Georgetown Winter Bucket List

Written by Kathy Witt

Take the Georgetown Winter Bucket List Adventure Challenge. Discover Georgetown’s hidden treasures. Try out an activity that’s new to you. Experience an outing that is found only in Kentucky’s Horse Headquarters.

Ready to take the challenge? Here’s a baker’s dozen of Georgetown winter adventures.

1. And speaking of bakers, treat yourself to some of the goodies from Georgetown’s specialty sweet shops. Pick up Hot Chocolate or Candy Cane Bombs at Desserts By Rebecca, Bourbon Ball Cheesecake from the Stamping Ground Bake Shoppe, Bacon and Cheddar Scones from Laila’s Café and Red Velvet Cake Donuts from Southern Glazed Donuts.

2. Embark on an arts outing: See a tale as old as time when United Fine Arts Academy Musical Theatre presents “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.” Showtimes: 2 and 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19 and 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 20. Tickets go on sale October 19. Board the Sadieville Train Car on December 9 or 10 for an utterly charming Polar Expressreading event hosted by Scott County Public Library. Tickets are free. See website for showtimes. NOTE: Non-moving, non-heated train car. 

3. Enter a Christmas wonderland at Ward Hall during its Christmas Candlelight Tours, this year planned for December 8-11 & 15-18 4:00pm-8:00pm. See one of Kentucky’s grandest homes (and most significant architectural treasures), featuring 27-foot-high fluted Corinthian columns, magnificent plasterwork and a breathtaking double elliptical staircase and aglow with dozens of candles.

4. Get your namaste on during Beer Yoga at Country Boy Brewing. Spread your mat among the tanks of beer for this free event that takes place, rain or shine, at 6:30 p.m. every Tuesday. “With 24 beers on tap, those 21 and older are encouraged to have a pint of beer with them during yoga to help center their chi and achieve balance with life and Country Boy brews,” said Marketing Director Pete Weiss.

5. Cook a three-course meal with Chef Rodney of Rodney’s on Broadwayin Bleubird Studio’s Sit back, relax and sip complimentary prosecco as Chef Rodney and his assistant Erica Emerson teach, prepare and serve you all three courses. “This event is great for larger groups who are looking for something to do on a Sunday afternoon,” says Erica, “But it is also a fantastic way to meet new people. (Bleubird Studio, an Airbnb with top-notch accommodations, is also perfect for a winter getaway.) Check Bleubird’s Events page for Cooking with Chef Rodney dates.

6. Take a selfie with a Kentucky Derby winner at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farmon an up-close-and-personal tour experience with the retirees. Make it immersive with a reading of Nick Allen Brown’s Field of Dead Horses, which is set in Georgetown. (Ask your tour guide about the two fields of dead horses at Old Friends.) 

7. Gallery hop in downtown Georgetown to see antiquities as well as experimental, emerging, even equine art: Hockensmith Fine Art Editions Gallery and Press; Robert Clark Gallery; The Galleries at Georgetown College; Georgetown & Scott County Museum.

8. Museum hop – or canter, your choice – at Kentucky Horse Park: The International Museum of the Horse; American Saddlebred Museum; Al-Marah Arabian Horse Galleries; Wheeler Museum. Each weaves a narrative of the horse’s role in history, culture, literature and film at a facility unlike any other in the world.

 

9. It’s game on at Slainte Public Housewith Trivia Night on Thursdays during fall and winter months. “It’s interactive throughout the entire pub,” said pub owner Ashley Nunn, promising great theme nights, prizes and delicious food from the kitchen. Check Facebookfor updates.

10. Kick back for movie night at Theatres of Georgetown. (Psst! Free popcorn on Tuesdays and ticket specials through the week.)

11. Play Master Distiller and blend and bottle your own spirits at Bourbon 30. Create the blend, choosing from over 100 barrels of handcrafted, small-batch bourbons, ryes and whiskies. Choose the presentation, selecting from six bottle shapes and 20 wax colors. Then dream up a unique name and label your blend.

