Beech Bend's Holiday Lights Spectacular

My daughter and I have visited Beech Bend's Holiday Lights Spectacular twice this season and she always has a ball. A carload pass is only $15 ($14 if you buy it at a Jr. Foods, Houchens IGA store, or on the CVB's website), and once you get in the park the petting farm and mini golf are free.

First you drive through over 2 miles of light displays, which is nice - but she always wants to hurry up and get to the fun stuff. They have a hayride and bus that will take you from the parking area to the park. It isn't that far so we usually walk it.

Of course, we always have to "ride rides." I bought the family pack of tickets which is $20 for 50. It was more than enough. You could probably get by with this if you have 2-4 kids (depending on how many times they want to ride the Rumbler!) New Year's Eve they have a free fireworks show and live music. They also have outdoor ice skating for an additional fee.

Verdi - New Favorites

I'm the first to admit... I'm a creature of habit. I find my favorite dish at each restaurant and I stick to it. But tonight, I took my frontline information center staff to dinner at Verdi and so that they would have lots of things to recommend to visitors, I had Mirsad prepare a variety of dishes that everyone could sample. Boy, I'm glad I did because I've found my new favorite dish.

The pork schnitzel is absolutely wonderful! It was a thin cut of pork, breaded and fried to perfection. I'm not sure what seasonings he used, but it had a nice saltiness to it that was delicious. The pork had a drizzle of a cheese (or cream) sauce that had a hint of lemon in it. The dish was served with garlic mashed potatoes and sauerkraut... I wasn't a fan of either, but others at the table raved about the kraut. Next time I'll get my schnitzel with wild rice.

Previous times I've had the Milky Way cake for dessert and I HIGHLY recommend it. Mirsad said their tiramasu and creme brulee are homemade, so I'll put those on my list to try next time!

Verdi overlooks historic Fountain Square Park in downtown Bowling Green, so if the weather is right it is nice to dine outside on the sidewalk. The ambiance inside is very nice, too. If you want some good homemade European food, try Verdi!

National Corvette Museum... Fun for all ages!

So... I'm a little late in posting this, but better late than never! As someone in the tourism field, it is our job to promote attractions. That being said, our families do not have to promote them so I thought I'd share a story of our most recent family visit to the National Corvette Museum. My husband has ALWAYS been a Ford guy. He's bought and rebuilt Mustangs basically since he was a kid... so when he started looking at Z06s on eBay, I thought - man, he's getting old! :) The selfish side of me thought, it will be great to have a 'Vette on hand for my next promotional photos.

Of course, after we drove to Georgia to get the car, I had to officially join the National Corvette Museum. Our family lifetime membership gets us in to the museum for free, so on Sunday, April 13, 2008 after lunch at Subway, we decided to go visit. Sophia (our two-year-old) was with us and my husband Anthony was apprehensive about Sophia's behavior so I said that if she started acting up we'd leave and come back another day. Well, she was way more interested in the cars and exhibits than I was! She would look at the displays and say "ooh, nice car!" over and over. Whatever Anthony would look at, she'd look at carefully as though she knew what it was.

For kids old enough for basic video games you will want to check out the interactive pit crew challenge, free with museum admission. So... even if you have small children, the colorful displays, sights and sounds of speed will entertain them. Family admission is only $20, too... easy on the wallet! If there is just a few of you, the museum offers several different discounts, and there are a number of coupons out there.

Katie

Southern Kentucky Book Fest

It was truly a red carpet affair for the little city of BG at the 10th Annual SOKY Book Fest as Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie), Harlan Coben (thriller international bestseller), Marc Brown (Arthur the Aardvark creator) and Kathleen Earnst (American Girl) headlined the day-long event. Held at the Sloan Convention Center April 19 and presented by WKU Libraries, BG Public Libraries and Barnes & Noble, the book fest is a fantastic opportunity to get children excited about reading. And it's pretty cool for the adults to get their books signed by the authors, too!



About a dozen long rows of tables went across the ballroom accomodating the more than 100 authors who were present. There were stacks of books at each author's spot, some propped up on stands and others fanned out on display. At the front of the room were two Barnes & Noble "check-out" tables, armed with cashiers, registers and canvas tote bags embroidered with the Book Fest logo.



