Up to bat: Louisville tourist attractions
Bee Travel
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA
Looavul. Luhvul. Loueeville. Looaville. Looeyville. That's how to say it. This is how you spell it: Louisville. I had occasion to go there - a real occasion, as in a wedding. One nephew was getting married. Another 13-year-old nephew, for whom this trip was torture (purely a function of his age), led us away from the generic Hampton Inn to explore just a tiny bit of this gem of a city.

Louisville is a lot like Buffalo. Its core size is manageable. It is located on the banks of a river, the Ohio. Like Buffalo, it's not a city people put on a destination wish list. As with Buffalo, that's too bad, for Louisville has a lot to offer - and it's not all horses and bourbon.

With our tortured 13-year-old boy in tow, we headed to the only place in Louisville certain to coax a furtive smile from him: the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory. You can't miss the building, for at the entrance casually leans a 120-foot, 68,000-pound baseball bat. That is (in case you don't know) what a "Louisville Slugger" is. This is the home of the Hillerich & Bradsby Co., official bat maker for the National Baseball League. This bat is an exact-scale replica of Babe Ruth's 34-inch Louisville Slugger.

Louisville Sluggers have history. The company started making bats in 1884. One legend has it that the first bat produced was turned for Pete "The Old Gladiator" Browning that year. Another version says Arnie Latham broke his bat while playing in Louisville and went to the woodworking shop of J.B. Hillerich to see about a replacement. Regardless of which story is true, what is true is that in 1908, Honus "The Dutchman" Wagner became the first major-league player to sign a contract endorsing a bat. His signature - and the signatures of hundreds of major-league players - can be found on a wall dedicated to players who've endorsed Louisville Sluggers. Ty Cobb is there and Babe Ruth, of course. The player nicknames were great entertainment, too.

There is a museum, but with a 1 p.m. wedding, our time was tight. High on the priority list of any baseball loving 13-year-old boy is a personalized Louisville Slugger, which can be had for about $50 and 30 minutes. We dispatched that task, followed by the factory tour. I now know more about baseball bats than I ever wanted to know. If you're a fan, however, the tour ranges from "interesting" to "fascinating."

You can see Louisville by Toonerville Trolley or horse-drawn carriage. Board the Belle of Louisville paddlewheeler in summer and see the city from the Ohio River perspective. Yes, yes, there's Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. You can get in the spirit at the Maker's Mark Distillery at Loretto or at Buffalo Trace Distillery at Frankfort. There's also a Six Flags amusement park nearby, if you must have one.

If you like Buffalo, you'll love Louisville. Take any occasion to visit "Looavul" ... "Luhvul."

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globe-trotting as a member of the travel industry. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, NY 14231-0150.)