Mint Juleps, Lilies, Hats and Horses

This past weekend, the Dubow clan met up in Louisville, KY to attend the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.  The trip was set up by Papa Dubow to help Grandpa Dubow cross off an item on his bucket list.  While it was a once in a life time trip, we could easily get use to attending every year. 

A review of the weekend in bullet points 

• Mint Juleps sound much easier to drink than they actually are.  Picture this - you arrive at the race track around 1pm.  You are filled with excitement to experience the Derby.  You get to your seat.  It is 85 degrees with high humidity. You are very thirsty from the heat. You have not yet ate.  You hear: JULEPS, JULEPS, I GOT JULEPS.  You wave and say I will take two.  You grab the drink and take a big gulp......WHAT THE EFF IS THIS!!!  You think, maybe it is not mixed, so you mix the drink with the straw and then decide to drink it through the straw....HOLY SH*T MY THROAT IS BURNING!!!...and it is at this time you realize a Mint Julep is just a tall glass of Bourbon on ice with a mint leaf in it.  As Chris, Molly's boy friend, said "I had to drink a Bud Light to sober up after that drink".  While they did burn, we sure did drink a lot of them. 
• The Lilly is the official drink of the Kentucky Oaks, compared to the Mint Julep it is like Kool-Aid....and it goes down like Kool-Aid.  After a couple of them, it sure is easy to put a $100 exacta on 1 & 12....not that it actually happened, I am just saying it would have been easy to make that bet.
• We arrived in Louisville, with no real plans for transportation, but we found random limo driver drive us around for the weekend.  We are not quite sure if he was a "professional" limo driver, but he did have a limo and would take you places for money.  He was missing a couple of front teeth and wore t-shirts with stains on them.  His limo was a bit dirty and hand sanitizer was a must after getting out of the limo.  Overall he was a good guy and tried hard, but lacked logistic skills and a GPS.  After the derby we had to wait 3 hours to for him to pick us up, because he was lost.  Joe and Papa Dubow did not mind because they were slamming beers at the local VFW while we all waited.  See pic below.  Can't complain too much as we ultimately did get to our destinations.
• Dress to Impress everyone said and the Dubow clan did.  Decked out in pink for the Oaks, Seersucker and white shoes for the Derby, hats for each race.  No matter what you wore, you were not out of place. 
• We heard the infield is like Woodstock.  Just a crazy place.  Joe and Chris had plans to check it out, but then a local told them not to go there unless they wanted to catch a venereal disease.  Joe said something about not having up-to-date vaccinations and then decided not to go.   
• We all had our own betting strategies.  Joe used statistics, Chris looked at the horses, Molly had lucky shoes, Amy and Papa liked names and Grandpa had gut feelings.
• Finally, a huge thanks to Aunt Joan, Uncle Danny and Aunt Molly Jo for watching after the kids while the adults were at the track.   We would not have been able to attend without them.