12. Organize a family photoshoot and/or winter hike at Yuko-en on the Elkhorn, the four-season Japanese-style strolling garden with year-round beauty. The official Kentucky Japan Friendship Garden filled with graceful Japanese structures and sculptures and Kentucky native plants, there’s no place else quite like it anywhere.

13. Plan your spring getaway to Georgetown. Now that you’ve checked off all your Winter Bucket List Adventures, wait ‘til you see what Georgetown has in store for you for this season!

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Author: Kathryn Witt

Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.

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Georgetown's Sports Hall of Famers

Written by Kathy Witt

Horses may headline Kentucky’s Horse Headquarters, but Georgetown has a full roster of sports stars. Here are a few record breakers and makers with roots in Scott County:

Croquet, anyone?

This Stamping Ground tobacco farmer was known as a wily competitor with a keenly intuitive understanding of the game in a sport more at home in Hollywood than in the hills of Kentucky.

Meet croquet icon Archie Burchfield – described by Sports Illustrated as a “good ol’ boy from Kentucky” in a 1983 article – who took on the jetsetters of the sport and beat them at their own game. He stood out among celebrity players with his Kentucky accent and country clothes and quickly became a media darling.

Archie appeared on “The Pat Sajak Show,” “On the Road Again” with Charles Kuralt, “Lifestyle on Sports” and “Portrait of America.” In addition to Sports Illustrated, People Magazine, The New Yorker and Connoisseur Magazine published articles about him and his sports prowess.

Six-time national croquet champion Archie Peck, known as Palm Beach’s “Mr. Croquet,” called Archie “the greatest thing that has ever happened to this sport.”

This year is the 40th anniversary of Archie winning the Nationals Doubles Championship in New York City with his son, Mark Burchfield.

Archie died on February 16, 2005. He is buried in Stamping Ground and is on Scott County’s Historic Buffalo Geocaching Geotrail.

• The Burchfield File

• 16 State Championships
• 14 National Championships
• 1 International Championship
• 1995 United States Croquet Hall of Fame Inductee

Full-court press

In girlhood dreams, she saw herself as an astronaut. For childhood sports, the ladies registering kids saw her more as a cheerleader than a basketball player.

Supported by her father, however, Ukari Figgs joined the basketball team and went onto become a WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) titlist and NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) champion.

While attending Purdue, Ukari received a letter from Neil Armstrong, himself a graduate of the world-renowned public research university known for advancing discoveries in science, technology, engineering and math. He wanted to let Ukari know she would love going to the moon because she could “easily slam dunk, backwards with two hands.”

For the student who had been named Miss Kentucky Basketball in 1995, part of Purdue’s appeal was its engineering program. Attending Purdue on scholarship, Ukari graduated in 1999 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Today she is a production engineer at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, the world’s largest Toyota manufacturing facility.

• The Figgs File

• 1995 KHSAA State Basketball Champion
• 1995 KHSAA Miss Basketball
• 1999 Women’s Basketball NCAA National Championship Team
• 1999 Most Outstanding Player of the 1999 NCAA Final Four
• 1999 All-Big Ten team
• 1998 and 1999 NCAA Regional All-Tournament Teams 
• 1997 Best Defensive Player award
• Played professionally in WNBA
• 2009 assistant coach to Purdue University’s women’s basketball
• 2011 assistant athletics director for women’s basketball at the University of Kentucky
• Inducted into the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame, 2004

This teammate of Ukari Figgs started playing pickup games in junior high because she was tall and athletic. She helped lead her basketball team at Scott County High School to the State Championship during her sophomore year in 1995. And she went on to set records and earn titles, including Kentucky All-Star and MVP of the Eighth Region.

Camille Cooper Ozumba also attended Purdue University on scholarship, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. After playing for New York Liberty for three years and playing overseas in the Euro League for two years, the six-foot, 4-inch center retired from the game in 2004 to attend Duke Law School.

