Couple of Coffees

Mash at Maker's Mark

We trekked out to Loretto, Kentucky, yesterday morning to visit the Maker's Mark distillery and to learn about bourbon. The tour was well worth the trip. The oddest part, though, was when our guide encouraged us to stick our fingers into the mash, bubbling in different stages of fermentation, to taste its progress. Our fingers smelled interesting all day.

Jonathan hoped to find the bourbon barrel with his name on it, and we're pretty sure the one on the right is it:



Loretto, oddly enough, is in a dry county.

From there, we headed to Nashville, Tennessee, where we met up with Melody Guy, my amazing singer and songwriter friend I know from Sherwood, Oregon. We had coffee (of course), then she gave us a tour of city landmarks and treated us to a sampling of some of her new music. She's an incredible musician. Check out her Web site here. Thanks, Mel, for treating us like stars!

We're headed to Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, this morning. This is yet another state I hadn't been to before, so now there are four left. Will we hit them on our way back West? I'm not sure.

posted by Laura the Writer @ 8:38 AM