Monday, April 28, 2025

Happy Monday! I’m linking up with Holly and Sarah to share my weekend and some of you have been waiting to hear about it with bated breath…

This was the blogger trip to Louisville that you have been hearing about! I had met Jenn two years ago, but this was literally a blind date for me to meet Joanne, Maria, Marilyn, and Tanya!

And, it’s hard to understand if you don’t read blogs (obviously you all do), but I felt like I already knew all of them and they are all exactly like they are on their blogs. So, it was a bit of a surreal experience to meet them in person!

They only thing I can’t understand – I have never been in a group of 6 women (including me) where so many are non-coffee drinkers! Tanya and I are the only hot coffee in the morning people! I mean, my blog is called “Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa” so I love to drink it, think about it, and talk about it. And, yes I do drink more coffee than cocktails.

Marilyn was the organizer and she found a cute little Airbnb in a fun and lively area of town called The Highlands. I checked it out back in the winter and Facetimed Marilyn to show her the exterior.

The interior was cute and had some cool design touches.

I helped Marilyn plan an itinerary and some of it was weather dependent. Also, we are still feeling the effects of the flooding so a couple of things were limited due to that.

Joanne and I were the first to arrive and we prepared snacks while we waited. The car full of Tanya, Jenn, and Marilyn arrived shortly after, and then Maria arrived. Here we are showing our sweet gifts from Tanya of notepads, flair pens, and hand sanitizer in a cute wrapping. So thoughtful!

And now with Tanya:

We chatted and got to know each other and then sat around and shared a book we are reading and I shared mine:

We kept talking and talking and then realized that we should probably get dinner. We ended up at this little Mexican restaurant nearby.

I ordered some really good mushroom and spinach empanadas.

After dinner I headed home. I had decided not to sleep at the Airbnb and it was perfect for sleeping 5, so it hopefully was good for the other ladies.

I woke up Saturday after not enough hours of sleep and made fruit salad (copycat Chick Fil A, I think – you do two cans of mandarin oranges drained, a container of blueberries, and a container of strawberries sliced up – then you sprinkle about a tablespoon of vanilla pudding powder and about 1/4 cup of lime juice) and a low carb egg casserole.

We had to add to that Marilyn’s sourdough and a couple of really yummy Trader Joe’s breakfast treats – a cinnamon cake and a raspberry kringle.

Then, we got motivated and started at Butchertown Market and Work the Metal. It is a huge store with a kitchen section, a fashion section, body product section, garden section, home decor section, and more. It’s hard to describe. It’s a great place for gifts!

We saw a group of ladies from Texas and Tanya knew two of them! They were trying on hats and fascinators so we did the same. When in Rome!

After shopping there for about an hour, we headed to the NULU district which is on the edge of downtown and a vibrant, hopping, refurbished area of shops and restaurants.

These are two different alley selfies.

Then, we browsed a bit but they had to try what was voted Louisville’s best cookie from Please and Thank You coffee shop. They liked it but I had told them about my favorite Penny and Pearl’s so that was the next stop.

We were supposed to have lunch out but we had cookies instead. We all voted Penny and Pearl’s over Please and Thank You, by the way! We had leftover snacks at the house and everyone was fine with just going back. I dropped them off and then went home for a couple of hours. Everyone rested and changed for dinner and then they came to my house to meet…Eddie Otis…and Tom! No one else was home.

We had a lovely 15 minute drive out to the country to Hermitage Farm. It is a lot of things. They board horses, they have a farm store, they do bourbon tastings, they hold festivals and events. and more.

They have a restaurant and we had a reservation to sit in a horse stall!

The main area:

The bar:

The bathroom is really unique and has fake chickens and roosters making noise while you are in there:

Look at Marilyn’s face; I think she is scared of the chickens.

Maria ordered us some cornbread with sorghum butter. The menu is very Kentucky farm to table style I would say.

I had a really good South African red blend with dinner and I should have written down the name!

I ordered the flat iron steak with chimichurri and tri color potatoes.

The owners of the farm a huge local art supporters and big people in the community. After dark, you can go on an “art walk” which is a lighting design set to music. I have been two or three other times and it was just as spectacular as I remembered. At the very end you can see horses running through the trees. I didn’t get a photo of that part.

Then, we drove back to my house and chatted for a bit in the driveway before the ladies went back to the Airbnb.

Sunday morning we did brunch! We were able to sit on a patio! We went to Biscuit Belly. I’m trying to get rid of my biscuit (entire loaf) belly, but you know, it was a special occasion.

I had heard lots of talk of a brown sugar shaken espresso cold brew and I ordered one and – wow – so good!

I got baby biscuits with three types of gravy! Aren’t they cute?

I swear we didn’t eat all day! In between the brunch and the next food event we went to a consignment store where many of us scored some finds! Then, we went out door shopping area where we went to a cute little boutique and some people found something there, too.

We decided on just a little afternoon snack and tried $5 margaritas (some of us) and potato chip nachos!

Wow!

The ladies went to do a couple of touristy photo opps and I went home to my Sunday preps for the week before heading back to the Airbnb for a little more chatting and goodbyes.

What a fun and full weekend! I’m tired! I don’t usually do this much on the weekends. It was a little different for me because I was in and out of my house and I had my normal life to manage, too, but honestly with school in the homestretch and such a busy time, my mom’s estate, and just life right now this worked out great for me. It would have been hard to go away right now.

I feel like I got to know all 5 ladies much, much better and it will make blogging and interacting even more fun.

That’s all for now!

Amy