Since 2013, Camille has been in private legal consulting for her own firm in Dallas, Texas with a focus on employment, contract and health care law.

• The Cooper Ozumba File

• 1995 KHSAA State Basketball Champion
• 1997 Kentucky All-Star
• First-team all-state and region Most Valuable Player after averaging 28.1 points, 12.0 rebounds and six blocked shots per game while shooting 70 percent from the floor as a senior 
• Holds KHSAA record for highest field goal percentage in a state tournament game, 100% (10-10) in 1995
• Starting center for 1999 Women’s Basketball NCAA National Championship Team
• First round draft pick in 2001 Women’s National Basketball Association Draft
• Played professionally in WNBA and overseas, 2001-2004
• Graduated from Duke Law School in 2006
• Inducted to the Scott County Sports Hall of Fame, 2016

From star basketball player to head basketball coach, this Georgetown native attended Scott County High School and played under coach Billy Hicks from 1996 to 1999, earning four varsity letters along the way.

A.W. Hamilton has set records throughout his basketball playing career; in fact, at West Virginia’s Marshall University, which he attended from 2002-2005, he is in the Marshall All-Time record book where he ranks 10th all-time in career assists, 13th in career 3pt%, 21st in career steals and 31st in career 3pt field goals.

Following graduation, A.W. joined the Marshall staff as a graduate assistant for Coach Ron Jirsa. A year later, he was at Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia – which he had attended for one year following his high school graduation – as an assistant coach.

Today, the former star player who, as coach, established his brand as the “Most Exciting 40 Minutes in Sports,” is Eastern Kentucky University’s Men’s Basketball Head Coach. And it is exciting. According to A.W.’s EKU bio, in four seasons with him at the helm, the Colonels have broken 29 records.

• The A.W. Hamilton File

• 1998 KHSAA State Basketball Champion
• 1999 1^stTeam Kentucky All-State
• 1999 Kentucky’s 8th Region Co-Player of the Year
• Inducted to the Scott County Sports Hall of Fame, 2015

Take me out to the ballgame

Though he didn’t play in the post-season, this Georgetown native was on the 1996 New York Yankees World Series Championship team.

Dale Polley was a pitcher who made the majors nearly a decade after his professional career began. He was signed by the Atlanta Braves as an amateur free agent in 1987. He played professional baseball for seven years, quitting in 1993. Then he returned to the sport for replacement ball with the Braves, staying on back at AAA Richmond. He didn’t get called up to Atlanta, nor was he invited back for 1996.

Dale then signed on with the Yankees and in June of 1996, finally got his call-up. Then 31 years old, the relief pitcher known for batting right-handed and throwing left-handed played only that season with the Yankees.

A good walk spoiled

Having grown up playing Georgetown golf courses, including Canewood Golf Course, Cherry Blossom Village Golf & Country Club and Longview Country Club, this Scott County High School graduate headed to Orlando where he was a member of the UCF (University of Central Florida) Knights from 2010-2014.

Kyle Wilshire helped lead the Knights to a conference title in 2010-11, two NCAA Regional appearances in 2010-11 and 2013-14 and two NCAA Championship appearances in 2011-12 and 2012-13. He was on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017, playing in 22 events.

Now a PGA golfer, Kyle is famous for marking his ball with a quarter with a family member’s birth year on it. He has most recently competed in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, RSM Classic and the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay.

 

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Author: Kathryn Witt

Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.

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Georgetown: Your home-base for exploring the Bluegrass

Written by Kathy Witt

Whether planning a staycation, workcation or midway stop as part of a longer vacation, Georgetown, Kentucky’s Horse Headquarters, is an appealing and convenient homebase for day-tripping to regional attractions.

Georgetown’s beautifully preserved Victorian-era downtown bustles with locally owned restaurants and boutiques, galleries and historic sites, each an invitation to dip in, grab a bite, shop a sale, find an artwork or step into the past.

