We had a wonderful weekend in Madison, Indiana this past weekend. We started out Saturday morning, taking back roads all through Indiana along the river. We went through Lawrenceburg, Rising Sun, Florence (Indiana not Kentucky, where Belterra Casino is), we crossed the bridge to see the Locks in Warsaw, KY, then onto Ghent. We found a wonderful family owned distillery ("Neeley Family Distillery") . It's near Kentucky Speedway, 11 generations of Distillers! From there we crossed back into Indiana and onto our final destination in Madison. The thing I love about road trips with my husband is all the things we see along the way! We never set out to drive somewhere and don't stop at least twice to see something random. We knew there were some good wineries along the way (Ridge Winery, Lanthier Winery and Thomas Family Winery) and we wanted to check out Rising Star Casino and Belterra Casino. Those we had planned, but the distillery was a fun find and being an engineer, Mike (myself also) enjoyed seeing the Locks. Unplanned, we followed the Queen of the Mississippi down the river. We first saw it from the casino in Rising Sun and passed it several other times. Finally, when we were at the Locks we were standing there and what comes around the bend?! That beautiful boat with passengers all waiving from their balconies. It pulled into the lock and the flood gates closed and lowered it before the gates on the other side opened and allowed it to continue down the river. I am sure there is a more technical way of describing it but it was quite a site to see! One of the workers, told us that it was coming from New Orleans and headed back to Pennsylvania, where it had come from originally. Tourists can take this boat, it's a two week cruise and looked like a lot of fun; maybe when we retire we'll do something like that.
Once we got to Madison, our first priority was food! We ate a small breakfast so we were starving! (By this times it was around 2:30). We stopped at "Off Broadway Taproom" and shared a burger and wings (because we couldn't decide and love to try lots of things in new towns). Both were excellent and we found out the bar was owned by a Cincinnatian! We noticed a LaSalle football helmet (Mike went to LaSalle for High School) and a Xavier helmet above the bar. When we asked the friendly bartender he pointed to a man sitting at the end of the bar and told us he was the owner and had lived in Cinci and attended those schools.
("Cocoa Safari Chocolates")
("Rembrandt's Gallery & Wine Bar")
After lunch we walked around and looked at some of the shops, our hotel wasn't quite ready to check into so we went to the Thomas Family Winery. We had been on the Indiana Wine Trail and that was one of the stops. It's in town, most everything is walking distance. We sat outside as it rained, drank some wine and planned our next stop. About an hour or so later we decided our room was probably ready so we went back and checked in, dropped off the car and walked to the next winery. Lanthier is probably my favorite Winery in Madison. Their wine is very good and they have these crackers that are like a cookie, I don't know how else to describe it. The outside is a nice set up because you can buy your wine then take it out to their garden. There are lots of places to sit, we actually found a little sheltered table to sit at while we waited out another rain storm. Once that passed and the sun came out we walked around some more. Discovered a delicious chocolate shop "Cocoa Safari Chocolates." Had we known about this place we probably would have gone here first to have something to eat with our wine; but now you know if you ever venture out there! Everything we tried was great and they had LOTS of different chocolates. Antoher recommendation if you are in town, is "Rembrandt's Gallery and Wine Bar." Really great atmosphere, local art and great wine!
We ended the night with music out doors on the patio of the Riverboat Inn. Again, friendly amazing people. I felt in this town like I was coming home and seeing family and old friends. Everyone seems to be good-hearted and just happy to meet people! The food is great and I just can't say enough nice things about this place! Even though it rained we still had a lovely time. I hear during the Holdays they have beautiful Christmas displays and activities. I think we might have to go "home" for the holidays.
Here is the only dress I actually needed to pack on the trip, lol! I love it so much, got a ton of compliments on it while we were there and if you don't love the red...it comes in black! I rolled into town in jean shorts, a tank and my yellow kimono. I actually got a ton of compliments on that as we stopped at casinos and other little towns so it was tough to decided if I should change or not but you know how gross you feel being in the car (bus or plane) for a few hours?! Here is the link to both, Happy Tuesday!!
(Dress Link:) https://www.xomandysue.com/store/p627/Cadence_Dress.html#/
(Kimono Link:) https://www.xomandysue.com/store/p849/Farah_Kimono.html#/
**Use CODE: 'Heather35' at checkout**
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