Family road trip...

It's hard to believe that all of us are in our 60s and 70s, and this is the first "road trip" we have taken together.  But we finally managed to get everyone's schedules to align in the cosmos and we took a weekend trip to Cincinnati to take in a river boat dinner cruise and a Reds game. 

Pam and I had been on the BB Riverboat dinner cruises before, so I thought the group would like to do this,  We signed up for the Thursday evening captain's dinner cruise which consists of a very nice buffet dinner, about a two hour twilight cruise up and down the Ohio river, and a relaxing "sit around" up on the top deck of the boat, watching the skyline of the Queen City.  The evening was very pleasant and quite relaxing.


It was funny that the evening turned out so well, because when we left our hotel in Newport, just across the river by the Aquarium, we got caught in a heavy downpour.  We caught the trolley and took it part of the way to the BB location,  but had to go about two blocks in that rain.  The ladies' shoes were soaked and the hair got frizzed, but once we got there it rain stopped and the sunshine came out.

The boat people take these pictures when you  board.

So, the next day, we walked around the river park area over in Cincinnati near the ball diamond.  We had a good lunch at the Holy Grail and then went over to ride the carousel.  This was fun.

There is just something about these old rides.  And this one had some hidden things on the horses and other animals that you were supposed to find.  Pretty good way to act like a kid again, but not stand out too  much.

Also a must-do when visiting the old ball diamond is looking around the gift shop.  Gotta have a Reds cap or maybe a shirt.

One nice thing about this weekend is this was the '76 Reds reunion weekend (Friday's pre-game activity) and a Fireworks Friday game.  They were also expecting big crowds for the induction ceremony of Pete Rose into the Reds Hall of Fame (Saturday game) and the retirement of his jersey during the Sunday game.  These were 3 sell-out games in a row -- pretty good considering their struggles on the field this year during their rebuilding phase.  We did not stay for the Saturday and Sunday activities. 

Since this was a reunion of the '76 World Champion Reds team, we wanted to get there early to see the old guys come out on the field for the pre-game ceremonies.  While we were there waiting for the gates to open, out walked Johnny Bench.  He went over to his statue and spent about 45 min. talking to fans and having ;pictures taken.  The whole team was there for the ceremony, but Bench was the only one who came out to spend time with the fans.  Class guy.

Oh, by the way, here is a picture of three "wild and crazy guys" waiting for the gates to open.

 We had pretty good seats too.  It was REALLY hot that afternoon, but we had seats in the second level, and we were in the shade.  Great seats to see the game and the fireworks following the game.  The Reds put on a pretty good show on those Fireworks Fridays.

Overall, this was a pretty good get-away for all of us.  .Too bad we had to wait so long to do this; maybe the next one won't be too far down the road.

Oh, by the way, the Reds lost.

I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.  (Mark Twain)

Hooah