The Omni Hotel, Louisville, KY, May 2025 ( Where Ziggy Became The Unofficial Greeter) 😂

So I have been getting my mammograms in Louisville since COVID, when Baptist Health - Lexington was behind on them for a year. Thus, when I need one, I go to Baptist Health - Louisville. This time, we decided to make a holiday weekend of it, since we haven't been able to afford to get away in quite a while - and we got a GREAT deal on the Omni!

The Omni Louisville is considered one of the nicest hotels in Louisville, with the rooms ordinarily going for $375 to $1,275 (which isn't expensive by NYC standards, but is here), with the room that we stayed in ordinarily going for around $450 a night; however, with reduced rates for Memorial Day to compete with resorts, Expedia points, and requesting an upgrade upon arrival for unused rooms, we got it for around $175 a night!

We had planned on taking a ride on the new (refurbished) steamboat, The Mary Miller as the world-famous Belle of Louisville sprung a leak in March 2025 and is being repaired.

However, unfortunately without Brookie, Ziggy became very anxious and cried loudly when left alone in the hotel room, even in his crate, so we postponed the boat trips for another time.

The Mary Miller isn't an authentic functioning paddle steamboat like the Belle of Louisville, but a beauty nonetheless!

(Not my photos)

(Just for an FYI, the second newer steamboat is named after Mary Millicent Miller, who was the first female steamboat captain, who had to fight to become one as a woman, and in 1884, she passed her exams and did exactly that - became the first female steamboat riverboat captain in history.)

For comparison, here is the Belle of Louisville, once a functioning paddle steamboat traveling all the way down to New Orleans, commissioned in 1914.

Though some of the original 19th-century riverboats are now in museums, The Belle of Louisville is the oldest functioning riverboat in America!

Thus, we just stuck to things that we could do with Ziggy in tow, with the exception of the rooftop pool, but only after we figured out that putting him in the large, luxurious bathroom with barn-sliding doors with toys and water worked for shorter periods of time. 

As mentioned in the post below, the entire staff fell in love with Ziggy, he was like the unofficial greeter and ambassador for The Omni, so much so that one of the front desk clerks, Nathaniel, wore his pug socks one day in tribute!

Ziggy inspects them, here, just to make sure they're up to "snuff!"  😂

(I have those exact same socks, mind you, but in pink.)

The gift shop lady also fell in love with him and even gave him a free plush horsie toy!

(We were going to buy it, but she just gave it to him because she loved him so!)

I don't have any pics of him greeting people without their permission, of course, but believe me, he did, HE was the Belle of the Louisville!

The staff is AWESOME at the Omni, the best I've ever encountered.  It's not just that they are good at what they do, it's that they are super friendly - and not like saccharine, OTT friendly, like in Lexington, trying to upsell you on local stuff, but genuine friendly, telling you what they really think of this and that, and if they see you out around town, they come up and chat with you or have a beer with you. 

In fact, the whole city is like that, at least downtown.  Mark and I said if we had to stay in Kentucky for the rest of our lives, we'd prefer to move to Louisville. 

So without further ado, here are some pics of our stay in Louisville ,,, 

The main lobby ... 

The much-beloved, temporary unofficial greeter and ambassador of the Omni Hotel - Louisville .... Ziggy!

There are 4 restaurants and adjacent market/pub/coffee shop, plus a rare-bourbon "speakeasy" room with a vintage bowling alley (which was closed this weekend), but the first floor bar/restaurant, "The Library," was our favorite place to hang out 

Flan and an espresso martini by the fireplace ... 

In the hallway to our room ...

Our view from the room ...

So this one has a story behind this next one  ... 

So Coke has decided to put people's names on their bottles again, this summer -  and since my sister-in-law had just literally evaded a shark attack while snorkeling AND my niece-in-law (who is my SIL's namesake), had just had the first grandchild in Mark's generation a week prior -  we bought a Coke with their name on it ... and Ziggy decided to smile during the picture of it. 

2nd floor mezzanine, ballrooms ....

Christ Episcopal Church, built in 1823, the subject of the below post. 

Pictures taken on Friday, while they were beginning preppartions for the huge Indian wedding and receptions that I mentioned was happening in the post below, on Saturday and Sunday  ... 

Believe me, by the time they were done, this room was completely filled with tables and people ...

I'm told there were 500 people at the rehearsal dinner, 600 at the actual wedding the next day, and 400 at the reception.

