Day Trip

On Wednesday, we took a little day trip with our friends, Bruce and Karolyn. We decided to go to the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky. 

 Along the way, we did a little geo-caching. This one was called an "earth" cache.

 In order to "claim" this cache, you have to answer a series of questions relating to the earth formation.

 Unfortunately, it was too muddy to go inside the cave, so they had to peer in to find the answers.

 We proceeded on to the distillery. The tour was about an hour and a half and was really interesting.

 The tour started by crossing this cute covered bridge. In the olden days, this used to be a dirt road. People rode up on horses and picked up their bourbon.

All of the shutters have cut-outs of the Maker's Mark bottles. Bill Samuels' (the owner) wife  came up with the name from her pewter collection. Each piece had the mark of the craftsman on the bottom. Hence, the maker's mark was the slang for that. She thought it would be a good name for the bourbon.

 Maker's Mark is still crafted by hand and stored in barrels for about 7 years. Butch and Bruce signed up to be ambassadors. They each have a barrel named after them. When the bourbon is distilled, years from now, they'll go back to purchase bottles from "their" barrel.

 Every good tour includes a tasting at the end. I didn't taste it as this in not my "thing!" However, on the way to the gift shop, they had some bourbon chocolates that were delicious!

 While we were at the tasting, I noticed this in front of me. Would you have said something?

 The ceiling in the distillery has custom art work by Chihuly. It's gorgeous, shiny and colorful AND expensive! I cannot imagine what they paid for this. It's a pretty long hallway.

 Can you see the cherub in this piece? It was hard to get a good picture..

 Bruce and Butch preparing to "dip" their own bottle.

All Maker's Mark bottles are dipped by hand. There's a precise way to do it: dip to rim; rotate 360 degrees, stand upright to form the drips.

After the tour, we had lunch in the cafe. We all had pulled pork in Makers sauce. It was delicious! 

Our little outing took the entire day as the distillery is 3 hours from Nashville. Still, it was so much fun. Were planning an outing each month. For September, we're going on a segway tour of Franklin, Tennessee. The "boys" have never done a segway, so that will be fun.

This is what retirement feels like!!