The ballrooms on either side of the temporary 'bookstore' and the 5 meeting rooms down the hall were all set up theater style for special presentations and panel sessions given by various authors throughout the day. A new session began at the top of the hour in each room exploring various topics such as Kentucky novels, Southern dramatic novels, music of the American South, Appalachian Journeys, cookbooks for today, memoirs, and political and legal thrillers. For the kids, there were special talks about children's illustrators, struggles of growing up, the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," and a tea party. They could even get creative at the craft table or have their picture taken with Arthur!



I volunteered to help out and came on duty right around lunch time. With the authors being stationary, we had to bring them a boxed lunch and a drink. It was a complete flashback to my restaurant days, which I thoroughly enjoyed! After a few odd requests from some of the writers and my dashing around to find the answer (or some gum!), I began to chat and shop. I was bumping into people with stacks of books all the way up to their chins! I bought the Kentucky Monthly Cookbook, a collection of best recipes, from magazine publisher Steve Vest, A Conversation with Wendell Berry, consisting of numerous interviews with the inspirational essayist, and Dark Thirst, a romance novel by my AAA pal Sara Reinke that is sure to entertain me on an upcoming trek across country!



As the crowd starting thinning out from what was a packed house early in the day (the headliners opened the day and weren't able to stay much after their sessions), I began hearing from more and more of the authors how well the event was run and how much they enjoyed coming to BG. For this tourism gal, I couldn't have been happier, knowing that once again our community came together and supported a great cause- literacy and the love of books!



Marissa

The Taste of Bowling Green

The annual Taste of Bowling Green was Thursday, April 10, and it's taken me this long to get over being stuffed to write about what a great time we had! Over two dozen area restaurants and beverage providers lined Sloan Convention Center's ballroom with samples of their specialties and tasty treats. My husband and I were joined by another couple, making this our night out for the week because it is rather expensive. At $35 a ticket, I justified it by comparing it to going out to a nice dinner and having a few drinks.

And that's exactly what we had... a great dinner with a variety of drinks to sample, but instead of paying the restaurant after our bellies were full, our money went to help make the wish of a sick child come true. The event is a benefit for the local chapter of The Dream Factory, an organization run by volunteers that is similar to Make-a-Wish in that they grant dreams for critically and chronically ill children ages 3 through 8. The South Central KY Chapter of the Kentucky Restaurant Association puts on the event, and each one of the participating establishments donates all the food and drink they serve during the evening.

I highly recommend this event to EVERYONE, but it is particularly helpful if you've recently moved to the area, find yourself in BG for business a lot, or have a hard time trying a new restaurant. With so many places in town from which to choose, how does anyone know where to go? Where's Duncan Hines when you need him! The Taste of BG is the perfect opportunity to 'sample' all the places about which you've heard, good and bad.

From Montana Grille's barbeque to Cambridge Market's cream cheese dip we went, and then we discovered that The Cellar brought their divine dates- trouble. I think I counted six going into my husband's mouth alone. The Hilton Garden Inn's restaurant, Great American Grill, wowed patrons with its bacon wrapped scallops and stuffed pork tenderloin. Wha Bah Steel Horse Ranch had the biggest crowd in front of its table at many points in the night with their huge steaks displayed on a bed of ice. (They weren't serving those that night, don't get too mad you weren't there!)

After a few more trips around the room, running into many friends along the way making it that much more festive, we found the crab cakes from 440 Main and seafood artichoke dip from Rafferty's. Then I had to say hello to the Brickyard guys before we indulged in Mariah's chocolate fountain. Us girls sampled the new, tasty batch of brown ale from the BG Brewing Co. and sipped a few types of wine while the guys liked the Maker's Mark table and the Absolut Vanila from Republic Beverage Co. of KY.

I didn't even mention that the whole extravaganza was complemented by the tunes of Skip Bond and the Fugitives! Plenty of people busting a move while waiting for a spot to open up at the next table! So definitely check out the Taste of Bowling Green next year... I'm sure you will leave happy and full knowing a small indulgence for you means a dream coming true for another.

