Highway to Hot Brown Heaven.

Whew. It feels like I was gone forever, not just four short days. I basically ran everyone into the ground, trying to fit everything worth seeing and doing in three major cities into a three-day weekend. Here are just a few of the highlights and low points of one unforgettable road trip. (For all 300 or so pictures from the weekend, click here.)

HIGHLIGHTS:Listening to live music at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. The venue is small, inviting, and intimate, though a bit disconcertingly located in a tiny strip mall across the street from the upscale Mall at Green Hills. The night we were there, the featured musicians were Travis Meadows, Misty Loggins (above left), and two of their guests, and they played "in the round," which means they were seated in a circle right in the middle of the audience, and they would take turns playing their own tunes, accompanied only by their own guitars and occasionally the other singer-songwriters. It's a far cry from attending a concert in a huge sports arena with thousands of other fans, but it's just as worthwhile and quite possibly all the more memorable. (Okay, so the woman on the right was not at the Bluebird Cafe, I just really liked her shirt. Yeah.)Dining out at Margot Cafe & Bar in East Nashville. This charming restaurant is one of the best in all of Nashville and takes as one of its inspirations Alice Waters' Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, with an emphasis on the freshest locally grown ingredients and a menu that changes daily depending on what's available at local markets. I'm no foodie, but that was probably the best pork chop I've ever had. And the potato chips? Okay, I know it sounds absolutely mundane, but those were some good potato chips. And Joe tried sweetbreads for the first time! Yay Joe!Staying at the DuPont Mansion Bed & Breakfast in Old Louisville. My first stay in a bed & breakfast was first-class. Everything from the fluffy white bath towels to the place settings at breakfast was beautifully and tastefully appointed (especially in comparison to the other B&Bs I viewed online!), and I only wish we'd been sufficiently awake and alert to appreciate it all. Even though we arrived at 2:30 am EST (after gaining an hour en route from Nashville, which is in the Central time zone), the innkeeper left us keys to let ourselves in, and even though she's no Tom Bodett, she did leave the light on for us too.Attending a horse race at Churchill Downs in Louisville. Okay, so the race itself wasn't very exciting, because you can barely see any of it. The day we were there, the starting gate was on the other side of the track, and since we weren't at a very advantageous position (track level, instead of high in the stands or box seats where you can actually see stuff), we only caught the very end of the race, which itself lasted less than it takes to read this sentence. But Churchill Downs itself is quite an experience, even for someone who's less than enthusiastic about equines (see, Black, Joe). From the twin spires atop the grandstands, to the signs in the courtyard rafters noting the name of every Kentucky Derby winner and the year in which they won (gold lettering if the horse took home the Triple Crown), to the playing of My Old Kentucky Home, every part of the racetrack is infused with history and tradition. Definitely a must-see.Experiencing the Hot Brown at its birthplace, the Brown Hotel in Louisville. The Hot Brown (you might have seen it on Throwdown! with Bobby Flay) is an open-faced turkey sandwich smothered in Mornay cheese sauce and covered with bacon, baked until the bread is crisp. In other words, heaven in your mouth. Joe and Isaac each got one and basically declared it to be the best part of the trip. Expectations started out low, because come on, an open-faced turkey and bacon sandwich smothered in cheese sauce, especially in hot weather, sounds absolutely disgusting, doesn't it? Plus we were all in foul moods, having just missed our scheduled cruise on the Ohio River (see, low points, below). But this culinary masterpiece right away turned our black frowns into hot brown smiles all around. Yes, it is really just that good.
Strolling back in time down the tree-lined paths at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. First off, the drive from Louisville to Shaker Village, the largest restored Shaker community in the US, is serenely sublime. It's restful, calming, and soothing, like visiting the spa, but in your car. Then, arriving at Shaker Village is like being transported to a different world, a different century. Craftspeople and docents dressed in traditional Shaker outfits travel up and down the tree-lined paths, but for the most part, you and the other guests are left alone, softly enveloped by a sense of peace and solitude, and the music of a thousand singing birds.Meeting the champions at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. A working horse park, educational theme park, and sometime retirement home for champion racehorses, the Kentucky Horse Park is also imbued with a sense of history and greatness. The great Man O' War is buried there, as are many of his descendants. The park is also currently home to Cigar, the all time leading money earner among North American thoroughbreds, with almost $10 million in career earnings and winner of a record (tied with Triple Crown winner Citation) 16 races in a row. Seeing him and several other champion racehorses up close and personal at the Hall of Champions was definitely a treat.

LOW POINTS:

Not having GPS. The worst part about this trip was the prep work, which mainly consisted of me doing lots of uneducated guesswork about where we would want to go and in what order. Which, as you might imagine, takes a whole heck of a lot of time. And then, since I only had printouts for either entire cities and/or very small and discrete areas, and detailed instructions for only specific itineraries, any unplanned stops or skipping certain destinations altogether made for missed signs, frequent arguments, and backtracking and frustration galore. Never again!Ergo, missing our steamboat cruise. For example, since I didn't have explicit directions from Churchill Downs to the Fourth Street Wharf in downtown Louisville without stopping at the Brown Hotel first, we got totally lost twice and just barely missed our Ohio River cruise on the Belle of Louisville, a National Historic Landmark and the oldest river steamboat currently in operation. That boat wasn't the only thing that was steaming, let me tell you.

Downtown Lexington. Maybe it was because it was Memorial Day, and nothing was open save Starbucks, but downtown Lexington was a bit disappointing. Since we didn't have much time there anyway, though, it wasn't too much of a loss. And the donuts at Magee's Bakery? Ehh.

Gas prices. Enough said.

Not enough time! So the itinerary was a tad ambitious, and the trip that took us three days would probably require at least five days or a week with mere mortals (or saner beings). I would've liked to visit the Grand Ole Opry and Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, spend more time at the DuPont Mansion and walk around Old Louisville, check out the Louisville Slugger Museum, actually get on the stinkin' steamboat this time, take a tour of a bourbon distillery, and spend an entire day at the Kentucky Horse Park, maybe go for a trail ride too. That said, the trip was loads of fun, and I can't wait for the 2nd Annual Black Family Road Trip next year! Where to, you ask? Boston and up the coast of Maine, perhaps? Or down the Pacific Coast Highway? Stay tuned!