Hey Guys!
A couple of weeks after returning home from our incredible 10 day trip to the amazing state of Oregon, my hubby and I decided to do a short weekend trip to Louisville, KY.
Read my posts on Oregon here
Since we only live a little over 2 hrs from Louisville, it was close enough for us to spend a short weekend.
During my research, I discovered an old, historic candy store in Jeffersonville, IN that was only a 10 minute drive from Louisville….so, that would be our first stop of the day.
Click here for the 12 best things to do in Louisville
We left our house on Sat, July 29th around 7 am and headed to Louisville.
On the drive there, you will pass over a beautiful bridge with views of many more!
Tip: Don’t miss the Big Four Bridge – opened in 1895, the 2,525-foot, six-span railroad truss bridge was built for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. It’s now a pedestrian and bicycle bridge. Read reviews here
At around 10:30 am (Louisville is one hr ahead of us), we arrived to Jeffersonville, IN.
The small town is really cute and has several historical buildings.
The town has hung informational plaques on some of the buildings that told about the building along with a picture of how it looked many years ago.
It was so interesting…but we love that kind of stuff!
Read about the history of the town here
We headed down the sidewalk to our first stop of the day, Schimpff’s Candies.
Schimpff’s Confectionery has been family owned since 1891 and is the oldest retail business in Jeffersonville and the oldest candy store in all of Indiana.
Read the history here
Tip: Located in Louisville is another historic candy store called Muth’s Candies...it opened in 1921 and has also been family owned since opening. Read the history of the candy store here
Shots of the inside of the store
The candy store has been at this location since it opened in 1891 and it still has the original tin ceiling!
The store is full of antiques, old pictures and candy making equipment.
It also has a small candy museum that features thousands of pieces of candy memorabilia.
They make all kinds of candy and you can order it online as well!
Every day, the candy store offers a free candy making demonstration and they were about to start one shortly after we arrived.
So, we headed back to the viewing room to watch.
They still use equipment that dates back to the 1800’s to make their candy!
Today, they were making hard candy fish.
It was so cool to watch this candy being made from start to finish.
First, they add the base ingredients to a copper kettle and cook them down to remove the water, leaving behind an ultra-sticky sugary mixture.
Once it reaches a certain temperature, the mixture is moved to a cooling table.
The table actually cools the candy …it’s from the 1800’s and was connected to water that ran up under the table that cooled the hot candy mixture down!
Once it cooled, they started folding it into a big ball.
Once it reaches a certain temperature, they added a very expensive and strong coconut flavoring to it….it was so strong that it smelled up the whole room…in a good way!
After folding the coconut flavoring into the candy mixture, they carried it over to another old piece of equipment called a pulling machine that mixes it even more….it finally becomes almost like a taffy consistency.
The employees had to manually stretch and twist the candy while it was on the machine.
After “stretching” the mixture, they moved to another old piece of equipment where they fed small amounts of the candy mixture through the machine that had a mold on it shaped like fish.
The candy would come out in long strips shaped like little fish but they were all stuck together.
In order to separate the pieces, the employee simply dropped the strip of candied fish on the counter and they all broke apart!
After they were done, they gave out samples to everyone…it was so good!
The candy store has been featured on The Food Network, The History Channel and Paula Deen.
After watching the candy making demonstration, we decided to have lunch at the candy store.
They only served soups, sandwiches and homemade desserts so we both ordered chicken salad sandwiches. I ordered potato salad with mine and my hubby ordered potato soup with his.
Ok, the food was not the best but hey, it was all about the experience of eating at a candy store that is 132 yrs old!!
Read reviews here
They also have an authentic 1950’s soda fountain where you can order malts, shakes and more…however, we passed on that.
After lunch, we walked around the store to pick out some candy.
I loved this old display of candy!
The candy store has had some pretty famous customers!
After making our purchase, we headed to our next stop of the day.
As we were leaving the candy store, we noticed where they had marked the water levels of the floods from 1883 & 1884!
More shots of some of the informational plaques hanging around the town
Shots of the small, historic town
We passed this historic building that houses O’shea’s restaurant.
As we were walking back to our car, I spotted this old barber chair sitting in a barber shop.
I just loved all of the old buildings!
Next, we headed to the Louisville Zoo.
My hubby and I enjoy zoos so we have visited several over the years.
I had read good reviews on the zoo in Louisville so we added it to our itinerary.
Read reviews here
Once we arrived, we took a picture of the map to help us navigate through the park.
Click here to see a map of the zoo and here to purchase tickets
The zoo opened in 1969 and currently exhibits more than 1,100 animals on 130 acres.
A few of the animals we saw while at the zoo before heading to the butterfly conservatory.
Click here to see the exhibits
The butterfly conservatory was very small but we still enjoyed seeing the different types of butterflies flying around.
After leaving the butterflies, we continued our walk through the park.
You can take camel rides and feed the giraffes while you are here.
This 3 yr old zebra had been sent here from Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
One of our favorite exhibits was the gorilla exhibit.
A few more animals that we saw before heading to get some delicious dole whip!
So good!
After our dole whip, we headed to the bird aviary.
While here, you can purchase bird seed and feed the birds but we decided to pass on that and just walk around inside.
The birds would land all over you!
One landed right on top of my head!
They were so colorful!!
After leaving here, we headed to the herpaquarium.
This is where they house the reptiles.
My favorite was King Louie, the rare white alligator!
More shots from inside the herpaquarium
After leaving here, we continued our walk around the zoo.
We stopped to watch the sea lion show 
A few more shots of some of the animals we saw.
After leaving the zoo, we headed to our hotel, the Marriott Louisville East.
I wouldn’t recommend this hotel just because it wasn’t conveniently located to the sites we wanted to see.
It was 20 mins from the zoo.
Read reviews here
Our room was very nice and spacious!
After getting settled into our room, we headed out for dinner.
We decided to eat at a restaurant that I had read about during my research called Mike Linnig’s.
It was located 30 mins from our hotel.
The restaurant has been opened & family owned since 1925 and is known for their seafood.
After we arrived and were seated, we looked over the extensive menu!
They had the history of the restaurant on the back of the menu.
We first decided on the hot pepper cheese cubes as an appetizer.
We were not impressed…they tasted like they came out of a bag.
For our main meal, we both decided on the fish and chips.
The portions were huge!
We could have shared one meal as we ended up leaving quite a bit of food!
The food was average at best.
Read reviews here
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel and called it a night!
Thanks for reading!
Stay tuned for Day 2!
Update: Read Day 2 here
Fun Tip: Don’t miss the World Chicken Festival in London, KY. It’s 2 hrs from Louisville. It happens Sept 21-24. The festival is home to the World’s Largest Stainless Steel Skillet and over 3 decades of family fun including crazy contests, free music entertainment, vendors from across the country, carnival rides, and delicious food from non-profit organizations.