The Coolest Front Door Ever

I WANT THIS DOOR!!! How awesome is that!

This is the house it was on it was for sale too- I tried to convince Steve to buy it for me, but no such luck! It is on the road to the reception place, so you may get to see it as well- I'll be sure to point it out.

Maker's Mark Whisky

On our way home yesterday we took a detour to Loretto, KY a small town in the middle of nowhere to visit the Maker's Mark Distillery. I was looking forward to the tour, but was surprised at the end how much I truly enjoyed it!

We found it! Seemed like it took forever on those long windy country roads...

The buildings were all painted "Bourbon Brown" with Red shutters that had the shape of their bottle carved out in them.

This is inside the fermentation room- these vats are 12 feet around and 12 feet tall! They take the cooked corn, wheat, and barley mixture and add the yeast and it sits here in this room for 3 days. Pretty nasty looking- and to top it off the tour guide had us each stick our finger into this vat and another one to taste the difference from day one to day three.

Steve and I in front of two of their stills... If you look in the glass area you can kind of see the liquor- it's crystal clear and colorless at this point (and pretty strong tasting- we got to sample this "white dog" as well as the finished product at the end of the tour).

The bourbon is stored here in these barrels for seven years where it ages and gains it's amber color.

Bottling and Labeling (we saw their printing press where they still print their labels "by hand" on an old fashioned printing press). Pretty Cool!

Dipping souvenier bottles that we purchased in the gift shop with their trademark Red wax.

Steve's turn...

The proud dippers in all our protective gear- aprons, sleeves, gloves, and saftey glasses. Our three dipped bottles are cooling over my shoulder...

A Weekend Away...

Well, just about 12 hours ago Steve and I arrived safely back home from a weekend getaway down to our favorite place, The Smokies. We left on Friday afternoon with the camper in tow and headed down south. We had a great time and it feels like we were there for so much longer than we were! The one disappointment was that we didn't get to see any Black Bears :( I guess that we were just a little too early to see them this time...

Douglas Dam- our campground was here

This picture was taken when I was standing up by the dam looking back towards the campground. We did get to see the dam running and it was amazing to see how much water came through there generating power for the area. You can see how low the water is in this picture, but I can assure you that those rocks were all underwater when the dam was running.

Steve at Cooters Garage in Gatlinburg with the General Lee. Yes, he was a Dukes of Hazzard kid... this was a lifelong dream for him :)

Speaking of being a kid... Just had to check and see how cold the water was...

A Squirrel Named...

STEVE!

For the past couple of days I have been working from home and both Steve and I noticed this little guy would come by every afternoon to munch on the corn that we have outside for the squirrels. We get a whole bunch of them that hang out on our patio everyday, but he stands out because of his hair loss (just like Steve... hence the name!) We're a bit perplexed as to how he has lost his hair, but he's still cute! Please excuse the screen in my pictures...