Good evening, everyone! I just returned home from a 10-hour drive, and even though I'm about ready for a good night's rest (after watching Hell's Kitchen of course), I wanted to hop online first to share with you all the photos I took of my visit to Cincinnati.
My best childhood friend, Meg, relocated to Anderson Township, in the eastern 'burbs of "The 'Nati," to live with her boyfriend's family while commuting to work at an internship with General Electric (GE). Even though we've corresponded via e-mail, AIM, text messaging, etc., it's still just not the same as seeing each other one-on-one, so I decided to use my vacation time this year to drive on out to visit her, the family of her boyfriend, and to take in a wonderful experience of one of America's great cities.
Sadly, I didn't get to head downtown at all, as nobody in our party wanted to accompany me to "a dull area full of office buildings," but I did enjoy our visit to various other sites VERY much!
We went to the Springdale IMAX Theater to take in Harry Potter in 3-D (which was AWESOME by the way!) We played laser tag at Scally Wag's on Beechmont Avenue. We spent hours at a few city museums, as well as enjoying the Newport, KY Waterfront. I got to experience the "Best Public Restrooms in America" at a neat place called Jungle Jim's in Fairfield. I drooled over all of the metrosexual hotties at the Kenwood Mall.
We got a glimpse of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile as it was parked at a Kroger's in the Anderson Township area. I got to devour some of your world-famous Skyline Chili and Graeter's Ice Cream (both of which I purchased to take home with me to share with my family).
Mmmmm....chili-covered Buckeye-flavored ice cream!
LOL!
The only bad things about Cincinnati was the
horrendous traffic congestion (haven't any of you Ohioans heard of a little thing called "mass transit?"), as well as the very negative attitudes I came across from many people when they found out I was a tourist (kind of like a "Why the hell would you come here? Are you high or something?")
Don't sell your city so short. I was only there for four days or so, but I had an
awesome time. As far as the traffic is concerned, I wasn't happy to see I-275, I-71, and I-75 a virtual parking lot at times when some light rail and/or a subway system would most certainly streamline things. From what my friend's boyfriend's family told us, Cincinnati is very much a 9-5 city that dies in the evenings when all of the suburbanites flood out---why aren't more efforts being made to make Cincinnati a 24/7 living, breathing metropolis so that the ugly urban sprawl I saw everywhere in Anderson Township could be curtailed somewhat and so that people could walk to more destinations as opposed to driving to them (which would curb the congestion on the roadways).
I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I enjoyed experiencing the events behind them!
On Friday morning, the day after we arrived in the city, I parked my borrowed car (my mother's blue Forester in the foreground) at a place known as Sawyer Point, near the base of the Purple People Bridge.
I was pleasantly surprised to only pay $2 for such a convenient space.
A small portion of the Cincinnati skyline can also be seen peeking out here.
I just had to snap an image of this gorgeous, lush landscaping near the parking lot. The yellow metal object barely visible in the background is part of the I-275 Bridge that links Cincinnati to Northern Kentucky. My friend's boyfriend joked that he called it the "Golden Arches Bridge" for its likeness to the McDonald's corporate symbol.
As we inched closer to the pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River, I turned around to snap this image of the nearby Mt. Adams neighborhood.
Here are three of my friends ahead of me as we ascend the stairs to the Purple People Bridge. On the right (in fuschia), is Meg, my best friend for many, many years before her relocation (it seems as if ALL of my friends are leaving Scranton now, but I digress).
In the middle (shaggy hair) is our French friend, Colas, who we first met last summer when Meg's family adopted him for some sort of exchange student program. We're now keeping in touch all the time; he's visiting the U.S. this week, and my friends will be visiting him in August (I didn't have enough vacation time from work to accompany them to France). On the left is Meg's younger sister, Kayla.
Here's an image I snapped from the top of the stairs looking down at the courtyard below, where you can see a nice bronze statue, as well as more of that "Golden Arches Bridge."
Here's another image I snapped of Mt. Adams from the top of the stairway.
Two images of the Cincinnati skyline as seen from the northern terminus of the Purple People Bridge.
Two more images of that "Golden Arches Bridge."
The view of another nearby bridge.
The riverfront amphitheater at Sawyer Point.
The Purple People Bridge, a pedestrian-only link between Downtown Cincinnati and the revitalized Newport, KY waterfront.
We are now officially in Newport, KY!
An image of the Cincinnati skyline taken from Newport, KY.
An image a waitress snapped of our group while we dined at an Irish-themed restaurant on the Newport, KY waterfront. From left to right, once again, are Kayla, myself, Meg, and Colas.
An awesome swordfish statue invites tourists to saunter into Mitchell's Fish Market on the Newport, KY waterfront.
Newport Aquarium
The view of the skyline as seen from the aquarium area.
Another angle of the Newport on the Levee complex.
Brio Restaurant, Newport Waterfront.
Johnny Rocket's, Mango Arts. Newport Waterfront. The shopkeeper at the art shop was quite illuminating, and she was happy to beam with civic pride for her city when she was giving us advice on where to head while on vacation in Cincy.
She was a breath of fresh air from the rest of the "Why the hell did you pick Cincinnati for vacation?" lot.
Nothing turns off a tourist more than hearing the natives of the area in question bashing it mercilessly.
"I'll marry you when pigs fly!" (Looks at picture) "Ummm...did I say
pigs? I meant hippos!"
OINK, OINK!!!
Just having a bit of fun! I thought Kayla and I could recreate the Blair Witch Project a bit on more of a struggling college student budget. LOL!
Three shots of an awesome former train station converted into a large cultural complex that houses a history museum, a science museum, a children's museum, a food court, gift shops, and some other wonderful amenities. There was also a traveling "Pirates" exhibit there, but we didn't have time to scope it out, opting instead for both the science and history museums.
Some images from inside the museums.
The Springdale IMAX Theater, where we caught a great 3-D Harry Potter movie!
A pair of images I snapped en route to the Cincinnati Art Museum of a whirlpool that appeared in the parking lot in front of our vehicle. During an intense downpour in a severe thunderstorm, I was traveling along Kellogg Avenue and couldn't see a bloody thing, so I decided to pull over into some sort of RV dealer's parking lot temporarily (a move followed by several other drivers). As the rains and hailstones poured down, the parking lot and nearby street began to flood; the water was actually up to the footstep on my door!
We then noticed this large whirlpool forming in front of our vehicle. I never quite saw anything like it before. After returning back to Anderson Township later from the art museum, we saw tree limbs and power lines down everywhere, and we heard chatter on the radio about investigating reports of a
tornado!
Why do I always bring the bad weather along with me wherever I go? LOL!
The FREE Cincinatti Art Museum (even though I gave $5 anyway as a donation).
We spent several hours here on Sunday, and we had an awesome time!
Some of the works featured inside the museum.
Cincinnati---I miss you already!!!
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The very idea of converting some of the old freight and passenger lines to commuter rail raised a huge NIMBY outcry throughout Hamilton County. The noise! The smell! The dirt! 
