Our trip to Cincinnati

I'm in the process of labeling pictures from our trip, so I thought I'd at least do a quick blog about what we did each day that we were away:


Thursday 7/31/08--Drove all day, arrived in Cincinnati in the afternoon. We were planning on going to King's Island, but after the long drive, we were quite tired, so we decided against abusing ourselves at the park. Instead we ate at one of our favorite restaurants, The Old Spaghetti Factory, and then went for a walk at Winton Woods, which is a county park. It was beautiful. Not quite the hike I was craving, but definitely a worthy alternative. It was absolutely gorgeous, albeit a little hot.


Friday 8/1/08--Up early and off to King's Island. I feel so bad for Chris because I just cannot do amusement park rides, so he rides almost everything alone. I do, however, enjoy walking around and taking pictures. We did have a good time at the water park, but we had to walk for what felt like miles in bare feet to get to the slides, and the pavement is roasting hot! We were pretty sore and tired after that experience. After Chris got to ride almost all of the things he wanted to ride, we went to his parents' house where we had dinner and spent time with Guy and Colleen (my FIL and MIL), Steve (Chris' brother), Lacie (Steve's girlfriend), and Avah (Steve and Lacie's daughter/our niece).

Saturday 8/2/08--After having breakfast with Guy, Colleen, Steve, Lacie, and Avah, we went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton. I found it very interesting, but also experienced a vast array of emotions, from awe and pride to anger and frustration. The technology I saw was amazing, and I'm very proud of and thankful for our troops, but at the same time, I'm so angry that my tax dollars are being spent on these billion-dollar projects when people in this world are starving and sick. That didn't sit well with me.

We ate dinner at Macaroni Grill, another restaurant we don't get to visit very often, and then we saw Ironman at the cheapie theatre--$3.00 per ticket, but we had a coupon for buy one get one free tickets, so it cost us a grand total of three bucks to see the movie. And it was quite good, which was a surprise because I'm not normally a fan of superhero movies (except X-men).

Sunday 8/3/08--We weren't sure what we'd be doing that day. Guy and Colleen suggested that we go to the horse race track, but horse racing isn't really at the top of our "fun things to do" list. Then they suggested that we go to a town called Metamora (in Indiana), which has a grist mill and lots of little shops and stuff. (I will post a few pictures here, but if any readers want to see more pics, they'll have to visit me on Facebook.) It turned out to be a really enjoyable day. Lots of stories about that, but they'll come later, including, but not limited to a train ride, a canal boat pulled by horses, ice cream in fresh-made waffle cones, and me getting in trouble for taking a picture. After we returned, Chris and I went out to a little shopping plaza where I bought some new work clothes, then we got food from Chipotle and took it back to G+C's house to eat. I had a vegetarian burrito and it was delicious!!!

And then today, Monday 8/4/08, we made the journey home. We stopped a couple of times to switch drivers, walk Xander, and eat the messiest bean burrito I've ever eaten.

When we pulled into the driveway, I felt so thankful to be home, but at the same time I was so thankful for all of our fun experiences on our trip. We agreed that it's a sign of a good vacation when we're happy about what we experienced while we were away, but happy to be home, too.

I will edit this blog with more stories and pictures as soon as I get time. It's back to life as usual now, which means work for Chris and appointments for me. Bright and early tomorrow morning I have to take the Pilot to Jamestown to get the air conditioner fixed. Again.