Cincinnati

Most of last week was spent in Cincinnati for a work conference/meetings. This was my first time in Cincinnati (and the first time in Kentucky too since the airport was in Kentucky).

 

The conference was great, but who wants to read about that? Instead, I’ll talk about touring the city in what little downtime we had.

 While waiting at the airport for our flight to Cincinnati, we talked to a woman who went to college there. She said we must go to  Graeter’s ice cream because it’s amazing and also have some chili on spaghetti which Cinci is known for. Good to know!

 

 We checked into our hotel (the hotel that we were supposed to stay in booked up fast so some of us were split up among two hotels across the street from eachother.) – mine was the nicer hotel I think. My room was pretty modern and I was on the 28th floor and I was facing west so I got to see beautiful sunsets and breath-taking sunrises. The last few days of our trip some bad storms hit the area and there were tornado watches a few hours north of us. It provided for amazing lightning that I watched for an hour or so from my room.

After settling in a bit we went to register for our conferences to beat the rush the next morning. We found out the names of some restaurants which were open – we settled on Rock Bottom Brewery because the name seemed to be very fitting. The food and ambience was great there. They had these cool drinks that mixed sprite with fruit juice – they were delish.

 

Rock Bottom is located in Fountain Square which is a nice hangout spot. They had a jazz group playing and people hung out and watched, ate, chatted, etc. When Reds games are on, there’s a huge screen above one of the buildings in the square that televises the games so people will sit out and watch and cheer their hometeam on.

 Also in the square is a huge fountain called the Genius of Water. It’s really beautiful – it’s a bronze statue of a woman with her hands outstretched and water coming from her palms. It was a pretty hot afternoon so there were many children running around and splashing in the fountain. Definately a refreshing way to spend a hot day! The fountian looks really pretty when it’s lit up at night.

 

 

After dinner we mosied to Graeter’s for some of the famous icecream. Well, I should say most of us did. I stayed back with one other person to take photographs. At 7:00pm on the dot we tried to get in to get icecream with the rest of our group who were already inside. All the doors were locked! Oh no! The rest of our group noticed us and begged the staff to let us in. They reluctantly did. Turns out they are so busy during the week that on Sundays they must close at 7pm so they have time to clean up and do the orders for the week. I’m glad they let us in – the ice cream was really good. We went back there once more that week and I made sure to tip well each time.

 

Most of the people I traveled with were leaving the day before I was so their last night we decided to walk to Skyline Chili for the famous chili on spaghetti. We told our waitress we wanted whatever people typically get there – we were told it was the 5-way Chili on Spaghetti which is spaghetti, chili, shredded cheddar, beans, and onion. We must also have a Coney dog too – of course! Admittedly, the chili tasted the best on the dog, the spaghetti wasn’t that great. But we all had fun.

 

 One of the best parts of my trip was when my supervisor and I got up for a walk at 6am. The city is really clean and safe. It was nice to be out before everyone was up and att’em and before the heat hit. As per usual, I had my camera with me and took some early morning shots. Both the parks in which the Reds and the Bengals play were about 4 blocks away from our hotel so we walked down to see them. The sun was still rising and I saw it coming between a few buildings – so I had to take a photo. It’s easily in the top 10 photos I’ve ever taken. The sun’s rays were coming through – and the colors! So pretty. It has been a long time since I was out and about and fully appreciated a sunrise like that. Another one of the pluses of walking that early is that I felt energized the whole day. Also, I loved saying “when we were walking this morning at 6am” and getting reactions out of people.  

 

 

 

  Overall it was a good trip – good people, good meetings, good food. It was nice to be able to explore a bit – what’s the point in travelling somewhere new and not experiencing it? I will have to travel for work one more time this fall and I hope to do the same.