Horses and Gorges

Kentucky is beautiful, especially in the Fall.  I feel as if I am rediscovering my childhood home.  It's amazing how much you don't explore and discover in a place you've known your whole life; it's just there.  Now that I've returned, I picked up a Lonely Planet on the Bluegrass State and have since discovered that there is a lot of history and a lot of beauty here in Kentucky.

Keeneland

So I finally went to a horse race!  Keeneland takes place in Lexington and my sister and I caravanned down on my way to the gorge.  We got dressed up, watched the horses race, drank bloody marys and ran into neighbors and old high school friends.  There was a certain charm and tradition in the air with the gentlemen donning suits and ties and the ladies in their finest dresses and fabulous sunglasses.  Bets were made as the gates flew open and the horses ran their fastest to the finish line.  What a sight that everyone should see.

The Red River Gorge


Famous for climbing and its sandstone arch formations, I had the opportunity to meet up with Laura Wolff, a Michigan Law student and former ski instructor at Squaw Kids.  She and about 25 other law students rented a cabin in the gorge (about 2 hours south of me) and I drove down to meet a bunch of strangers and camp for the weekend.  Man it made me feel like myself.

Being home has been a big adjustment.  It's nothing like how I left it and I'm nothing like when I left.  My friends are mostly married and some with kids, a very different lifestyle from spontaneous and young Tahoe.  I've been missing an available crowd to experience adventure with because it's still well alive within me and I've realized I never want to lose that.  You just have to work a little harder for it around here.  Enter Michigan Law students.

Laura's group of friends were fantastic!  Every conversation was insightful and witty and the weather in the gorge was absolutely perfect.  The leaves were changing and the air was cool.  We slept outside, bonded around the camp fire and just enjoyed walking in the woods.  And this is where I can be myself.  This is where I am happiest and feel the most fulfilled.  I can get this fulfillment anywhere in the world, as long as I'm with the right people. 

Ever since I moved out West, I always wondered about this quote: "It's not where you are but who you're with that really matters."  I always thought it was one or the other.  What's more important?  Where you are?  or who you're with?  How can you have both when I love travel and my family simultaneously?  But I've come to realize that where you are develops the relationships you are most happy with, and so you can have both.  Where I am helps me seek out who I want to be with.  In the wilderness, I meet the people I want to be around and I become the person I want to be.  I can find that anywhere, and I am so happy I'm beginning to discover it here in Kentucky.