A long road home from Cincy

Well we are finally home from our vacation.  Cincinnati was not that exciting.  We finally got to Cincy at about 5pm.  First stop was the Eden Park.  It is a very beautiful park on the bluffs of the Ohio.  We got some great views of the river and of Kentucky.  After that we eventually made our way to the hotel in Newport, KY.  Newport is just across the river from Cincy.  We had a view of downtown.  The hotels on the Kentucky side were over $100 cheaper and they have this awesome trolley that runs every 15 minutes and it takes about 10-15 minutes to get to downtown Cincy.  I think it was a great deal.  We took the trolley into town and walked around the Fountain Square and had dinner.  After we got back to the hotel we took a dip in the pool but it was so cold!

Friday morning we started at the William Taft Historical Site.  It was his birthplace and childhood home.  It was really interesting.  After that we did the Ride the Ducks tour.  I was a little apprehensive about the tour but it actually was quite fun and very informative...but the duck noise makers got a bit annoying.  It was way better than the stupid boat tour we took of Pittsburgh where we didn't learn anything and spent the time yelling stupid things like "Go Steelers" or "Go Pirates" under their bridges.  Anyways the Duck tour was really fun. After that we went up to the top of Carew Tower.  The observatory deck was on the 49th floor and it has 360 degree views of the city.  And it cost us a whopping $2. What a deal! The building was built in 1929 and is the model for the Empire State Building.  We walked across the  John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. The bridge was built in 1867 and people were so afraid to use it that they bribed the German immigrants by providing free beer and brats if they walked to the middle of the bridge.  That apparently got people to use it.  This was the model for the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. Apparently New York uses Cincinnati as their guinea pigs. LOL! 

The game was exciting.  The Twins came from behind again to win.  We had a delay because the home plate ump was hit in the back of the head with a broken bat.  A very freak accident.  He was knocked out cold for a while but he walked off on his own. They worked with a 3 man crew after that. The Twins won 5-4.  They had fireworks after the game...they were AMAZING! They put the Target Field fireworks to shame...actually it was probably the best fireworks I've ever seen except for the Mount Rushmore 4th of July show many years ago.

We got up early this morning after being rudely awaken by 2 fire alarms at around 3am.  Seriously?  No fire but we never found out why it went off.   We rushed out of our hotel and made our way home.  We left Newport, KY at 9:05 am ET (8:05 am CT) and got home by 8:30 pm (CT).  We avoided Chicago so we ended up driving 767 miles today (it is 43 miles longer to avoid Chicago).  It is so nice to be home. It was a great road trip.