Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Random Thoughts From The Road

Each year I have an opportunity to come to Louisville for a week on business. But there's also almost always a little fun mixed in. Of course, it's as much about the journey as it is the destination.

We came a different way than usual this year driving through West Virginia. It's a beautiful state that is wrongly maligned. The only drawback for travelers is that that there are stetches of highway that have very little to offer travelers to see except lots of scenery.

We made an unplanned stop in Charleston and ended up stumbling upon a treasure. The Capitol Market is a wonderful farmer's market open seven days a week. In addition, they have some incredible indoor shops as well. We picked up sandwiches at Johnnie's Fresh Meat Market that were truly delicious. But the biggest surprise was a Swiss chocolatier (yes, you read that correctly). Holls' Chocolates imports all its chocolate from Switzerland and then fashions all its confections by hand. They are absolutely divine. If you can't get to the store you can always order online.

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The other night we were out at a major sporting goods store shopping for swimsuits. One of the family (I won't embarass them here but they know who they are) forgot their swimsuit. We ended up stumbling on such good deals we bought three. Anyway, when I got to the checkout counter I was a little surprised to see a sign advising shoppers that there were specific limits on how many boxes of ammunition you can buy at one time. Turns out that there has not only been a surge in sales of guns since the November election but now ammo is hard to come by. There's a political statement being made here somewhere.

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Whenever we travel we try to sample local restaurants. In fact, our first night here we didn't waste any time ordering dinner from our favorite pizza joint in Louisville, Wick's Pizza. They have some of the best pizza I've ever tasted.

Sometimes, however, eating out gets old. Since our hotel has a kitchenette, my wife decided to be adventurous and cook dinner for us. This required a trip to the grocery store. While I'm normally frugal when it comes to shopping there is one store that is worth the trip and the price. The Fresh Market is a little more pricey than your average grocery store but it also carries lots of things you can't find anywhere else. If you never visited one be sure to stop in when you get a chance.

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