bourbon, right? Today is Michter’s Fort Nelson Distillery.
Day Three – Louisville to Cincinnati
Since it’s only an hour and a half between the two cities, I get the day in Louisville before heading northeast. Today I will visit the Muhammad Ali Center, paying homage to the city’s arguably most famous resident and both his career and activism. Then it is my second bourbon distillery, Kentucky Peerless.
I’ll pick up my car and head to Cincinnati in time for dinner, or grab food first, depending on how long it takes me to completely sober up from the bourbon.
Days Four and Five – Cincinnati
While the focus of my time is seeing my dad, I am going to try to make some space to head to the Cincinnati History Museum, another locally focused outlet. Woohoo for history!
And yes, I will eat at Skyline at least once for Cincinnati chili.
Day Six – Cincinnati to Los Angeles
Wake up, have breakfast, see Dad once more, then drive back to Louisville and my flight home. If time permits, I might try to swing by the Zachary Taylor gravesite to write about another short-serving President, but we will see.
That is the basic trip. My hope is it will net me four articles (bourbon, Muhammad Ali, and history from both cities) as well as an update of my Ultimate Guide to Cincinnati. Those will probably come out at the end of the year sometime, or early next year.
In the meantime, please follow along for daily-ish updates on my Bluesky page. I’ll try to post thoughts and photos regularly during the trip.
Below is a map of Kentucky for those who are like me and love maps. Louisville is to the southwest of Cincinnati, with both cities being marked with flags.
