Our second day at Churchill Downs for Derby weekend was good, but not great. It was a cold, gray, rainy day with a muddy track. The crowd still turned out for the big race, but the festive feeling I had hoped for didn’t happen. The sun did not shine bright on our Old KY Home.

We still had fun, placed a lot of bets and enjoyed a day at the races. The prior day (The Oaks) was actually more memorable. So it goes.

The Thursday before Derby we visited a couple of distilleries and had a lot of fun learning about bourbon and its history. I chose to visit one new, boutique distillery (Rabbit Hole) and one of the older distilleries in the state, Castle and Key. It was a great contrast.

Rabbit Hole’s modern, urban, clean, stainless steel distillery was easy to visit, and the whiskey was good. Nice place to start.

Castle and Key was a completely different animal. Ancient, rough, rural and full of character and stories. I liked C&K a lot. I had been warned that their bourbon wasn’t good, but we found the gin and the bourbon enjoyable. And the grounds! What a beautiful site, even on a rainy day. From the giant concrete rickhouse to the ancient mixing rooms, visiting there was a real treat. We got a behind-the-scenes tour courtesy of a family member who is an executive there.

It’s been a fast, experience-packed weekend, and now on yet another rainy day (Sunday), writing this little essay is about the extent of my ambition.

Tomorrow I have to dive back into the crazy datacenter project, and some of the bourbon I bought will come in handy.