Traveling- Lexington, KY and Louisville

Louisville: #

Where we stayed

• The Hotel Distil (Marriott)
  https://hoteldistil.com
  This hotel was great, even during COVID. We loved how new and clean everything was and it was a great location too.

• The Brown Hotel
  https://www.brownhotel.com/
  We stayed here previously, and this hotel was also very nice, but not as modern.

Coffeeshops, etc:

• Quill’s Coffee, Highlands, Louisville
  Quills has several locations, and they all serve great coffee. Another thing that we usually care a lot about in a coffeeshop… the accoutrements. Quills has great food at each location.
  https://quillscoffee.com/

• Steel City Pops, Highlands
  https://steelcitypops.com/locations/louisville/

Also Shred415 is in Louisville! I got my workout on!!!
https://shred415.com/locations/highlands

Lexington: #

Where we stayed

• Origin Hotel (very cool and new, near Keeneland, DOG FRIENDLY!) https://originhotel.com/lexington/

Restaurants

• Honeywood https://www.honeywoodrestaurant.com/
  This was right near our hotel (Origen) and had cool decor, the food was just ok. Cool area to shop outside downtown Lexington, near Keene

• Middle Fork http://www.middleforkkb.com/
  This was great! We loved the vibe and the location. It is in the heart of Lexington’s historic bourbon distilling district, with cool small distillers and hipster bar spots nearby. Also, Crank and boom Ice Cream is located here! https://crankandboom.com/

• Spalding’s Bakery: Cash only, but amazing as ever. https://spaldingsbakery.com/

• Steel City Pops (amazing gourmet popsicles):
  https://steelcitypops.com/locations/lexington-steel-city-pops-a-dessert-you-can-feel-good-about/

Places we haven’t tried:
Girlsgirlsgirls Burritos
The Pasta Garage
Weekly juicery
Doodles for brunch
The Midway Bakery scones
Holly Hill restaurant
Sav’s African food

Coffee:
A cup of commonwealth - cool but very hipster!
http://acupofcommonwealth.com/
Old school coffee - need to check out!

Hikes in Red River Gorge
Red River Gorge Map:
http://www.redrivergorge.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/rrg_map_sm.pdf

The first year we hiked in Red River Gorge, we did the Auxier Ridge (#204), Auxier Branch (#203), Double Arch (#201) Loop. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd491186.pdf
It was a long, beautiful hike, but it got hot and we should have brought more water. We had Dash with us, and he was worn out and hot and dusty by the end.

The second time we hiked in Red River Gorge, the entrance road/bridge to go to Auxier Ridge was closed. We drove the first day through Nada Tunnel (a crazy experience! only one car can fit through at a time, and there are no lights inside so it’s very possible you go halfway through and have to turn around due to oncoming traffic!)

We drove to Bison Way Trail, and hiked both Northwest towards the suspension bridge, as well as Northeast on the Sheltowee Trace back through to the Indian Arch and checked out Indian Staircase. We are not master hikers/climbers, so we did not summit the staircase, but the views were incredible!
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd491189.pdf
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/kentucky/bison-way-to-indian-staircase-to-sheltowee-trace-trail
https://toddthehiker.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/red-river-gorge-indian-staircase-trail-map.jpg