My Birthday Weekend Recap

 My birthday was March 21, which was a Tuesday. The week prior was Spring break, so I decided to go to Kentucky for a weekend trip with my boyfriend! The first part of our trip was in Loretto, Kentucky. We drove about 6 hours, after waking up at 7:00 in the morning. We finally made it to our destination, where we were able to get a tour of Maker’s Mark bourbon distillery. As soon as we got there, I was in awe of how green the landscape was and how many cows and horses I saw grazing in the fields. I even saw baby lambs! Attached below is a wonderful view of the grounds.

We got a full explanation of how bourbon is made. It starts with a mix of grains (corn, barley and rye). The mixture must be made up of at least 51% corn. This mixture of grains gets yeast and water added to it and then gets placed in a vat to let the yeast do its job (fermentation). Once it’s ready, it gets strained and then distilled (meaning it gets purified by heating and vaporizing). The next step varies between distilleries, but the mixture must age in barrels for at least two years. After it is done aging, it gets diluted with filtered water so it’s not insanely strong and then gets bottled to be put on the shelves! A fun fact about Makers’ Mark is each of their bottles gets hand dipped. The picture below shows me getting ready to dip my own bottle myself!

I’d have to say the visit to Maker’s Mark was the highlight of my trip, but the weekend had just begun. My boyfriend and I headed to a hotel right outside Louisville and grabbed dinner at an Italian restaurant that night. The very next day, we got up bright and early to do some shopping. But first, we had to try out a restaurant called Big Bad Breakfast. I had an amazing egg, cheese and potato skillet with an iced caramel latte. During my shopping, I got a fancy blouse, two necklaces, a strawberry cow build-a-bear and a Crumbl cookie. We also stopped at a couple liquor stores to check out the vast selection of whiskey they have in Kentucky. I got a bottle of cookie dough whiskey that I had been looking for everywhere… it’s not sold in Ohio at all.

For the last day of our exciting weekend trip, we had another bourbon tour at Buffalo Trace! Attached below is a picture of some barrels at Buffalo Trace.

These tours are extremely hard to come by and we got there as soon as it opened to stand in line for a couple bottles of rare bourbon. We got two bottles of Blanton’s, which we were ecstatic about. This Buffalo Trace tour wasn’t as exciting as Makers’ Mark, only because there wasn’t anyone working on Sunday! However, the bourbon tasting made up for it! They had us try Blanton’s, Weller’s, their signature vodka (Wheatley Vodka) , bourbon crème and their signature bourbon (Buffalo Trace). Honestly, they all tasted very good.

I’d have to say this was a 10/10 birthday weekend and would love to go back to Kentucky someday! Attached below is an ad for Maker’s Mark that I thought was so funny. #ifykyk