A variety of hotels and unique stay options accommodate all budgets, interests and inclinations: brand name hotels, Airbnbs, bed and breakfast inns, horse farms, intown suites and golf course lodging. And its choice location at the crossroads of I-75 and I-64 puts visitors within a scenic country drive of major Kentucky attractions, from legendary bourbon distilleries to mega must-see sights to historical and hands-on experiences.

BOURBON IMMERSION

Hop onto the famed Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a uniquely Kentucky experience that meanders from one world-famous maker of American’s Official Native Spirit to another. Call in on Lexington’s Town Branch to learn about a distilling tradition that dates back to 1794 and Woodford Reserve in Versailles, Kentucky’s oldest and smallest distillery and a National Historic Landmark.

These are two of the 18 distilleries on the Trail – but there are many more distilleries located throughout the state, each offering a unique peek into the world of bourbon, including one in downtown Georgetown that offers a one-of-a-kind experience. At Bourbon 30, guests can step into the role of Master Distiller and create their own bourbon blend, choosing from 100-plus barrels and selecting the bottle shape, wax color and label name

Georgetown’s Buffalo Springs Distillery, the former main office and gatehouse of the distillery that operated on this site beginning in 1868, gives bourbon aficionados the opportunity for an immersive bourbon experience. The stone structure is now a historic and private queen-size retreat with gleaming wood and exposed stone and accented with vintage-, bourbon- and buffalo-themed art.

 

SUPERSIZED GOOD TIMES

A quick 30-minute drive on I-75 
orth takes visitors to Ark Encounter in Williamstown, the story of Noah come to life. The ark is massive, built to Biblical specifications right down to the last cubit and recounts the life and times of the Old Testament’s most well-known shipbuilder through three decks of exhibits.

There’s also Ararat Ridge Zoo, a family playground built for kids of all abilities, daily programs, concerts and presentations, zip lines that reach up to 50 mph and 17 stories high and a virtual reality journey through time – plenty to fill the morning.For the afternoon? Back in Georgetown, Kentucky Horse Park also offers epic-size fun with its Big Barn and stall-side chats;
Parade of Breeds Show and chance to see horses
getting bathed, groomed and trained at the Breeds Barn; and four museums dedicated to the history of the horse going back to ancient times; specific horse breeds; interactive equine experiences and more.

Afterward, Queenslake is a king-sized bed and breakfast in a magnificent white-columned manse and sitting on a 140-acres of classic Kentucky horse farm. Here, guests unwind to an experience that is nothing short of the royal treatment. Blending country charm and resort elegance, it is a calming oasis afte a full day of play.

 

MUSEUM TREASURES

Kentucky’s capital city of Frankfort is also 30 minutes away and has much to see: the murals and marble, floral clock and rose
garden at the Kentucky State Capitol; the treasures of City Museum, like the Kentucky Fishing Reel collection of hand-tooled, elaborately designed and bejeweled reels; and Josephine Sculpture Park, a 20-acre outdoor “art museum,” where visitors are free to touch, pat, climb on and lounge in the dozens of works of art.

Georgetown’s own outdoor art museum is found at Yuko-en on the Elkhorn, a Japanese-style strolling garden given a Kentucky twist and the only one of its kind. Step through the garden’s Tokugawa gate and enter a world of color, fragrance, graceful sculptural elements and
serenity, with waterfalls and chirping birds adding a soothing soundtrack and the creek, ponds and Japanese-style stone garden
inspiring quiet reflection.

The Georgetown & Scott County Museum has its own gems, from the Georgetown Post Office display to the precision model of the “DeWitt Clinton” locomotive, tender and three stagecoach-style passenger cars constructed of cast aluminum, brass, hammered steel sheets and wood, to Pete the Famous Talking Crow – and he is famous, just ask him . . . for his three-year reign of trackside terror squawking at confused racehorses.

