Cincinnati, Ohio
After spending some time traveling around in Michigan, we drove 4 hours south to Cincinnati to spend some time with Will's family. We ended up spending about 3 weeks there, but much of it was us burning through some of the books we were reading. It was nice to get some chill time since we basically hadn't stopped since we returned from Europe.
My mom drove down and spent the weekend with us in Cincinnati checking out Will's mom's new house, the zoo, Jungle Jim's International Market, and other sites around town. We had an eventful weekend before she headed back up to Michigan.
The following Monday, Will, Graham (Will's brother), and I drove down to Franklin, Kentucky to see the solar eclipse in totality. The drive down took us about 4 hours. We found a nice park that was full of people preparing for the event and enjoying the hot, sunny day. It was amazing how long it took for the partial eclipse to progress, but once we got into the 90% range, it got drastically darker by the second. We experienced about 2 minutes of totality and it was over extremely quickly. Listening to everyone's reactions made the experience that much more exciting. It's so interesting to me to think about the way an event like this can really bring people together and it's an experience that so many people can appreciate. Once it was complete, we hit the road only to be in extremely slow traffic for the next 10 hours. We got home around 1am, but decided it was still totally worth it. Even though it was some dreadful traffic, we got a kick out of commiserating with everyone that was stopped at the gas stations, restaurants, rest stops, etc. on the way back. There were certainly people that had a lot further to drive than us, so we felt lucky that we were able to get back when we did and we didn't have to worry about working the next morning.
During our second weekend in Cincinnati, my high school friend, Mia, came down to visit for the weekend. She arrived Friday night in time for us to head to the Reds game downtown and watch them play the Pittsburgh Pirates. We had a great night at Great American Ballpark and got free pizza from LaRosa's for watching them get 11 strikeouts!
On Saturday, we started off Oktoberfest season with the Germania Park Oktoberfest. Mia went right over to the Masskrugstemmen contest and won herself a t-shirt for holding her maßkrug the longest. We enjoyed some authentic Oktoberfest food, drinks, and music, and ran into lots of people from Will's past with whom we enjoyed catching up. I got lots of complements on my dirndl that I had finished making a few days earlier. That was one of the things I wanted to do after visiting Bavaria since they are so expensive to buy, but I still wanted to have an authentic outfit to celebrate in.
On Labor Day, we drove out to Yellow Springs to hike in John Bryan State Park. We poked around in the shops in Yellow Springs after our hike and enjoyed a much deserved late lunch. The next day we went to the second Reds game of our visit and watched them play the Brewers from some really great seats. And we won free pizza for the second time!
On our way back to Michigan from Cincinnati, we stopped for the weekend to hang out with some of Will's college friends in Columbus who had recently moved into a new house. We got to see the house and spent some time with them while enjoying the second week of college football.
We only had a couple days at my parents house in the Ann Arbor area before embarking on our trip via the scenic route to Madison. We're a bit behind on blogging at this point, but we'll leave those stories for the next one.
My mom drove down and spent the weekend with us in Cincinnati checking out Will's mom's new house, the zoo, Jungle Jim's International Market, and other sites around town. We had an eventful weekend before she headed back up to Michigan.
The following Monday, Will, Graham (Will's brother), and I drove down to Franklin, Kentucky to see the solar eclipse in totality. The drive down took us about 4 hours. We found a nice park that was full of people preparing for the event and enjoying the hot, sunny day. It was amazing how long it took for the partial eclipse to progress, but once we got into the 90% range, it got drastically darker by the second. We experienced about 2 minutes of totality and it was over extremely quickly. Listening to everyone's reactions made the experience that much more exciting. It's so interesting to me to think about the way an event like this can really bring people together and it's an experience that so many people can appreciate. Once it was complete, we hit the road only to be in extremely slow traffic for the next 10 hours. We got home around 1am, but decided it was still totally worth it. Even though it was some dreadful traffic, we got a kick out of commiserating with everyone that was stopped at the gas stations, restaurants, rest stops, etc. on the way back. There were certainly people that had a lot further to drive than us, so we felt lucky that we were able to get back when we did and we didn't have to worry about working the next morning.
During our second weekend in Cincinnati, my high school friend, Mia, came down to visit for the weekend. She arrived Friday night in time for us to head to the Reds game downtown and watch them play the Pittsburgh Pirates. We had a great night at Great American Ballpark and got free pizza from LaRosa's for watching them get 11 strikeouts!
On Saturday, we started off Oktoberfest season with the Germania Park Oktoberfest. Mia went right over to the Masskrugstemmen contest and won herself a t-shirt for holding her maßkrug the longest. We enjoyed some authentic Oktoberfest food, drinks, and music, and ran into lots of people from Will's past with whom we enjoyed catching up. I got lots of complements on my dirndl that I had finished making a few days earlier. That was one of the things I wanted to do after visiting Bavaria since they are so expensive to buy, but I still wanted to have an authentic outfit to celebrate in.
On Labor Day, we drove out to Yellow Springs to hike in John Bryan State Park. We poked around in the shops in Yellow Springs after our hike and enjoyed a much deserved late lunch. The next day we went to the second Reds game of our visit and watched them play the Brewers from some really great seats. And we won free pizza for the second time!
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| John Bryan State Park |
On our way back to Michigan from Cincinnati, we stopped for the weekend to hang out with some of Will's college friends in Columbus who had recently moved into a new house. We got to see the house and spent some time with them while enjoying the second week of college football.
We only had a couple days at my parents house in the Ann Arbor area before embarking on our trip via the scenic route to Madison. We're a bit behind on blogging at this point, but we'll leave those stories for the next one.
Did I know you were from A2? I feel like that's something we could have connected over. I grew up in Saline. Glad you guys are back safe! Hope to see you around Madison!
ReplyDelete-Dave P