Southern hospitality, Kentucky style.ABA’s MarketplacePre and Post FAM Tours, January 2016

PRE-FAMJanuary 5 – 8

TUESDAY – FRIDAY

PRE-FAMJanuary 5 – 8

TUESDAY – FRIDAY

Quilts, Wildlife & Bluegrass MusicGrand Rivers, Land Between the Lakes, Paducah, Henderson & Owensboro

Western Kentucky offers many unique opportunities. Wildlife abounds in the western waterlands, so keep an eye out as you may see bald eagles soaring and nesting or elk and bison grazing in their native habitats. In Paducah, designated as the world’s seventh City of Crafts and Folk Art by UNESCO, you will visit the Nation-al Quilt Museum which displays quilts that are truly world-class works of art. Up river you will make a stop in Henderson and tour the John James Audubon Museum where you will see one of the largest collections of his original works. And last but not least you will explore music that was born in Kentucky, Bluegrass, with a visit to the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro. And as always the tour will include great food and entertainment.

Caves, Corvettes and LincolnBowling Green, Barren River State Resort Park, MammothCave, Horse Cave, Hodgenville & Elizabethtown

Did you know Bowling Green is the only place in the world where the Corvette is made? You’ll get to see the Corvettes being made if the GM Corvette Assembly Plant is in production during our visit. Across the street you will tour the National Corvette Museum and discover for yourself the allure of America’s sports car. After exploring more of Bowling Green’s art & culture scene, you will explore Kentucky from a different perspective, underground. This area of Kentucky is dotted with caves including the world’s longest cave system in Mammoth Cave National Park. You will also visit the American Cave Museum and Kentucky Down Under Adventure Zoo in nearby Horse Cave. Your tour will end with visits to Hodgenville and Elizabethtown as you explore President Lincoln’s ties to Kentucky including his birth-place, which is now a National Historic Park.

PRE-FAMJanuary 5 – 8

TUESDAY – FRIDAY

PRE-FAMJanuary 5 – 8

TUESDAY – FRIDAY

Unbridled HorsepowerNorthern Kentucky, Georgetown, Lexington & Shelbyville

Ladies and Gentlemen start your engines…..you are rolling through horse country experiencing the original horsepower (the 4-legged kind) and automotive horsepower. Your tour begins at the Kentucky Speedway in Northern Kentucky and continues with a visit to the Newport Aquarium at Newport on the Levee. In Georgetown you will tour the Toyota Manufacturing Plant, home to the Camry, Avalon and Venza. While in Georgetown you’ll visit one of our state’s most emotionally uplifting attractions, Old Friends Retirement Center for Thoroughbreds, which will allow you to get-up close and personal with 4-legged horsepower. The tour continues with a visit to Lexington, the Horse Capital of the World. Here you will tour the Kentucky Horse Park and Keeneland Race Track. Your Unbridled Horsepower tour ends with a stop in Shelby County, the America Saddlebred Horse Capital of the World. Did you know that the Saddlebred is the only breed of horse indigenous to Kentucky?

Feuding, Singing, Drinking and MoreWinchester, Pikeville, Prestonsburg & Paintsville

All of this can be found in the beautiful mountains of eastern Kentucky. On this trip you will visit some of the most significant sights of the Hatfield-McCoy Feud in and around Pikeville and discover the truths and tragedies behind this legendary feud. Your trip will also take you to stops along Kentucky’s Country Music Highway (U.S. 23) including Loretta Lynn’s childhood home in “Butcher Holler,” near Paintsville and the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonsburg. The locals will introduce you to some native drinks, both hard and soft….moonshine (Prestonsburg) and Ale-8-One (Winchester) and you will experience the heritage of these iconic beverages. All along the way you’ll eat, drink and be merry.

Not Just Bourbon CountryShelbyville, Frankfort, Bardstown, Clermont & Shepherdsville

Yes, you will be touring and tasting the product of several distilleries, but this tour is much more than Bourbon. You’ll start the day with some retail therapy at The Outlet Shoppes of the Bluegrass, enjoy lunch at the restaurant founded by “the Colonel” and visit some multi-million dollar athletes at their home during a tour of an American Saddlebred Horse farm. Your first distillery tour will be at Frankfort’s Buffalo Trace but you’ll also explore Kentucky’s State Capital sites and our state’s heritage. In Bardstown, you will learn why Bardstown is known as the Bourbon Capital of the World as well as tour the symbol of Kentucky’s state anthem “My Old Kentucky Home,” the Civil War Museum of the Western Theatre, the first Catholic Cathedral in the west and other sites. As you head back to Louisville, you will visit Jim Beam American Stillhouse, Four Roses Distillery and a couple of Kentucky “gems.”

POST-FAMJanuary 13 – 16

WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY

Arts & HeritageRichmond, Berea, Renfro Valley, Danville & Harrodsburg

Join us on an exploration of Kentucky’s rich culture and heritage in the areas of arts and music. Your tour will begin with a tour of White Hall State Historic Site, the home of Cassius Marcellus Clay, 19th century emancipationist, politician, newspaper publisher, Ambassador to Russia, and friend to Abraham Lincoln. In nearby Berea you will hear the history of Berea College, possibly visit artisans in their studios and browse the art of Kentucky at the Kentucky Artisan Center. You might even learn to create an art piece of your own. Just down the road is Renfro Valley, Kentucky’s Country Music Capital and the home of the Kentucky Music Museum and Hall of Fame. You will also visit Danville, the site where Kentucky’s Constitution was written, Harrodsburg, Kentucky’s First Permanent Settlement and Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, the largest restored Shaker community in the nation.

POST-FAMJanuary 13 – 16

WEDNESDAY – SATURDAY