This was one of the stops on the Chocolate Crawl today. Although small there's a lot of history to…read moreenjoy in this museum. OK, as a college student I had to watch Birth of a Nation by local filmmaker, D.W. Griffith and it of course is controversial with its racist theme. Still the museum touches on that and makes no excuses for it. Several years ago I did attend a tour of the African American cemetery that was exceptional. Grab an almanac that has the schedule of events for the coming year. It has been a while since I attended an event or lecture here but hope to reacquaint myself with this museum. Helpful and friendly staff is a plus here.

During a local event in LaGrange, I stopped in this quaint little building. Not knowing what to…read moreexpect, I was pleasantly surprised. The amount of history displayed is wonderful. So much local information on just about everything. The exhibits are interactive, lots to see, a few televisions playing videos, a make-shift movie theater, and take-away info. My admission was free on the day I visited, but there are tickets/fees upon entry. Well worth the visit and very kid friendly.

Let's "support our local art!"…read more This little gallery is located on Main Street and it features art from community members and artists. They have a great collection on view and its changes from time to time. The entrance fee is a steal. It's under twenty dollars. The inspiration of another individual is just hard to explain. You can see their story and explore it through how they convey and then you connect to it. The staff here are truly wonderful. They will not only help you but let you shop and browse as you want. They are engaged with great attention to detail. One featured artist is Minnie Evan's she has an immersive experience here . Let's reflect and celebrate.

The Kentucky Museum of Arts and Crafts has a hot new name, KMAC, and three floors of interesting…read moreexhibits and activities! Every floor also features an activity area for groups and kids in the back. It's a nice feature. The first floor is mostly the shop with a lot of cool, some of it local art. Not bad prices either. The next two floors up have rotating exhibits with art in a variety of forms. You can see the whole place in a relatively short amount of time and you'll have a great time!

The Shriner's Club is having their week long Christmas fund raiser. What a fun evening. There is…read moresomething to offer every night this week. The food and beverage tasting with a live band/orchestra this evening playing 40's music was a blast. Tomorrow is Bunco, Tuesday line dancing, and Friday a murder mystery dinner. Not sure about Wed and Thursdays events. They also have breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning. The fund raising consistent of buying raffle tickets to place in a basket for drawings at the end of the week. They probably have 40+ decorated trees that you can place your tickets in the bucket. Trees are fully decorated with lots of goodies included with the tree. They also have a bake sale, a Santa shop with various Christmas items to sell, wreaths for sale and gift baskets to again put your ticket in the bucket with the hopes of winning the drawing for all these items. Staff and volunteers were very friendly and the food and drink vendors had some awesome food for us to sample. A great organization that does a lot of good for our community. If you get a chance go out and support them this week or at one of their other fund raising events.

Enjoyed an enjoyable evening at the Taste of the holidays/Wonderland of trees event. The food and…read morebeverages offered by the various vendors were exceptional and the trees where gorgeous. They are offering a wide range of events this week or you can just simply visit to admire the trees.

Been here so many years in a row. Big changes this year, no chicken dinner felt like fewer booths…read more More food trucks, but prices seemed a bit high. Also, the amount of air pollution with trucks running made it feel unhealthy. Appreciate them giving food trucks a place to be but can't we do both, food trucks and chicken? (OH, and maybe add bingo to Friday nights?)

This was the 175th year of the St Joe Picnic in 2024 and it was held the 2nd weekend of August on…read moreboth Friday 4 PM to 11 PM and Saturday 11 AM to midnight. We attended on Saturday from 5 to 8 PM. Parking was also available in the area at the seminary with a bus shuttle to and from the drop off at the front gates of the event. Wish there had been more shuttles available during peak hours because the wait was extremely long. We arrived at the drop off point at the front gates and then waited until an extremely long train (total of 6 engines) passed before we could enter. Trains pass by periodically, which is to be expected. We had pre-purchased $100 worth of tickets online for the 20% discount, and it was a bit of a challenge to find the Will Call booth for pickup. We were also surprised to be told that the tickets were only to be used for food, which is contrary to some of the wording on the website. We ultimately did patronize several game and activity booths which did in fact accept the tickets, so all was not in vain. We were aware that the special $1.75 chicken dinners offered this year in honor of the 175th would go fast. News reports indicated 4,000 dinners would be offered for an expected crowd of 50,000 patrons over the 2-day event. By the time we made it to the chicken dinner ticket booth, they sold out by 5:30. A bit disappointed, but we had been prepared it might happen. I felt bad for those who were not well aware beforehand. We ended up getting $7 beers and $3 hot dogs, playing a few games, purchasing a few raffle tickets, and then selling some of our tickets to other patrons and giving some away as we headed out early to go down the street to eat dinner at a sit down neighborhood restaurant. Our party of 6 all agreed the event felt a bit disorganized, difficult to navigate booths and the property, signage was sparse, and golf carts were annoyingly prevalent throughout the pedestrian pathways. Since this is a charity event, I was happy to participate and lend support. The volunteers are all to be commended. The property itself is also lovely beneath the mature trees and the weather was pleasant.