Some of the guests invited us, but not the bride and groom, plus we had nothing to wear, so we declined, but I would've loved that, I LOVE Indian weddings!

As mentioned, all weekend, ladies floated around like beautiful spring butterflies in their obviously very expensive embroidered silk sarees and lehenghas - they looked like royalty! 

Of course, I didn't take pictures without permission but one (last photo), but here are some examples of what they wore .... *NOT MY PHOTOS* 

Absolutely stunning!  

(I felt like an absolute schlub, running around in denim shirts and khakis! 

I snapped this one photo of the bride and groom in the lobby, and here's why ...

If you'll notice, though the women are still dressed in sarees, they are completely covered, including wearing hajibs - meaning they are Muslim and thus most likely Pakistani (though they could be Parsi - Zoroasters).

For those unaware, Pakistan and India used to be one country until 1947, when Pakistan became its own country, largely due to religious conflict - Hindus and Sikhs versus Muslims (although Hindus and Sikhs aren't always the best of friends, either). 

(Why we continue to fight and feel compelled to assert dominance over faith in 2025 is beyond me.)

Much like Israel and Palestinian countries, they continue to fight over territory, even going to war again very recently after terrorist acts in Kashmir.

But what was very interesting and super cool was  the fact that the bride and groom left their wedding reception to come down to the lobby specifically to publicly receive and welcome their Muslim  (likely Pakistani) guests in the hotel lobby!

I'm not sure if anyone else in the lobby understood how significant a gesture that was but us, but I felt very privileged to witness it!

I was told by the pool restaurant manager that the year before, they hosted a similar wedding, only they hosted an actual parade, blocking off 2nd Street entirely, riding to the hotel on elephants!

She said she almost cried, it was so beautiful!

We are talking major money, my friends - with that previous wedding costing in the tens of millions!

Speaking of the rooftop bar, restaurant and pool ...

A blackberry mojito ... SO good!

Around town ....

By the way, downtown Louisville is very clean and very safe!

I spoke to another female guest, a retired Target executive from Louisville, who was staying there for her retirement job, who said "White people don't come downtown anymore unless they have to, due all the riots and the homeless invasion."

Okay, so though there were a few bad apples in the bunch, the Breonna Taylor protests were predominantly peaceful marches.

So I WANTED to say "Oh, you mean like the January 6th riot actually happened HERE?,?" feigning ignorance, or "Girl, that was no riot over Breonna Taylor, that was a protest - now, January 6th, THAT was a riot" - but I was good, I did NOT say that. 

So I just said "It's sad, isn't it? I feel perfectly safe here, people of all races have been friendly, all around town. "

Then of course she looked at me quizzically, like for which side I meant it was sad for, but I didn't elaborate - on purpose - and just left her wondering, then changed the subject 😉

And in fact, the only people who were either rude or brought up politics (or both) were white Trumpers, but even that was only twice!

Y'all trynna act like January 6th wasn't a riot,  and either pretend it didn't happen or was justified - it's hilarious! 

I think she mistook us for Trump-supporting white suburbanites, a common mistake in Kentucky.

Regardless, I swear to God, I would walk down those downtown streets at midnight in Louisville, and as one staff member put it, who was a person of color, after I told him what that lady had said, "You actually could here. Even the thugs will say hello to you here and the homeless don't harass you. Just don't start talking shit, and there won't be nothing. People always afraid of what they don't know and see on their political news, when what they don't realize is, if even true, it's the worst of the bunch, not the rest of us."

Waterfront Park ...

Cherokee Park (designed by the father of landscape architecture, Frederick  Law Olmstead, who also famously designed NYC's Central Park and the gardens of The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.

Unfortunately, despite Olmstead designing Central Park in NYC, the grounds for the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, and grounds for The Biltmore Estate, the park had fallen into disrepair by the mid-2000s, after a direct-hit tornado in 1974 and general lack of upkeep, until the private national Olmstead Society members stepped up to restore it.

However, there are some remnants of the original stonework bridges left (which were weren't able to see fully as we didn't have time to see the entire park, but we were able to capture a few beauties.

This first photo is of a fountain wasn't added until 1920, but nevertheless beautiful ... 

But my absolute favorite is the Christensen dragon-head Viking ship fountain, dedicated in 1901, with classic Art Nouveau elements. The actual ship sculpture was basically rebuilt in 2004, but the surrounding stonework is original ...

 

We had a great time, highly recommended!