Where To Go, Where To Go?

In exactly two months it will be Antoine and my two year anniversary. So naturally, we want to go on a little trip somewhere to celebrate, but of course money is tight. The first place that came to mind was Chicago. Oh Chicago (swoon)...

In the fall of 2008, Antoine and I made our first (and sadly, only) visit to Chicago together. We have both been there on other trips (separately) and we really love the city.

Here's one of the infamous lions outside the Art Institute. It's one of the many places I usually visit while in I'm in Chicago, along with the bean (probably my favorite thing about Chi-town), the botanical gardens (when weather permits), and Wishbone (a delicious Southern Reconstruction style restaurant that has fantastic breakfast!).

Antoine and I would love another chance to explore the wonderous Windy City, but sadly the hotels downtown (where we prefer to stay) are just a little too pricey for us right now! Plus, there's the whole hassle of parking downtown, which generally runs about $30 to $40 a day! Insanity!! So we made our sad faces, then we told ourselves that we should really branch out and go to somewhere new anyway.

So, Louisville popped into my head. On a number of occasions I've heard friends rave about how wonderful Louisville is and it's so close, only two hours away (compared to the five hour drive to Chicago). And, neither Antoine nor myself has been there! Perfect! I started doing some hotel investigations and noticed that hotels in Louisville were considerably more affordable than those in Chicago. So I did some more searching and found some affordable rates, but no hotels that really wowed either of us.

Then Antoine, being the brilliant guy he is, suggested we go camping and go to Louisville. Genius! Let me give you a little bit of background here...I've never been camping (except in my backyard as a kid), but I've always wanted to go. Antoine has been camping many times and really enjoys it. Naturally, ever since we've started dating we've talked about going camping together, so why haven't we? Well, Antoine had a tent, air mattress and supplies but they were kind of "left behind" after his former relationship ended. C'est la vie. Now we are starting to collect camping gear of our very own. Last night we purchased an air mattress at Target and this weekend we're going hunting for a tent!

I can't wait, I'm so excited about our trip. I'm tickled pink by the idea of spending our days wandering through downtown Louisville or touring one of the several distilleries and spending out evenings around a campfire under the stars (eating smores and dehydrated ice cream like we're wilderness astronauts)! Sounds prefect. I think I'm a little bit more excited about the camping fare than the actual camping. For some reason, I seem to have it in my head that that camping is the only excuse to eat dehydrated ice cream (which I discovered they sell at Walmart in the camping section, not just at Cosi) as an adult, although that just isn't true! Also, I was purusing the Louisville South KOA's website (where we are planning on staying) and saw that one of their "Services" that they listed under their Amenities section was "Papa John or Domino pizza delivery". I was a little too excited when I read this! I quickly IM'd Antoine about it and the conversation went something like this (except with less exclamation marks on Antoine's part):

Me: That koa says that Papa John's can deliver to your campsite!!

Antoine: pizza? but that's not camping!!

Me: But it's Papa Johns! Wouldn't that be so tasty!?

Antoine: you're cute!

So, yeah, I'm pretty psyched! I just hope it doesn't rain that weekend!