An Extraordinary Christmas Date...

We received a notice that there would be a Cirque event at the Louisville Palace in December. Claude and I love Cirque du Soleil. I shared the notice with Claude and he said he wanted to go. I booked the event for us to attend on December 17th. We thought this would make a great big Christmas date for 2019.

Then Claude let this swirl around in his big brain and acted on making this even more memorable. He booked us a room at the Brown Hotel in Louisville. This an historic hotel and home of the Kentucky Hot Brown. We have wanted to stay there and enjoy dinner in their restaurant. 

Then we realized the next day we could attend the Louisville Temple before heading home. Yeah!!

Check-in was at 4pm. We left Sadieville a little after 2pm. We found the parking garage beside the Brown Hotel. There is a closed in walkway from the parking garage to the Brown Hotel. It took us a bit to find the desk to check-in. So used to the check-in desk being in the lobby near the front door. The ground floor is where you would enter the Brown Hotel from the street. From there you go up a flight of stairs and registration is on the second floor, around the corner and down the hall a bit. We eventually found it and Claude got us check-in. We found our room on the 7th floor.

We settled into the room. Claude had made us dinner reservations for 5:30pm in The English Grill. I set an alarm and we just rested for a bit.

We left for dinner about 5:15pm so we could take pictures of this historic hotel. In the hallway outside the elevators there is still the old mail slot in case you wanted to mail a letter. Wonder how many younger people simply overlook this unique item. 

These are pictures of the second floor where we checked into the Brown Hotel.

We had a few minutes before time for dinner. So I went down the stairs to the first floor entry and took a few more pictures there. As I stood at the top of the stairs to take the first picture, a man came up behind me to go down the stairs. He said looking down that way made him feel like he was in the movie "Titanic". 

Soon it was time to go to the English Grill for dinner. The cool thing about it is this was the original restaurant in the Brown Hotel. It was the place where the Kentucky Hot Brown was first created. It has the original lead glass windows and is just beautiful. It is not large but quite cozy and warm feeling.

Claude and I knew we wanted a picture of us in this setting. Claude took the first one of me as he tried to get a shot across the room. 

Our server came to our table and I asked him if he would be interested in helping us get a picture of ourselves. He was very happy to do this. I told him I would stand beside Claude for the picture. Then he quietly picked up the rose centerpiece and moved it so it would show in the picture. He commented that it would add a bit of color. I smiled and said to him that he obviously had lots of experience with people asking him to take pictures. He grinned and said it did indeed. After taking one of us together, he moved the place where he was standing. Then he said he thought we should have one with one of the horse pictures in it. The walls had portraits of race horses. The horse in the picture behind us is Clifton Tomson with the dates of 1775-1828. Wow!!

We each ordered a Kentucky Hot Brown. This was the purpose for dinner in this restaurant. The menu says when ordering a Hot Brown to be prepared to wait 20 minutes while it is prepared. We settled in at our table and the man who is the bus boy of sorts came and chatted with us. Then our server came back with two white plates with a little thing in the middle. This was served compliments of the chef. It is some type of marinated fruit with a glaze with walnuts in it over the little piece of fruit. The fruit is sitting on a small piece of brie cheese which is sitting on a toasted piece of focaccia bread. It was yummy. 

Claude also order a shrimp bisque and ate that while we waited. The server came with an extra spoon just in case I wanted to have a taste of the soup or potage as they called it. Eventually our Kentucky Hot Brown's came to the table. My they were good. But they are definitely comfort food and not light at all. Claude made it through his but I didn't quite finish all of mine. Let's be honest. They also brought us a small basket of bread. There were two piece of an herb bread, two poppy seed rolls and some bread that was like a sweet cracker. There were two types of butter, a plain and an herb. Both were delicious. We did enjoy our Hot Browns.

As we dined our server brought us a big postcard about the Kentucky Hot Brown with the recipe for how to make it on the back. Yippee!!

We opted not to have dessert and just quietly roll ourselves out of the English Grill!!

Time for our evening entertainment. We went downstairs and out onto the street, turned left and walked to the second block. That is where the Louisville Palace is located. As we got there, Claude said, "Oh no, I didn't take my pocket knife out of my pants." They have screening equipment and they don't let knives go through and into the theater. I assured Claude I would wait right outside the front of the theater while he went back to get his knife put away. I suggested he go into the parking garage and leave it in the Jeep, that was closer and easier that going inside and up to the 7th floor of the hotel. He did that. 

When he returned I had him pause for a selfie of the two of us. There were warning signs all over the place making sure everyone knew if they used their cell phones to take pictures or video during the performance they would be evicted. This would be our best chance for a picture.

Then we went inside to enjoy the show. 

It was excellent. Just as the show was starting the people in front of us entered the theater and took their seats in front of us. The man was wearing a fedora. It was blocking my view of the stage as we were sitting in the orchestra seating on the side of the theater. I was raised that when a man enters a building he is to remove his hat. Alas, this fella did not do that. I waited for a bit and decided I would do something. I leaned forward in my seat and quietly asked him to please remove his hat. His lady friend repeated my request. He said, "I will not remove my hat!" I could not believe it. I sat back and tried to move in my seat so I might get a better view. What is it with people that they are just sure they are more important than anyone else? I wondered if we would have words during the intermission but we did not. Before the show was over, he grabbed his lady friend and they exited while the performers were finishing the final number. Totally disrupts those around them. But he got out before any rush. I didn't let him diminish my enjoyment of my big Christmas date with Claude. But I was again amazed at how rude people can be. 

We walked back to our hotel room and were both very happy we didn't have to drive back to Sadieville. 

This morning we woke up and checked out of the hotel. We drove to Crestwood. Our timing was such we had about 45 minutes extra. So we went to the local McDonald's and had pancakes for breakfast. Then we went to the Louisville Temple. Look at the lovely Christmas decorations in front of the temple.

Such a lovely way to begin our day. On the way home we stopped at 5 Guys for a burger for lunch. 

This was just an extraordinary Christmas date. We both had a great time.