Cin City Visit

The visit to Cincinnati helped me get my bearings on the town a little, and start to form an idea of various places we might like to buy a house. We tooled around Montgomery, in the area where the hospital is. It's a rolling, woodsy area. I think that's where we'll end up renting an apartment temporarily. There's a place pretty much across the street from the hospital that is quite nice. They've got large, interesting floor plans (more power to built in bookshelves!), a 24 hr fitness center and olympic pool, and it's on 56 acres of woods and trails with 2 stocked ponds. Another fun amenity is a library of dvds and video games. And tanning beds. Huh. Not something I'll make a lot of use of. But it's there, if I ever get that "not leathery enough" feeling. The feature I actually care the most about is the washer and dryer innn the uunnnit! (singing happily) I fervently hoped I'd never have to go back to trucking our clothes all over town, and it looks like that wish came true. Whee!

Anywhoo, that was a long diversion about something as boring as apartments. Sorry.

The Boy took me on a little tour of a neat area near where he's staying. It's a quiet and pretty place called Mariemont. Or "The Village of Mariemont," as residents would have you know. If I can't live in Stratford on Avon, this might just be....well, maybe not the next best thing, but somewhere on that list would be Marimont. It's an old town consisting of lots and lots of Tudor buildings and massive old trees. It's one of the few places in the US that still has a town crier, if that gives you any hint about what sort of place it is. Ding! See below for a stellar example of "Oh yeah, I should prolly take a picture" photography.

We also did some driving around the Hyde Park / Observatory / Art Museum area. I was pretty much too busy gaping at the gorgeous old mansions to take pictures. If I ever win the lottery, that is where I'm buying a house. Seriously. I suppose I could live in something like this if I had to (whine whine):


We also spent some time across the river in Newport, where we poked around and went to the aquarium. There's a large German population in that area (as evidenced by the Hoffbrauhaus) and there's some fun architecture and stuff to do. Oh, and the Boy fed a cute parrot and looked at sharks.


We also spent some time poking around the jellyfish and octopus exhibits because they were so graceful and bizarre. The pictures were not all that crisp, but I think some of them are pretty. Actually, I'm just going to dump a bunch of aquarium photos in here, then some more photos of Cincinnati, because I'm too tired to narrate the whole thing. Enjoy!