Thursday, May 27, 2010

My liver hates me!

Ohhh, my (bitter) sweet friend Jim Beam. We have arrived in Bardstown, KY - the Bourbon capital of the world! Today we toured the one and only Jim Beam disterillry! No tour is complete without some sampling - better yet - it was FREE!! It was fabulous, and I learned that the Beam label actually makes several brands of bourbon I have never heard of before. Of course we had to bring a few home to add to our collection. Next, we went to Havenly Hill distributors and had an even more fabulous tour through their rick houses which store the bourbon in charred white oak barrels.
The fermentation smell that wafted through the creaky wooden structure was pungent! It reminded me of the everpresent stench of alcohol that lingered in the halls of the [insert name of favorite greek fraternity] Lamda Chi house at Butler. To commemorate my recollection of college memories, I celebrated like I still had a college liver, hence the title of this post. Truthfully I am surprised that I am currently coherent enough to write this. After the tours and samples we dined at Talbotts Tavern, which has housed the likes of President Lincoln, Daniel Boone, Jesse James, & George Washington Irving. Pretty impressive. It is an old stone building with dark wood rafters and candlelight everywhere. Probably would have been romantic if it had not been for the bourbon sampler. Started out as a good Sarah idea (much to Torben's staunch objection). Well, let's just say I am not as young as I once was and five shots of anything is four shots too many. Torben is notoriously frugal and won't let me waste anything. I felt like I was six years old being forced to sit at the dinner table until I finished my plate. He just smiled while savoring that "I told you so" moment. In a last ditch effort to avoid hurling up my dinner I offered the remainder up the to table behind us and ended up making friends with a couple who had lived for three years on a sailboat and were once boarded by pirates! I love meeting colorful people. Last, on our way home this evening we were shocked to learn that we have traveled all this far to run into...our next door neighbor! Torben spoke with Patty Shenefelt and it turns out her uber-talented son is performing as Stephen Foster in this year's summer play series in Bardstown. Crazy? Unfortunately, poor Michael is laid up and not feeling so well, so say a prayer for his quick return to health. Tomorrow we plan to check in on him and make sure he's doing ok. Then, we're off for more bourbon touring (if you want to throw in another prayer for my liver feel free to do so).
Oh yeah, this was following the tour. Fun times.

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