Bourbon, Bluegrass n Bgentlemen

I had barely gotten re-acclimated to America (and really: have I mentioned how thankful I am that my family home is always the most relaxing and recharging place ever thanks to my incredible parents? I think I've made that clear on previous occasions in this space?) before I jetted off on another mini-journey, this time to Kentucky, "The Limestone State," as it is probably not known. The occasion: the bachelor party for my dapper, soulful, clever, funny, and relentlessly thoughtful 'n' kind pal Dan. Video and the rest of it post-jump!

The gang, on the town. We clean up... fine?

As per the usual, a bit o' video - though pretty well fatigued from the return home and pretty dazed by the return of Americana and Pal Overload, I was able to capture a li'l bit of the sense of joy that fueled this weekend. Good lord it was a swell 'un.

Lexington is pretty fantastic - I am sure both cities are, but I returned to Lexington just two weeks later for another friend's wedding (an absolutely heart-swelling occasion for dozens of reasons, among them being that a Bengali-Kentucky Muslim/Charleston Lutheran wedding might be exactly what 2016 needed at a bone-deep level?) and was struck again by its undercurrent of cool.

It's bourbon country for sure, and there's plenty of focus there: restaurants and bars all trumpet the stuff, highway signs clearly point the way to the distilleries on the bourbon trail, and we did our share of distillery-hopping. After a few sessions we could all call out the basic facts of bourbon by memory (the minimum and standard percentages of corn in the mash bill, the percentage made within Kentucky, the fact that the burn is known as a Kentucky hug, the list goes on).

A little hand-bottling underway at the Buffalo Trace distillery. FUN FACT: Buffalo Trace is a kind of bourbon. Bourbon is a kind of whiskey! Blogs are a kind of deadening morass of confusion and discontent!

But it's also just a cool spot. Both of my weekends in Lexington had me (and us) stumbling across artists and thinkers doing their thing, restaurants doing that local-organic-seasonal no-frills stuff that I love, and public art to beat the band.

A little art deco in Louisville. We tried our best to be fancy for Dan and I can only hope we succeeded??

 A couple more photos below; there are many stories from the weekend but they all benefit from an in-person telling. What's worth saying here is that the more I've visited the mid-sized cities of the States (Kansas City, Lexington, Louisville, Cleveland, etc.) the more I appreciate how omnipresent artistry and hustle are. And again: coming back from my adventures this summer, I'm a smidge better positioned to look for it and find that excellence wherever it happens to be.

Louisville was cool too! I had a great early morning walk through it, I just didn't solo explore much, so mostly I know it has a few great bars and a stupendous restaurant from Edward Kim! Whatever you guys!

Bourbon n smoke at our last stop of the night, which began with a server saying "We're closed. What can we get you to drink?" It was: highly nifty.

Three gents (OR ARE THERE FOUR) preparing to Step Out in Louisville. FUN FACT: Louisville and Lexington are entirely different cities and apparently do not like to be referred to as The Estranged Twin Cities of Kentucky! STAY TUNED TO THIS BLOG FOR MORE CULTURAL SENSITIVITY.