Sunday, May 18, 2008
We had a busy weekend. On Friday, we drove out to Buckeye Lake to look at a great looking house I found on the MLS list. Unfortunately, it had been sold. We really liked it though and it seemed like a bargain. We looked at two other houses, both of which are on the water. We liked one of them but I'm starting to think a summer house is not something we'll use that much. With the kids being active in sports, I wonder how much we would use it.
Saturday morning we headed down to Cincinnati. Our first stop was the Duke Children's Museum. It was pretty good, dedicated to children and tons of fun/cool stuff for them to do. Afterwards, we headed to my favorite bar in the U.S., Nicholson's Pub in downtown Cincinnati. I had a great beer there "Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale" that was aged in bourbon casks. I love Nicholson's, they have a great selection of beers you won't find anywhere else. And the food is always great there.
After lunch, Sarah and the boys checked into the Hilton for naps and I headed to the Party Source, another great thing about Cincinnati although its in Kentucky. The Party Source is like a Wal-Mart for liquor. It's huge. It has much better prices than Ohio but the best thing is the selection. I picked up a couple 4-packs of my bourbon barrel beer and a few other essentials and headed back to Ohio.
The whole reason for going to Cinci was to watch the Reds beat up on the Indians and the game started at 3:55 p.m., an odd time but one that worked out for us with the kids. I had planned to park next to the stadium and walk back to the Hilton to get everyone so that we could leave after the game for the Montgomery Inn. I eventually found a garage, found a great spot, backed the truck in and WHAM, shattered my back window. The garage was an older one and there was a shelf sticking out a couple feet about 4-5 feet above the ground. My bumper never even hit the wall but the "shelf" knocked out my window. Of course, I wasn't very happy and decided to drive back to the Hilton because there was a chance of rain. I valeted the car and then had to listen to my wife "If I had done that,...". Not really what I wanted to hear.
We walked to the game and they let us take Jack's stroller into the ballpark. We had 8th row seats that my friends at Duke had given me and settled in to watch the game. It was a great one and the weather held and Henry and Jack were very good. What else could we ask for. The Reds were losing 2-1 when we had to leave after the bottom of the 8th inning to get to the Montgomery Inn for dinner. As we were leaving, they put the Preakness up on the big screen and I was surprised how the sellout crowd got into the race.
We walked back to the hotel and the weather was nice enough to drive the car. On the way, I turned on the radio and found out the Reds had come back in the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff home run by Adam Dunn. Figures. I would have loved to have seen that. We had a great meal (we always do) out on the patio at the Montgomery Inn before heading back to the hotel. We went to Fountain Square and got Graeter's Ice Cream and watched a bit of a movie they were screening on the big screen there. What a cool thing, they sold beer and soda and families were camped out watching this kid's movie.
Sunday morning, we woke up at 8:00 and headed to Bob Evans. The car ride was surprisingly quiet, the broken window didn't let a lot of noise in. We got home about 11:15 and left an hour later for Nationwide Arena and the Ringling Brothers Circus. We had second row seats "on the fifty" for the circus and Henry and Jack seemed to enjoy it. I took Jack out to the car for the last 1/2 hour because he was getting fussy.
All in all, a fun weekend that proved to be $270 more expensive because of a crazy parking garage and no signs to be careful. I guess you only need that to happen one time before you look a lot more closely at where you are backing into.
Saturday morning we headed down to Cincinnati. Our first stop was the Duke Children's Museum. It was pretty good, dedicated to children and tons of fun/cool stuff for them to do. Afterwards, we headed to my favorite bar in the U.S., Nicholson's Pub in downtown Cincinnati. I had a great beer there "Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale" that was aged in bourbon casks. I love Nicholson's, they have a great selection of beers you won't find anywhere else. And the food is always great there.
After lunch, Sarah and the boys checked into the Hilton for naps and I headed to the Party Source, another great thing about Cincinnati although its in Kentucky. The Party Source is like a Wal-Mart for liquor. It's huge. It has much better prices than Ohio but the best thing is the selection. I picked up a couple 4-packs of my bourbon barrel beer and a few other essentials and headed back to Ohio.
The whole reason for going to Cinci was to watch the Reds beat up on the Indians and the game started at 3:55 p.m., an odd time but one that worked out for us with the kids. I had planned to park next to the stadium and walk back to the Hilton to get everyone so that we could leave after the game for the Montgomery Inn. I eventually found a garage, found a great spot, backed the truck in and WHAM, shattered my back window. The garage was an older one and there was a shelf sticking out a couple feet about 4-5 feet above the ground. My bumper never even hit the wall but the "shelf" knocked out my window. Of course, I wasn't very happy and decided to drive back to the Hilton because there was a chance of rain. I valeted the car and then had to listen to my wife "If I had done that,...". Not really what I wanted to hear.
We walked to the game and they let us take Jack's stroller into the ballpark. We had 8th row seats that my friends at Duke had given me and settled in to watch the game. It was a great one and the weather held and Henry and Jack were very good. What else could we ask for. The Reds were losing 2-1 when we had to leave after the bottom of the 8th inning to get to the Montgomery Inn for dinner. As we were leaving, they put the Preakness up on the big screen and I was surprised how the sellout crowd got into the race.
We walked back to the hotel and the weather was nice enough to drive the car. On the way, I turned on the radio and found out the Reds had come back in the bottom of the 9th with a walkoff home run by Adam Dunn. Figures. I would have loved to have seen that. We had a great meal (we always do) out on the patio at the Montgomery Inn before heading back to the hotel. We went to Fountain Square and got Graeter's Ice Cream and watched a bit of a movie they were screening on the big screen there. What a cool thing, they sold beer and soda and families were camped out watching this kid's movie.
Sunday morning, we woke up at 8:00 and headed to Bob Evans. The car ride was surprisingly quiet, the broken window didn't let a lot of noise in. We got home about 11:15 and left an hour later for Nationwide Arena and the Ringling Brothers Circus. We had second row seats "on the fifty" for the circus and Henry and Jack seemed to enjoy it. I took Jack out to the car for the last 1/2 hour because he was getting fussy.
All in all, a fun weekend that proved to be $270 more expensive because of a crazy parking garage and no signs to be careful. I guess you only need that to happen one time before you look a lot more closely at where you are backing into.
