An Evening in Cincinnati

By: John B. Holbrook, II

July 14th, 2007

Normally my travel reports detail adventures far from home, but this time I’m writing about a wonderful trip I took the family to which was less than an hours drive South of Dayton – Cincinnati, OH.  Technically speaking, our primary destination wasn’t in Cincinnati, or even in Ohio – the purpose of the trip was to visit the Newport Aquarium which less than a mile across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, in Newport, KY.  So, after a fantastic morning round of golf with my son (highlighted by a career first 310 yard, in the fairway drive), followed by our joining my wife for a restful afternoon at the pool, our family made our way down I-75 to Newport.

Dinner was the first order of business – at my favorite area seafood chain – Mitchel’s Seafood Market. The evening was pleasant so we opted for an outdoor table:

While we ate, we listened to a wonderful live band that was playing, so once we finished dinner we went around the corner of the restaurant and listened – they were quite good!

From the Newport side of the river, there’s an awesome view of the Cincinnati skyline which made for some great photos:

After some picture taking, it was time to head in to the Newport Aquarium:

I guess it’s pretty hard to max out ticket sales with starfish and guppies, so they really seem to push the sharks here:

Fortunately, they did have tanks full of all sorts of sea life other than sharks.  I did my best to capture some photos of the fish, but it’s quite dark inside the Newport Aquarium, and with all that glass from the water tanks, it’s difficult to get a clear, reflection-free photo….but I managed to get a couple of fair photos.  😉

They had all sorts of other kinds of animals in there too…like birds:

…and even snakes…like this nasty cotton mouth:

And yes, they did have a shark or two….smile for the camera big fella!

After we finished touring the aquarium, the sun was just starting to set on Cincinnati:

We decided we wanted to walk over the footbridge to the Ohio side of the river:

The bridge is imaginatively dubbed, “The Purple People Bridge:”

It was such a lovely evening, we had plenty of company for our stroll:

There were lots of spots along the way for some more picture taking:

The early evening sun made it a very romantic setting:

By the time we had gotten back to the Newport side of the bridge, the sun had nearly fully set, bringing an end to fun filled evening in Cincinnati, and one of the most spectacular views of the skyline any of us had ever seen.  If you ever have the chance to visit Cincinnati, I highly recommend the view from Newport!

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