Can You See Thunder?

Thunder Over Louisville is the kick-off event for the Derby festivities. Thunder consists of an air show that starts at 3:00pm and a 30 minute fireworks display that starts at 9:30pm. It is a huge event that Kentuckianas crowd along the Ohio River to watch. People stake out spots early in the morning and picnic all day long. To avoid the huge crowds along the river, we opted to go to Iroquois Park; a park in the southern part of Louisville that is on a very high hill. From the top of Iroquois Park you can see downtown Louisville, the location of the fireworks. We joined a couple hundred people at the top of this park to watch the fireworks. To get to the top we had to hike up a switch-back trail that was not in the best of repair. Everyone hiking up this trail were so well prepared for night hiking that everyone was using their cellphones as a light on this dark and somewhat dangerous trail. We looked like a long line of eerily lit ghosts slowly climbing a hill through a very dark forest. Once on top we all patiently waited for the fireworks to start fifteen minutes late. When we finally heard the booms, we stopped our conversations and turned to look at the fireworks. However, due to annual tree growth, only half of the people had a good view. The other half who couldn't see through the trees (including us) turned back to hike down the dark dangerous muddy trail. But after all that effort we did not miss the awesome fireworks display; we saw them from the couch on NBC's re-broadcast.

Unexpected Adventures

The trees have bloomed in Louisville and the wildflowers are everywhere.  To fully absorb all this beauty I went to Bernheim Research Forest on Friday morning.  My intention was to walk around on the trails then find a nice quiet spot to sit and draw Spring blooms.  On the trail that I was walking I encountered a woman who was so excited to see a rare wildflower that she had to show the first person to walk by.  She was a naturalist who volunteers at Bernheim.  And since I love to learn about plants I spent the next two hours walking with her while she pointed out all the different wild flowers and butterflies.  Some of the wildflowers were so small and hidden that I would not have seen them on my own.  I had a wonderful time.  I never did find a spot to draw, but I had a great unexpected adventure.