Overnighting at the Alexander Bradford House in Stamping Ground is like sleeping in a museum, but a really comfy and cozy one where you’re allowed
to touch everything. Built in three different time periods – 1810, 1830 and 1900 – the oldest wing is well over 200 years old. (If only these walls could talk!) It is filled with antiques appropriate to thedifferent periods and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

NOW ABOUT THOSE HORSES. . .
As Kentucky’s Horse Headquarters, Georgetown is home to numerous horse-centric attractions, including Kentucky Horse Park and Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm, home to former champions of the turf, including Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup winners.

Two art galleries devote themselves to equestrian art: The Hockensmith Fine Art Editions and Gallery & Press features photography, paintings, printmaking and sculptures of artists, including premier photographer John Stephen Hockensmith, and the Robert Clark Artist Gallery shows off Clark’s renowned equine paintings and artwork. Additionally, at the Georgetown & Scott County Museum, visitors can see the work of
Edward Troye, the most noted painter of horses during the height of American horseracing in the mid-1800s.

Horseback riding is offered at both Whispering Woods Riding Stables and Kentucky Horse Park and horsey experiences are found at luxury farm stay and wedding venue Saxony Thoroughbred Farm and with Three Hill Farm’s Horsemanship Training Experience. Georgetown’s annual horse events include the Kentucky Three Day Event, Horsey Hundred, Festival of the Horse and the National Horse Show.

 

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Author: Kathryn Witt

Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.

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Georgetown Tourism Sponsored Booth A Favorite Among State Fair-Goers!

Written by Kathy Witt

Thirty-six thousand cups of freshly popped popcorn from Western Kentucky farms. One thousand, seven hundred cans of veggies and boxes of cereal donated to a Georgetown organization. Thousands of visitors munching popcorn and learning about the state’s farm and field heritage. Dozens of co-workers and volunteers helping to make an agriculture exhibit a smashing success. 

Each year, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) builds one of the largest exhibits at the Kentucky State Fair. Sponsored by the Georgetown/Scott County Tourism Commission (GSCTC), it is located in AgLAND in the south wing of the fairgrounds, which features and highlights the commodity groups and the KDA and programs provided by the department.

The exhibit is known far and wide for the themed structure the KDA team builds each year from canned goods. A salad bowl filled with veggies. A giant ear of corn. An apple tree and an apple with a bite missing to demonstrate the Kentucky Hunger Initiative Exhibit’s goal to “take a bite out of hunger.” A towering silo – a favorite structure that has appeared frequently over the years and at various places.

“We have fair attendees who look for the canned goods structures every year and that makes me really happy,” said Alisha Morris, KDA program coordinator. “I have one couple who says they come just to see the can structure displays and what we
have done new each year.

“We also have some who come every year just to see our same employees in the booth.”

Part of the draw might have something to do with the irresistible aroma of Kentucky-grown popcorn wafting through the building. Team KDA has an area within AgLAND where they pop the popcorn that has direct Kentucky farm impact. 

Said booth volunteer Bailey Gilkerson, marketing director at GSCTC: “We get to sponsor an amazing canned food display and pass out the freshly popped Kentucky Proud popcorn.”

Once the fair is over, the food including the canned goods is packed up and donated to the AMEN House.

Located on Main Street in Georgetown, AMEN House has one mission: to end hunger in Scott County. The organization is entrusted with the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), a 

federal program that helps supplement the diets of low-income Americans by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. USDA provides 100 percent American-grown USDA foods and administrative funds to states to operate TEFAP.

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Author: Kathryn Witt

Kathryn Witt is an award-winning travel and lifestyle writer, syndicated columnist and author of several books, including Secret Cincinnati, The Secret of the Belles and Atlanta Georgia: A Photographic Portrait. A member of SATW, Authors Guild and the Society of Children’s Books & Illustrators, she lives in northern Kentucky.

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