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Traveling is important. For all the reasons you always hear about. But from my perspective, it also keeps you flexible. One of the greatest traps we can fall into is getting too comfortable with our current situation. Then we become grouchy and discomforted whenever we are challenged or we are presented with change. Travel provides a safe way to be uncomfortable while also stretching our boundaries, learning about another culture (even if it’s within our own country!), and trying new things! And even though traveling with kids can be really difficult, here is how we did a long weekend in Louisville with kids without losing our minds and keeping our goal of exposure to a new place at the forefront.
Lately, when we travel, we like to pretend like we live in that city for a few days. So instead of just only hitting the touristy spots or staying in a hotel, we wander through neighborhoods, play at parks, explore a few sites, find local eats and shops, pick a few bigger tourist events, and stay at an airbnb or similar. It’s been a delightful way to experience new cities. Better for the kid schedules, as we’re not dragging them all over the countryside, and an added benefit is that we don’t end up spending a fortune on vacation because, well, budgets.
And you can find cool alleys like this one to stop and enjoy your snacks.
Earlier this year we took a quick jaunt to Louisville, Kentucky. For us, Google says it’s about a 6 hour drive. In all reality, kids need many more bathroom breaks and running breaks and crying breaks than the Google allows for. It ended up being about 7.5 hours, but overall not too terrible. We stopped in Indianapolis for dinner, which helped break up the drive a little. My husband’s request was for something relatively southern, so I found Maxine’s Chicken and Waffles via a quick search for family friendly restaurants. Maybe the best chicken and waffles I’ve ever had. Ever.
We stayed in an Air BnB house in downtown Louisillve, where there are SO many options to choose from. Louisville is full of historic homes. I love homes with character and details. Scuffed wood floors and servant’s staircases bring me joy. Something else that brings me joy is being able to cook my own food when we travel. Trying to eat out with kids can sometimes (okay, often) be really stressful ,so having a full kitchen to make breakfast and prepare bag lunches makes a vacation day so much simpler. This trip, we ate out or ordered in for dinners, but bought enough groceries to make breakfast at home and pack some snacks and lunches for on the go.
Dave and I love walking through neighborhoods and imagining that we lived there. It’s even more fun when there are houses for sale that you can zillow-stalk. These little jokers just like going for walks so they can climb and bounce and run and laugh. 
On our first day, we did the touristy thing. The quintessential boy activity seems to be the Louisville Slugger Museum, where we took the tour to see how the bats are made, built some legos, and-naturally-posed for some photos. My boys are HUGE Lego fans and there were several baseball stadium Lego creations, including our home team’s stadium, Wrigley. They could literally spend all day building bricks, but they did enjoy the other parts of the museum. Those little bats are free with the tour and we spent the rest of the day managing attempts at injury to siblings.
We spent some time that afternoon walking around that area of the city, visited a local coffee chain (Heine Brothers), and posed for a few more photos.
Louisville has some really incredible parks in the city limits. They are these urban oases of forests and winding paths and playgrounds and basketball courts that pop up in the middle of the woods when you least expect it. Cherokee Park has a splash park with a nearby playground that kept the kids happy for hours while us grownups had a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine.
I love this part of traveling easy, because we had a wonderful afternoon experiencing something that this city uniquely offers, the kids got to be outside and play hard the way they do at home, and we were all able to relax and have fun.
Oh yeah. And eat pie. Because a mandatory part of any vacation is finding the best foods. (Chocolate pie is clearly our favorite).
The next day we spent some more time seeing some fun landmarks around the city.
The Heigold House is the facade of a former stately Louisville home that was moved from its original location to a new spot in the middle of an intersection by the Ohio River. It is now naturally a prime photo op spot for instagrammers everywhere. But it is a little wild to turn the corner and see the front of a house just sitting there in the middle of the road, minding its own business.
The St. James Court Fountain is also worth a stop. It’s nestled in a neighborhood full of historic mansions (for lack of a better word). You feel like you’ve stepped back in history. And then you realize your boys are trying to climb into the fountain and, snap, back to real life.
Nearby is the Ohio river front where we rolled down some grassy hills, played at the playground, watched some ducks, and made some new friends, like you do. So we stopped, hung out, and then headed back across the river and homeward.
We love Louisville and venture back every chance we get. Let us know if you visit any of the sites we recommend! I’d love to hear about your experiences.
