♥ Louisville Slugger Museum/Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown ♥

I took a trip today to visit the Louisville Slugger Museum. I know many native Louisvillians who have never set foot inside this tourist landmark, but I thought I would break the mold and go learn something new about my city!

The iconic giant bat (It is 120 feet high and an exact scale replica if Babe Ruth's bat!) at the entrance to the museum is one of my favorite parts of Main Street. I'm not really a fan of baseball, but something about the bat just grabs my attention every time I drive or walk by. I think its a really cool landmark!

The museum is actually much smaller than I expected. There is only one main exhibit room, and there is not much to it. I'm sure that fans of baseball will get more out of the exhibits than I did. Still, I did learn some interesting facts about how the size and makeup of baseball bats has evolved over time and how they are made.

The best part of the museum is the tour through the factory. For about 30 minutes, I got to see where every official bat in MLB is made. This factory is also responsible for crafting the bats for college baseball, little-league teams, and for sale in sporting goods stores. It was so impressive to see a piece of wood carved into a perfect bat in 30 seconds flat! Unfortunately, no photographs are allowed during the tour, but I snapped this one through the window in the museum lobby.

Everyone leaves the tour with their very own souvenir-sized wooden baseball bat! Pretty cool!

Here are a few more photos from the museum.

34,000 pound limestone baseball glove sculpture.

For those interested, there are also batting cages at the Slugger Museum (for an extra fee).

Special for the holiday season, there is a Peanuts display at the Museum through January 2 called, Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

No photographs were allowed inside, but it was essentially a collection of copies of Peanuts comic strips dating back to its creation in 1950. There is also a television playing A Charlie Brown Christmas. Next to it is a display with letters written by children after the first airing of the holiday classic cartoon in 1965, pleading to have it shown every year. That was pretty neat to see.

So, that's basically it! All in all, a worthwhile venture! And now I'm a Louisvillian who can proudly say that I have, in fact, been the the Louisville Slugger Museum!

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♥ Frazier International History Museum ♥

Today, with its perfect sunny skies and moderate temperature (80 degrees in August, can you believe it?!!), was the perfect day for a little venture to downtown Louisville. I drove down River Road, one of the prettiest stretches of trees and parks in Louisville and arrived smack dab in the middle of the bustling downtown lunch hour! I drove down Main St. and arrived at the Frazier International History Museum.

BONUS: You can't beat downtown parking for only $2!
The Frazier is a small museum (I walked through the entire thing in about 2 hours), but it is worth going.
My main reason for going to the Frazier this summarrrrrrrrrr was to see the Pirates exhibit! It is only in town for a couple more weeks, so I figured I'd better go while I still had the chance! More on that later...

You can purchase a ticket with or without an audio tour. I chose to go without. It was recommended by staff that I start on the third floor and work my way down. But, I guess I was feeling rebellious or whatever because I chose to start on the first floor and work my way up! Lol!
Turns out, there wasn't much on the first floor. Just an exhibit of different guns. Not really my cup of tea, so I headed up to floor two. A majority of this floor was dedicated to American History. I walked through the exhibit and saw details of American History from the first settlements through the Westward expansion. Of course, there was a slight bias towards Kentucky/Louisville history, which I didn't mind. I need to learn more history of my new home! This museum is really big on weapons, let me tell you! Probably about 85% of all its exhibits are weapon related! I moved through, stopping to watch a few short videos and examine a few maps. Overall, it was pretty interesting.

Also on the second floor is a temporary exhibit of photos from the wars that the U.S. has been involved in...from the Civil War through present day. I felt myself getting choked up as I looked at photos of soldiers in the thick of combat.

The third floor exhibit is European History starting around 1000 A.D. Again, lots of weapons. It mainly focused on English History, but threw in a little Roman, French, and Spanish as well.

And finally, I got to the Pirate exhibit! It was small and a little hokey, but they definitely had the mood of the room right. Sea shanties, seagulls, waves, shimmery blue lights...it made me want to go to the beach! Haha! There were some interesting bits, but it was a pretty quick walk-through.

So, that's it! A good, educational, afternoon time-killer! And one more reason to fall for Louisville!

(P.S. The Frazier is also a VERY popular place for weddings here in Louisville! The rooftop provides panoramic views of the Ohio river and the Louisville skyline during wedding ceremonies, and there is a swanky NY style loft reception room, too!)

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