So Blessed: P-A-T-T-E-R-S-O-N in Cincinnati

This is the time of year my husband travels to attend footall clinics. We take this opportunity to travel to different places together. I think I mentioned this before. We decided to hit Cincinnati, OH since we haven't been there before and it's a driveable distance.

The first thing I think of when I hear Cincinnati is that old television show WKRP in Cincinnati. I never liked that show as a kid. Perhaps, it wasn't kid-friendly content anyway. You know when you watch something and it leaves you with an icky feeling? I sort of never thought I'd choose Cincinnati to visit because I associated that feeling with the city. However, I know better than that. I'd like to say one day that I've been to most of the cities in the country I live in. Cincinnati, check!

So when Coach is attending the clinics, I have all the kids with me. It's a bit stressful for me to handle all of them by myself in a strange city. I'm so scared I'm going to lose one of them. I was happy that we were in the middle of the city and right next to a lot of places we could walk to. There was a mall connected by a skywalk to our hotel. By the way, George Clooney was in town the same weekend shooting his upcoming movie, Ides of March, at that same mall! I think Ryan Gosling is in that movie, too. We saw movie equipment being taken in and out, but no sign of celebrity anywhere.

So, I planned a trip to the Children's Museum which was just a mile or two away. We love going to all of them, it's sort of our thing. We eventually bought the membership that gives you free admission for a year. We've used it twice already this year and will visit the one in Baltimore before the year is up in July.

Nope, don't have pictures taken here (except this one) because I was busy chasing and handling 5 kids. I was also video taping the kids for our family videos. My kids are very good at staying together, thank God! My kids would rate this museum as a 9 out of 10, I think. They had so much fun. I didn't have high expectations at all. The place was smaller than the great ones in Pittsburgh and Boston, but the places they had here were very creative and fun, but compact. I think the other reason they enjoyed it was because we went on a Friday afternoon - the place was practically empty and they were able to enjoy everything freely. We left the museum in time to meet Coach for a nice dinner out.

Hey, did you know that Cincinnati is right across the Ohio river from Kentucky? Geesh, I didn't realize that at all. Just admitting to that tells you how great my geography is. Anyway, we decided to visit the Aquarium that was in Kentucky. There was a huge line that we waited in for over an hour. We were ready to leave and go to the Zoo instead, but the kids insisted on waiting it out. There was some street entertainment to watch while we waited.

We found the Newport Southbank bridge right next to the Aquarium that crossed the river over to Cincinnati. It was just for pedestrians.

Since it was a beautiful day for a walk, we decided to cross it.

Alongside the bridge were these grates. If you looked down through them you would see the river. You've probably seen those before, right? My son just had to stop at each one of them and scream my name to make sure I saw all of them. "Wow, great sweetie." I saw about 25 of them that day.

"Mommeeeeeeee!"

Fascinating.

I would have to say the walk across the bridge was my favorite part of the trip.

What a cute group of kids, eh?

My mother-in-law suggested we attend Mass the next day at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, KY. This church has the largest blown stained glass church window in the world!