Louisville Things to Do

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Time to see how all the bats for MLB are made! This is a pretty neat little tour/museum. Located on the north side of the city, you start by getting your tickets and checking out a few exhibits about baseball (stand behind a catcher and see how fast you have to be to hit a major league fastball!) Tours go off regularly, and you'll see the process from wood cores to full bats, stickering, dipping, and wood burning. The tour takes about 30 minutes, and at the end of the tour, you get a little mini-bat as a souvenir. Plenty of photo ops around the museum, and a huge gift shop to boot. There's also a kids corner where kids can hit off a tee and do some coloring. For a few $ more, you can step into a batting cage as well.

Costs run $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Lots of history, and will be worth it for anyone with an interest in baseball.

We didn't stop in, as it's ads reflect many hand-ons activities for kids and the youngest in our group was 24 and well versed in science. It sounded great and like something the kids would have enjoyed when they were 5-14 years old.

Open Mon-Thu,Sun 9:30am-5pm; Fri-Sat 9:30am-9pm

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Home to the Royal Armouries USA, which is a mini-tour of English History as told through the Armour and weapons used from the early Celts through the Romans, into the age of Knights, right up to the founding of North American Colonies. It is a wonderful collection of dioramas, displays and some hands-on items. Most kids will enjoy the dioramas and the age of Knight displays.

Come to the factory/museum where the Louisville Slugger baseball bats are made. There is a gift shop where you can buy so many baseball souveniers. I loved the giant bat at the front!

There is a little bot of controversy when the first bat was made and used. Factory legend has it that the first bat made for the America's Baseball competition was in 1884 for Louisville's team Eclipse. Browning of the Eclipse was the first player to use such a bat professionally.

Another story is that Latham, a third baseman for the St. Louis Browns, was the first in either 1883 or 1884 when he was in Louisville to find a new because he had broken his own.

In 1905, Honus "The Flying Dutchman" Wagner who played for the Pittsburg Pirates, signed a contract as the first ever player to endorse a bat. The popularity of the bat boomed from then on.

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The tour of the track was included in the admission price to the museum and we took it because we could not go to see races as we had at Oaklawn in Hot Springs. The tour includes the actual Finish Line pole used at Churchill Down for many years. The track site says that grave sites of three famous Kentucky Derby winners, Carry Back (1961), Swaps (1955) and Brokers Tip (1933) are located outside on the museum grounds. I don't recall that we saw the graves. There is also supposed to be a TB (Thoroughbred) and a miniature horse on the grounds, but we did not see them either.

Incidentally, Thoroughbred is a breed of horse like a poodle is a breed of dog. Thoroughbreds are purebred, but not all purebreds are thoroughbreds.

We did see the Grandstand, the Finish Line and Winner's Circle. The guide told us about the saddling enclosure, and showed us (from outside) where all the owners boxes were.

First tour 9:30 am; Last tour 4:15 pm. Obviously most of the tours are not available during Derby Week (the first week in May)

There are additional tours that you can pay for, but we didn't take any of those. This includes the INSIDERS' TOUR Museum tour guides take up to 20 guests on a one-hour behind the scenes tour of the Jockeys' Quarters, Millionaires' Row, the Press Box and other areas of Churchill Downs' newly renovated clubhouse.
$10.00 for adults, children (4 and under) FREE. W/ Museum admission only.
Starts Monday - Saturday (10:00 am, 12:00 pm, 2:00 pm); Sunday (1:30 pm and 3:00 pm)
Not available during the Spring Meet at Churchill Downs.

and the BACKSIDE TOURS (AVAILABLE MARCH THRU NOV)
Museum tour guides take up to 12 guests on a one-hour tour of Churchill Downs' stable area and infield. There are also two stops for picture taking, time permitting.
$6.00 for adults, children (4 and under) FREE. W/ Museum admission only.
Starts Monday - Saturday (7:00 am, 8:30 am, 10:00 am, 11:30 am, 1:00 pm); Sunday (12:30 pm, 2:00 pm, 3:00 pm)

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I was fortunate enough to be visiting my friend who lives in Old Louisville and took me on the house tour. I've added a few of the pictures from the outside [none allowed inside] to this tip and will add more text later. We made it though 7 of the houses I think. There is also a nice Christmas decoration/gift center in the basement of The Conrad/Caldwell House where you bought your tickets for the tour.
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The variety of the approaches to restoring/renovating an old Victorian house varied as did the ways of dressing up the house for the tour. Some houses were just very nicely done with the usual Christmas decorations you would expect. Others were "htemed" in color or kinds of objects. I found those a bit overwrought. After a while I lost interest in the living rooms and bedrooms and really homed in on how the kitchens and bathrooms had been redone -- when we were given access to then.
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If you find yourself near Louisville for this event I highly recommend that you take the tour.

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Chartered by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1848, this cemetery is the final resting place of many luminaries, including Colonel Harlan Sanders and George Rogers Clark, the city's founder. It is among the most beautiful cemeteries anywhere.

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The Kentucky Derby is run here each May. This is the most famous horse race in the world. To win the Triple Crown, a horse must win this, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. Not many of them have done it. Be sure to see the museum.