Frankfort, KY: September 7th, 2013 - I Miss the Capitol at the Capital

There's a Frankfurt, Germany, but a Frankfort, Kentucky.  I actually do not think they are related.  It's just coincidence.  Despite the US's odd habit of copy-and-pasting names for cities from places overseas, this one I think was an accident.  Some guy named Frank had a Fort or a Ford or a Fjord, and people called it Frankfort.

Somewhere further down the line, Kentucky made it its capital.

There's also a Bagdad, KY.  No idea what that's like.

I drove to Frankfort on the first Saturday in September because I figured I should start seeing places while I still had some warm weather.  Cities like Cincinnati and Indianapolis, while now only a drive away rather than a plane flight, were still just too far for a day trip.  Those would have to be overnights, and a bit less spur-of-the-moment than "hey it's Saturday, where could I go for an afternoon?"

Frankfort is not a spectacular tourist destination, but it was less than an hour away, and being the capital city, had at least some significance.  So off I went.

This office building stood monolithically over the rest of the town, at least twice as tall as anything else:

I think it was just an office building.  Well, I think it was just the office building.  But enough semantics.

This fountain was near it:

It was a pretty nice fountain.

I should point out that the area was completely deserted up until this point.  I saw maybe two people in the immediate vicinity.  I guess Saturday afternoons aren't terribly wild and crazy down in ol' Frank's Fort.

Made my way over to this park:

Saw this bridge:

And I thought, "hey!  I like bridges.  Lemme go ahead and cross it.  See what's on the other side."

NOPE.

I believe this is the Kentucky River that the bridge is spanning.  Not quite as impressive as one might imagine, it being named after a state.  Mississippi got a good river.  Ohio too.  Kentucky...not so much.

They had a neat mural by the bridge, of the bridge:

Strolled into town:

I thought that was a neat looking street.  Almost fancy.

I passed by this building:

Which I thought was the capitol building, or at least somehow related to it.  Nope.  Turns out I never even got close to the capitol, which as far as I can tell (via Google Earth) is a really cool building and gardens and plaza and...art.  Lots of art.

It was on the other side of the river.  Damn you bridge!

Not knowing I had missed literally the thing anyone comes to Frankfort to see, I pressed on.

Interesting houses:

I circled back around to near where I had started my on-foot journey:

The obligatory art.  Everywhere has some.

And that was pretty much it.  Got in the car and returned home.

Being busy with grad school - and certainly busier than I was a month ago, home on summer break - I can count on these trips being far less frequent than they have been.  But I'll try to keep it up.  Even just within the reasonably drivable vicinity, there are some cool places I want to see, places that in my former North Carolina life would have been plane flights at the very least.  Not to mention that Louisville itself is obviously worth a good deal of exploring.

So at last this blog is up to date, but that doesn't mean the end of new entries.  I'll see more new places and record them here as they happen.  And while places like Indianapolis aren't exactly the same level of excitement as Schladming or München, they're certainly somewhere I'd like to see.  It's still an adventure.  And I'm still happy to have the opportunity to have it.

So...anyone wanna go to Chicago?