Lucas had a great time on Friday at Oaks. I didn't go, but the pictures make me not want to miss it next year. He came home around 5 p.m. sunburned and worn out! It was a Pink Out at Churchill Downs and women and men wore pink in support of the Susan G. Koeman foundation-everything looked so pretty from the pictures. Several of his fraternity brothers came in for the weekend...can you tell these guys love to be together or what? Our friend Jaya lives in Seattle and is getting married in June in Hawaii...so the weekend turned into a Bachelor Party in no time!
Friday night we celebrated with friends in downtown Louisville at 4th Street Live. Its a really neat area downtown full of restaurants and bars and the place was packed! Our group gathered at the Makers Mark Restaurant and you could tell there were some really "high rollers" in the place (they sure weren't with us though). I loved people watching downtown...people here just get so pumped about derby festivities and it feels good just to be in the middle of the excitement. (Paris Hilton was even down at 4th Street and when she walked by the restaurant you should have heard the commotion...but I totally missed her...maybe next year).
We got up late on Saturday and started getting ready for our big day! We thought we'd get up and go to the track early but we decided to wait till late afternoon-and I'm so glad we did! I'm not sure I could have made it the entire day! Its awesome to be able to watch live coverage from the track at home and know that there's a big party about 2 miles down the road where the entire city is celebrating! We also got to catch a friend of ours who had a horse racing on derby day win a big race. We were with him on Friday night at 4th street and didn't even know he had a race horse until right before we left...and then next thing you know, he's on the news grinning from ear to ear!
My favorite part of Derby had to be checking out all the outfits. People just go over the top! Its all about the pagentry that's for sure! It felt so nice to be able to throw on my clothes and not have to worry about my hair...just put on a big o'hat! I love how men sport hot pink, green, and white...pocket squares, bow ties...its just a happy feeling getting dressed up that way and I honestly think dressing like this really makes the derby so much fun! We met up with our friend Lauren who got us our tickets (how fabulous is her hat-its from Dee's), and people came up to us all day asking to take our pictures...I guess people can't get over women wearing big hats! People were snapping shots of hats all over the place-its so funny and so much fun!
When we got to the Derby, we parked in a huge lot at Cardinal Staduim and met up with some of our group and rode the cutest little trolley about a mile to the track! I wish I'd had my camera to show you how insane the crowds were! The excitement is unbelievable. As soon as we stepped into the track we stood around taking it all in and limo's started pulling up. Within 10 minutes of being at the Derby we saw Cal Ripken Jr., Pat Riley and Jerry Brockhiemer, we just stood there and watched them file in...so cool!
We ended up standing around most of the day-but it was perfect because we really got to take it all in. Our tickets were paddock/infiled tickets so we were kind of behind the scenes! We high fived all the jockeys as they got ready to race, and then when the races were over we got to see all the owners head back to the owner's room! Can you imagine the big smiles we saw all day? It was great! The big winner, Mine that Bird, has a really neat story and I think his winning story made Derby Day that much better!
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