Grinchmas is an annual Christmas event that takes place in a church in Shepherdsville Kentucky…read morecalled Journey. The church transforms there building into the grinches lair, whoville and other Christmas holiday favorites. This is a free event that the congregation of this church does a few weekends of the holiday season. You go to there website and reserve a time Frame and date along with your party size for virtual tickets. You line up at your time and walk through this amazing doctorated and creative holiday wonderland. Like the people who designed this have to be engineers or something it is so creative and fun. It's like walking through a movie set. Each section offers something different. It is mainly grinch themed and as you go room to room it legit has the grinch story book. page by page on each wall. At the beginning they have a scavenger hunt game with other hidden Christmas gems. Like for instance one of the air vents had a picture of Bruce Willis character John McClain from die hard in homage to the famed vent scene. Also spread throughout each room was cool meet and greet opportunities with not only the grinch Himself, but buddy the elf, Cindy lou who, the whole whoville villagers, Jack skeleton and finally at the end Santa and his workshop. The characters here were so good at what they did. I'm not sure if they are hired actors or if this congregation has some phenomenal talented members. But everybody played there role brilliantly. The grinch, buddy the elf and the whoville people especially. One of my favorite things that Happened and what will be a for sure long time Christmas memories is my 7 year old daughter who will absolutely only talk to me, her grandpas and one of her uncles when it comes to men walked in the room with buddy the elf. Buddy the elf excitedly "hi little girl". My 7 year old daughter disappears behind my oldest daughters backside. Buddy slowly and cautiously in hilarious will Ferrell like fashion creeps to her looking for a fist bump. My 7 year old is having no part and is backing away and buddy the elf said what you would expect the movie version to say "little girl I just wanna spread holiday cheers for the whole world to share". So we all got a kick out of that and it's just an example of how in character these volunteers were. They really made it seem so legit with the character acting. As mentioned towards the end you hit Santa workshop for a picture with Santa. They also have some decorations and a fake snow blower for kids to play in. They have a stand with complimentary hot chocolates too. Several tables setup for you to sit and relax for a drink before departing. At the end there were some donation jars. There was nobody there forcing or demanding you donate. There was not anyone trying to promote or recruit you to there parish (which I honestly was expecting for a church event). Just a fun, free and creative event for the whole family to enjoy. Overall This was amazing. Me and the family may have a new favorite local holiday tradition. The folks here put on an amazing, fun and memorable event. I'll tell everyone I know To try and visit grinchmas next holiday season. Great job to the folks at journey church for doing as buddy elf would say "spreading holiday cheers for the whole world to share".

Grinchmas is an awesome Local annual event in Shepherdsville Kentucky. My family and I have gone a…read morecouple times and it's always a lot of fun. It's a good performance spectacular put on by journeys church. You start off with walking through the grinches house and you see the grandkids take pictures with him home it gives you a scavenger hunt you're trying to find the items for movies that are past Christmas movies and take pictures of saying I get Coco all kinds of great family fun definitely check it out if you have the opportunity to get tickets that are free

One of the best Art Fairs around. Minus St. James and the former Art In Speed Park you gotta…read moreattend this. Hundreds of booths. Great people watching. Plenty of food and drink. This is the place you want to be. Make sure you go next time.

This is a wonderful local arts festival including artists from outside Louisville that I attended…read morethis year for the third time since moving to the city more than 12 years ago. In fact, shortly after I moved here, a prestigious local professional recommended I attend it. The neighborhood is gorgeous, and the art fair is well organized and thought out. I was glad to see food from Kingsley's was featured as it has great food. I like this art fair just as much as the St. James one if not better. If you are looking for a nice, fun activity and enjoy being outside and art, this festival is especially for you. There also is jewelry, soap and lotion, and other items sold. Wine and mimosas are available for purchase as well.

With festivals coming back, I am revisiting all of them. Belknap is a 2-day event starting on a…read moreFriday evening and concluding Saturday. You'll need to find parking in the nearby neighborhood and then walk over to the festival. Local vendors and businesses have booths and this year we spotted a few food trucks. A few tables and chairs are provided to sit and eat. One section is geared to younger attendees, offering chalk art and pumpkins to paint. Music is scheduled during both days. This gathering felt small in terms of local vendors to shop and the volume of the music was overwhelming while shopping. The pathways also became crowded due to the streets having booths on both sides of the path. Same for the area in front of the stage which you need to pass through to get to other vendor booths. This is a "nice to do" if you're nearby or want to add it as part of your day, but I wouldn't choose it over other favorites.

If you live in or around the Belknap neighborhood you already know about this annual festival. It…read morealways happens right as we're entering the Fall and so weather wise I feel like it's PERFECT! They have a huge outdoor stage with live music to help you dance the night away. If you're into shopping local, drinking draft beer, eating food, or just walking around and looking at other people...check this festival out. Oh it's free, btw.

The Goodwill West Louisville Opportunity Center is such a hub of activity! When I visited recently…read moreto enjoy some breakfast at Blak Koffee, the coffeshop in this center, I was so impressed by the activity. This very clearly is a community center with busy classrooms and other meetings and trainings taking place. The center houses local organizations like KentuckianaWorks, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana, YMCA, Volunteers of America, Park Community Credit Union, Kentucky College of Barbering, the UofL College of Dentistry and Legal Aid Society. And according to its website it offers a technology lab, business center, conference rooms and a full-scale resource center. It has a large parking lot and outdoor seating as well. On the day I visited, it looked like several people were taking meetings outside. There's also a great playground. I pass this center whenever I drop my kid off at school and applaud the services and connections it offers.