Marissa

Brickyard Cafe

So last night my husband and I celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary. You know what that means? Date night! Anytime it is just the two of us going to eat we pick one of the downtown restaurants. This time it was Brickyard Cafe. I'll have to say them and Verdi are our favorites.

We started dinner off with some calamari. I don't eat calamari, but they looked really good. A nice golden color, and plenty for a table of four to share. You could tell they change out their frying oil often because it didn't have any of those little burnt pieces you find at other places. I ordered a bread basket. Sometimes they charge us the $2 menu list price for the bread, sometimes they don't. I guess it depends on the waiter. It had like 6 long, thick slices of bread and they give you olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. You can also ask for some parmesean cheese to add to the mix. I'll have to say lately their vinegar is icky. It has a real bite to it, and I don't like to eat it.

I am a creature of habit and got the Fettuccine Alfredo. It wasn't as flavorful as usual, but was pretty good and super creamy. My husband got the Prince Edward Island Mussels. They come on a bed of pasta with a marinara sauce, and the portion is so generous he can never finish it (and he always cleans his plate). He was like "that's $50 worth of mussels!" I had enough pasta leftover for mine and Sophia's dinner tonite, but it is never as good leftover as when you get it fresh at the restaurant.

I only wish we'd had the waiter we usually have on Friday nights. He has straight black hair in a pony tail and always is so attentive. I think his name is Michael.

Overall it was a great dinner and we will be back! -Katie

Raceworld... Fun for all ages!

So... I have to admit, even though I work for tourism I had never been to Raceworld to drive the go-carts. We are putting together a show about Bowling Green to air in the local hotels and didn't have any footage of Raceworld... so we decided to film yesterday (Saturday). Since the weather was pretty chilly we figured we would need to bring "actors" to drive the carts. Marissa, her husband Shane and I were the "actors."

We thought that driving the go-carts would be a piece of cake. Spivey's daughter had warned us that it was like driving on ice at 40 mph. Luckily Spivey had them go easy on us and not get the track as slick as usual, but I had no idea what a challenge it still was going to be. A few of the Raceworld employees got out on the track with us. They were pretty fun to race with and definitely had more experience than us! We started off with the easy carts on the oval track to get used to driving, then we moved up to the carts that look like mini Nascars.

I only hit the wall once, but had a pretty close call, almost taking out Dorian (the camera guy). For paying customers you buy 5 minutes of race time for $6. Believe me, you will need a break after 5 minutes. My hands hurt from gripping the wheel so hard, and our butts hurt from sliding around in the seat. Shane was telling me that price is really inexpensive compared to what he's payed in other cities.

We then got on the stockart road course to drive. It was fun, but your butt definitely slides around in the seat alot more. I would think kids prefer the road course, whereas adults would like the oval track.

We played some of the arcade games inside. You get redemption tickets like at Chuck E. Cheese, but they have some prizes geared towards adults. We gave all of our tickets away to a little girl who thought she'd just won the lottery.

So, if you are looking for something fun to do after dinner one night, or just bored one day - try Raceworld. It is a lot of fun and really brings the kid out of everyone.

Riverview's Easter Egg Hunt

I took my 2-year old daughter to Riverview's Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday, March 22. Despite the really cold and windy weather there was a decent turnout. It had been previously scheduled for Saturday, March 15, but due to rain they decided to move it. Museum staff and volunteers greeted us with a nice metallic pin wheel, and there were hundreds of brightly colored eggs all around the historic Victorian home. There were probably 50 kids there, which was nice so the little ones would have a better shot at getting a few eggs. My daughter got three eggs on her own. She was going in for number four when an older boy ran in and grabbed it. Luckily he saw how distraught she was and gave her the egg. Museum Executive Director, Sam Terry, helped her find egg number five and a nice parent gave her number six. As with any egg hunt there were kids way too old to be hunting eggs. They had nice prizes for those who found special eggs. Afterwards the kids were treated to cupcakes and punch. As with everything Riverview does, this event was really nice and fun, even with the yucky weather. We will be back next year!
-Katie