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#FriFotos: Best of 2013
As I scrolled through my photos from 2013, looking for my best ones, I actually forgot about "best" and started marking favorites instead. Most of these choices are sentimental, selected more for the experience they represent than quality.
So, here we go.
Flowers… always flowers.
Louisville
This picture really is not that good, but it is Steve Buttleman, Churchill Downs bugler, bugling the call to post -- taken from inside the pagoda. And that was awesome.
Travels
Hot chicken in Nashville
A path in Asheville
Alphorn players in the Berner Oberland
My first Swiss cow parade
People
Grandma and the best little dog of three
Gabe is a mountain man
Photos from a September Louisville Jaunt
In September, I entered some photos into a competition sponsored by Preservation Louisville. I did not win, but I loved biking and driving around to the different buildings on their Top 10 Preservation Successes list. Here are some of my favorite shots from my jaunt about town.
Shawnee Library
I always like going new places, and there were several buildings on that list that I'd never seen (and still haven't -- after one long bike ride and a shorter drive, I abandoned the farther locations). The Shawnee Library was new to me. I loved the addition so much that I took most of my pictures from the back. Because it was Sunday morning, the library was closed, but I'll have to go back to see what it looks like inside.
Union Station - TARC
I've been inside Union Station before, and the inside is as beautiful as the exterior. There's also an original mule-drawn trolley inside. Definitely worth a visit.
West Grocery & Liquor Store
This building was not on the Preservation Success List, but I love this entrance and its sassy paint.
Morning Glory galore
Finally, I biked through an alley to get to one of the locations and found this wall of morning glory. I don't care if it's an invasive vine, this flower makes me happy.
Have you found any gems in your home base lately?
#FriFotos - Road Trip (and Hot Chicken, Round 2)
I'm rarely enthusiastic about the from-the-car photos I take on road trips. This one from last weekend's jaunt down to Nashville is no different. I want to share it because in the first seconds I saw this truck, I thought (hoped) it was actually a truck full of coffee.
Now that we've discovered hot chicken, no trip to Nashville will be complete without it. This time, we visited Hattie B's, near Vanderbilt. Hattie B's is a little fancier than Bolton's, but you still order at a counter and sit at picnic tables. They also have beer.
Since I survived the "hot" at Bolton's on our last visit, I thought I should see how I would handle the hottest chicken, the Damn Hot. I was nervous, and rightly so. That first bite was deceptive. I even thought Hattie B's might be faking it. When the server came around with a second dish of potato salad, her warning of, "It's a slow build," was too late. I was already there. And I never really crossed over to a place where I wasn't looking for something to eat that would ease the burn. I ate most of our four sides (pimento mac 'n' cheese!) and drank two beers in about 15 minutes. The chicken was delicious, and I ate half of Gabe's even though I said I was done before mine was gone. But when you feel like you've removed a layer of esophageal tissue, it's too hot. No more Damn Hot chicken for me.
#FriFotos - Boats
I learned a few things from my first visit to Stow Lake. There are some spots along the lake where two people can easily board someone else's boat; however, management will notice that your party left with two and returned with four. Stow Lake's paddle boat management also disapproves of standing in the boats as you attempt to make a triumphant return to the dock.
#Frifotos - Smiles
In 2011, I tried to take a picture of a stranger every day for a month. I did not succeed, but I approached a good number of people I did not know. These are the smiles people give to a stranger asking to take their picture. For more photos from the Strangers project, visit here.
#FriFotos - Hikes
I'm half Swiss and have hiked all over the Bernese Oberland. Every few summers, my American grandparents met us in Switzerland for a week of walking. Our most recent visit together was in 2009. For the first time, we hiked a little slower. Spent a morning on a boat instead of walking around the lake. Took the bus up the mountain and walked back down.
My grandfather still runs 5 and 10k races, but 2009 may have been the last summer of hiking together. Here they are, walking up a rocky trail, lead by my dad.
Bacon Ball 2013
I'm not a bacon freak. A year ago, as a pesco-vegetarian (bad vegetarian) I wasn't even eating bacon. So I wasn't going to attend the Louisville Visual Art Association's third annual Bacon Ball, but my husband wanted to go, and I love food and bourbon. This event promised both, on a farm. To Bacon Ball we went (I typed "Bourbon Ball." Wishful thinking).
Here's Oxmoor Farm. I was really looking forward to seeing the actual farm part, but we only got to see the side of the house (very nice) and some old stables.
It's always handy to have a drink while waiting in line
NABC chefs preparing their Bacon Ball offering
There was a lot of standing in line at this event, but once we got drinks, that became bearable. We left full of pizza, pork, and pig prizes Gabe acquired from the silent auction: a cookbook, a gift certificate to a butcher, and two noise-making toy pigs (one is a keychain flashlight that oinks). And just in case you might forget about where all that meat was coming from, this guy was around to remind you:
