Louisville, Kentucky (2016)

Hotel: Hyatt Regency Louisville

Distance from SDF Intl. Airport: 6 Miles ($15 Uber)

Length of stay: 4 Nights

Average nightly rate: $200 Avg/Night

Normally when I write I try to find a calm place where I can relax and really dig deep into my thoughts. I have been so busy lately that today I don't have that privilege. As i write this blog about my Louisville experience I am on a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, I will be spending the week in San Diego, California. Regardless of the cities I visit (famous or not) I still strive to document it and share it with my readers. Last week I visited Louisville, Kentucky for 4 days and was pleasantly surprised with the unique city.

The Flight

I flew first class on an American Airlines Airbus A330, this was en exiting flight for me considering I have never flown on this model plane before. These big planes used to be operated by US Airways mostly for overseas flights. Once in a while you'll find these big planes being relocated around the country and it is a nice treat to fly within the USA in a nice first class pod. I decided to pick the seat in the last row just so I could take pictures without anyone yelling at me. You would be surprised how defensive flight attendants get trying to "secure" the identities of the other first class passengers.

The first class cabin on AA's A330 is a 1-2-1 seating configuration. For the most part you have a nice amount of privacy and aren't to close to anyone unless you are sitting in the middle aisle. The seats are fully lay down but you can tell they are worn out. American Airlines has painted these planes after the merger with US airways but they still haven't done any interior renovations. As exited as I was to be on the flight it was around 5am so I was a bit tired. I ordered a glass of orange juice, laid my seat down and snored away for 2 hours.

Upon arrival they woke me up to put my seat back in upright position so I opened the window to try to see the city from the sky. Right as I opened the window we where flying over downtown Louisville and I was actually able to see the hotel clearly. The city is surrounded by water and bridges that lead into the city. In the picture below you can see the river that separates Kentucky and Indiana.

The Hotel

I usually don't stay at Hyatt properties to often so I have no status with them. Luckily they had a very friendly staff and hooked me up with a nice renovated room on one of the top floors. I didn't do much research about Louisville prior to arriving so I was pretty surprised when I pulled up to the hotel and saw I was one block away from what they call "4th street live". It's one of the coolest streets i've seen in any city, its one long block compressed with bars and restaurants and it was directly in front of the hotel. The street closes off every night to ages 21+ and has about 5 different nightclubs as well as various dining options that are open late.

(4th street live in the background)

The hotel is really nice inside, as soon as you walk inside and look up you can see all of the rooms from top to bottom.

The front desk attendant "Carlton" is from Jamaica and was really accommodating and got me a nice room. He kept telling me over and over that I should visit Jamaica soon as he winked his eye at me. I wasn't fully able to understand if he wanted me to visit Jamaica or if he was trying to sell me weed lol. As you can see below the rooms are really nice and updated, the room probably had the largest TV I have seen in any hotel. It also had a nice spacious bathroom and tub.

I have to give props to Hyatt for having one unique feature that no other hotel chain has. They leave a list of amenities/accessories of your bed and at anytime you can call and order anything you like for free (yes you get to keep it). I called down and ordered some things I didn't need at all just so I could write about it.

After I ordered the stuff I left the room for a while and when I returned they had a black bag on the door that said "delivered". Inside was a pair of slippers, toothpaste, mouthwash, shaving razors and shaving cream. These are the small things that make hotels valuable, not having to bring all this stuff in your luggage saves space, time and money.

The City

One morning I was destined to find the bridges I saw when flying in, it ended up taking me on a cool journey around the city. Louisville has something really weird about it, the city has a lot of history but also a mix of architecture. I would walk a block feeling like my surrounding where from New York City and the next block looked like London. Ill show what I mean below.

(On this picture below I legit felt like I was walking through the streets of London)

After walking for about 20 minutes I finally reached the river that separates Kentucky and Indiana. It was truly a gorgeous view seeing all those connecting bridges and such a wide river. It was below freezing outside, I stood on the edge and stared our for about 10 minutes until I realized my right ear was frozen lol.

As I started out 2016 I set one of my resolutions to not drink for the month of January. Having a whole sober month taught me a lot. I probably haven't gone a whole month without alcohol since i turned 16, but the challenge and self discipline wasn't really what taught me a lesson. It was the fun experiences that I had with my girlfriend and my friends and co workers in environments where I would usually drink. This weekend I was able to spend some time with some pretty close friends and we all went out to dinner and ice cream without any of us drinking any alcohol. We all laughed and had a great time, the next day we had a conversation just about how crazy it was that we haven't felt clean sober fun in such a long time, especially because the Entertainment industry is so controlled and surrounded with alcohol.

We went and had ice cream at a place called "The Fudgery" and it was one of a kind. All the employees inside sang songs out loud and made us all dance while we waited for our ice cream.

After having such an amazing weekend surrounded by amazing people I was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratefulness. From the hotel room I could see the tip of a cathedral so I walked towards that direction with hopes of it being open.

Luckily it was and when I walked in it was completely empty.

I took a seat and took some time to reflect. I think it is impossible to describe the feeling every time I'm able to find a random church in a city just to say "Thank You". As I sat there and thanked god for my health, my career, my family, my girlfriend and the amazing people that are in my life I kept feeling a constant rush of goosebumps through my body. I hate to get religious in my posts because I am not a very religious person but I do think its crucial for us to say "Thank You". Sometimes in our busy lives we forget that we are all here for a reason and for a purpose, its our responsibility to find that purpose and to execute it with passion. If you are traveling to Kentucky or have any questions about travel in general feel free to message me through Google Circles.