Southern hospitality, Kentucky style.

Southern hospitality, Kentucky style.
ABA’s Marketplace
Pre and Post FAM Tours, January 2016
PRE-FAM
Caves, Corvettes
and Lincoln
January 5 – 8
TUESDAY – FRIDAY
Bowling Green, Barren River State Resort Park, Mammoth
Cave, Horse Cave, Hodgenville & Elizabethtown
Did you know Bowling Green is the only place in the world where
the Corvette is made? You’ll get to see the Corvettes being made if the
GM Corvette Assembly Plant is in production during our visit. Across
the street you will tour the National Corvette Museum and discover
for yourself the allure of America’s sports car. After exploring more of
Bowling Green’s art & culture scene, you will explore Kentucky from
a different perspective, underground. This area of Kentucky is dotted
with caves including the world’s longest cave system in Mammoth
Cave National Park. You will also visit the American Cave Museum
and Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo in nearby Horse Cave.
Your tour will end with visits to Hodgenville and Elizabethtown as
you explore President Lincoln’s ties to Kentucky including his birthplace, which is now a National Historic Park.
PRE-FAM
January 5 – 8
TUESDAY – FRIDAY
Quilts, Wildlife &
Bluegrass Music
Grand Rivers, Land Between the Lakes, Paducah,
Henderson & Owensboro
Western Kentucky offers many unique opportunities. Wildlife
abounds in the western waterlands, so keep an eye out as you may
see bald eagles soaring and nesting or elk and bison grazing in
their native habitats. In Paducah, designated as the world’s seventh
City of Crafts and Folk Art by UNESCO, you will visit the National Quilt Museum which displays quilts that are truly world-class
works of art. Up river you will make a stop in Henderson and tour
the John James Audubon Museum where you will see one of the
largest collections of his original works. And last but not least you
will explore music that was born in Kentucky, Bluegrass, with a
visit to the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro.
And as always the tour will include great food and entertainment.
PRE-FAM
January 5 – 8
TUESDAY – FRIDAY
Unbridled Horsepower
Northern Kentucky, Georgetown, Lexington & Shelbyville
Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines…..you are rolling through
horse country experiencing the original horsepower (the 4-legged
kind) and automotive horsepower. Your tour begins at the Kentucky
Speedway in Northern Kentucky and continues with a visit to the
Newport Aquarium at Newport on the Levee. In Georgetown you
will tour the Toyota Manufacturing Plant, home to the Camry,
Avalon and Venza. While in Georgetown you’ll visit one of our state’s
most emotionally uplifting attractions, Old Friends Retirement
Center for Thoroughbreds, which will allow you to get-up close and
personal with 4-legged horsepower. The tour continues with a visit
to Lexington, the Horse Capital of the World. Here you will tour the
Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland Race Track. Your Unbridled
Horsepower tour ends with a stop in Shelby County, the America
Saddlebred Horse Capital of the World. Did you know that the
Saddlebred is the only breed of horse indigenous to Kentucky?
PRE-FAM
January 5 – 8
TUESDAY – FRIDAY
Feuding, Singing,
Drinking and More
Winchester, Pikeville, Prestonsburg & Paintsville
All of this can be found in the beautiful mountains of eastern
Kentucky. On this trip you will visit some of the most significant
sights of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud in and around Pikeville and
discover the truths and tragedies behind this legendary feud.
Your trip will also take you to stops along Kentucky’s Country
Music Highway (U.S. 23) including Loretta Lynn’s childhood home
in “Butcher Holler,” near Paintsville and the Mountain Arts Center
in Prestonsburg. The locals will introduce you to some native
drinks, both hard and soft….moonshine (Prestonsburg) and
Ale-8-One (Winchester) and you will experience the heritage
of these iconic beverages. All along the way you’ll eat, drink and
be merry.
Arts & Heritage
Richmond, Berea, Renfro Valley, Danville & Harrodsburg
Join us on an exploration of Kentucky’s rich culture and heritage in
the areas of arts and music. Your tour will begin with a tour of
White Hall State Historic Site, the home of Cassius Marcellus Clay,
19th century emancipationist, politician, newspaper publisher,
Ambassador to Russia, and friend to Abraham Lincoln. In nearby
Berea you will hear the history of Berea College, possibly visit
artisans in their studios and browse the art of Kentucky at the
Kentucky Artisan Center. You might even learn to create an art
piece of your own. Just down the road is Renfro Valley, Kentucky’s
Country Music Capital and the home of the Kentucky Music
Museum and Hall of Fame. You will also visit Danville, the site
where Kentucky’s Constitution was written, Harrodsburg,
Kentucky’s First Permanent Settlement and Shaker Village at
Pleasant Hill, the largest restored Shaker community in the nation.
POST-FAM
January 13 –16
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY
Not Just Bourbon Country
Shelbyville, Frankfort, Bardstown, Clermont & Shepherdsville
Yes, you will be touring and tasting the product of several
distilleries, but this tour is much more than Bourbon. You’ll start
the day with some retail therapy at The Outlet Shoppes of the
Bluegrass, enjoy lunch at the restaurant founded by “the Colonel”
and visit some multi-million dollar athletes at their home during
a tour of an American Saddlebred Horse farm. Your first
distillery tour will be at Frankfort’s Buffalo Trace but you’ll also
explore Kentucky’s State Capital sites and our state’s heritage.
In Bardstown, you will learn why Bardstown is known as the
Bourbon Capital of the World as well as tour the symbol of
Kentucky’s state anthem “My Old Kentucky Home,” the Civil War
Museum of the Western Theatre, the first Catholic Cathedral in
the west and other sites. As you head back to Louisville, you will
visit Jim Beam American Stillhouse, Four Roses Distillery and
a couple of Kentucky “gems.”
POST-FAM
January 13 –16
WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY