Touring Louisville - Part 2

Following our time at the Louisville Slugger Museum, we crossed the bridge into Jeffersonville, Indiana. We found a nice park along the Ohio River where we could enjoy a picnic lunch and some playtime. 

To complete our lunch, we headed to a popular family-owned candy shop, Schimpff's Confectionery. This candy store and historic soda shop opened in 1891 and is especially known for its cinnamon red hots. We called ahead for a free candy-making demonstration and loved getting to meet two members of the Schimpff family.

Here, Ed Schimpff is mixing and cooling the warm cinnamon candy. It smelled delicious! The Schimpffs told us that they always purposely vent some of the cinnamon aromas out into the street to entice customers into the store. Smart!

Jill Schimpff showed us the varieties of molds they used for their red hots. On this particular day, she made the candies into hearts.

We all got a sample of the red hot candies, which Jason and I enjoyed, but the kiddos didn't prefer. Everyone loved their ice cream treats, though!

The other stop we wanted to make in Indiana was the Falls of the Ohio State Park. There actually weren't any waterfalls here, just river rapids, but it was a wonderful place for the kids to just be outside, crawl around and explore-- just what our kids needed!

We could've stayed at this state park for likely much longer, but it started to rain... and then pour on us, so we headed back to the hotel. Adley needed the naptime anyway, and the boys were excited to go for an afternoon swim at the hotel pool.

The next day, our last full day in Louisville, we gave the kids a choice of a few activity options-- viewing a parade in Jeffersonville (since it was July 4th), walking through Squire Boone's Caverns, or visiting the Kentucky Science Center. The Science Center was the resounding choice! This ended up being a fun place, as we enjoyed quite a few unique exhibits there. 

Jaden and Cody spent a LONG time at this station, sticking scarves in this wind tunnel, pressing levers to change the wind's direction, predicting where the scarves would fly out, and then trying valiantly to catch the scarves before they hit the ground.

Adley liked playing with the light exhibits.

All three kids played for a good length of time at this water exhibit.

It was especially exciting sending these ping-pong balls up through the water fountains...

...or up the pipe and then down the ramp into this plinko-type game. What a fun contraption!

We saw several other familiar exhibits, too--

A favorite spot for Jason and me was watching the kids try out this Weather Watch exhibit. The words on the screen prompter flew by a little too quickly for our boys, and obviously weren't something Adley could read, but they all sure enjoyed hamming up the forecast and then watching themselves on screen.

The last exhibit we visited was a super creative spot called "Who Forted?" The boys of course thought the name was hilarious! The whole area was set up like a large living room, complete with sofas, chairs, cabinets, and other random furniture spread around the room. The goal was to use the supply of sheets, blankets, pillows, and even PVC pipes to create mega-forts. Each of our kids wanted to create their own hideout. They all had unique building ideas. What a great spot to encourage creative thinking!

Visiting this museum ended up being our last touristy thing in Louisville. We had planned to attend some Fourth of July events including a fireworks display in downtown Louisville that night. Unfortunately Jaden came down with a stomach bug that afternoon, so we just laid low in the hotel and had an early bedtime for everyone instead.

We had also originally planned on spending a day in Memphis on our way home. But, with Jaden's upset tummy, we figured that getting home a day early would be the better plan. The drive home was a long one for the poor kid, but he made it. It was a wonderful vacation week as a family, but it sure felt wonderful to be home too!