Cincinnati Day 2 - Part 2

There is a large aquarium in Newport which is across the river from Cincinnati. We went for a visit on Sunday evening as they have an online promotion called Family Hours during the summer where kids get in free with paying adult between 4-7pm. The kids enjoyed it, despite flying thru the whole place in around 90 minutes. ;)

After the Aquarium, we had dinner at a pizza place, Dewey's Pizza. It was really good. :) The kids even did a pretty good job of sitting while we waited for our pizza. There of course was a little train driving around the outdoor shopping mall, so the kids went for a ride. :) After dinner, we had some ice cream before some thunderstorms rolled in.

Cincinnati Day 2 - Part 1 :)

Katelyn was convinced that since we were by the water, we were on the beach. So we had to trek down to the edge of the river with buckets in tow. She was a little disappointed about the lack of seashells, but was happy to dig in the dirt for a few minutes. :) After getting cleaned off with the hose that was being used to water the plants in front of the hotel, we road the trolley bus across the river to downtown Cincinnati. We walked around two different parks that are along the river. We were able to see one of the big riverboats moving down the river as well as one of the Newport Duck Boats (a car/truck that drives into the river and works as a boat). There were two little splash parks/fountains that the kids got to play in, which was nice since it was pretty warm and sunny! We had planned to check out a market in downtown Cincinnati, but decided that the kids were wiped out, so we went back to the hotel for a couple hours of down time...ended up a good plan, as Katelyn crashed on the couch for an hour or so. Chris and I got carry out from a local pub/restaurant(Keystone Bar & Grill) for lunch which was decent.

Cincinnati Trip

We've taken a trip to Michigan the last couple years (minus last summer, Addie was too tiny), but decided to do something different this year and check out Cincinnati. We left early Saturday morning, well, 10am. ;) and checked out a castle that is outside of Cincinnati. It was built in the mid 1900s by hand. The kids thought it was pretty cool. :)

After our Castle tour, we visited Mediterranean Restaurant (Mirage) that was very good and the kids were surprisingly well behaved as well! We treated them to ice cream in the car on the way down to our hotel after our late lunch. Upon checking into the hotel, they made a mistake on our room assignment - we went up to the room with all of our stuff and the bellman and someone was already in that room. So we ended up with a free upgrade. :) Our new room was up one floor and facing the river - which became a huge bonus for the kids. :) We also now got unlimited snacks from the vending machine on our floor as well as in room Keurig coffee - big for me. ;) The kids immediately went to check out the pool with Daddy.

We got a pizza for the kids - the hotel had a small Noble Roman's one main floor and we ended up getting carry-out sushi from a nearby place after the kids were tucked in. We even got to watch some fireworks being shot off over the river.