Carol Ann's Carousel

My kids love carousels. But honestly, what kid doesn't? 

Right before Baby #3 was born I finally took the kids to Carol Ann's Carousel (which I always want to call "Queen Ann's Carousel" instead for some reason). 

We love Smale Riverfront Park, Cincinnati has some pretty cool parks and Smale just has such a variety of things to do. 

Anyways, even though we've been to Smale Park 120,098,413 times we had never checked out the carousel. It's located across the street from the park in a building. You can either climb the stairs or go up an elevator. Outside of the carousel's building is a splash pad but the kids need to be dried off before riding the carousel. 

The only other carousels I have experience with are the Cincinnati Zoo's and the Albany, Oregon Carousel. 

Call me biased but I like the Albany Carousel better. The animals are handmade in a shop next to the carousel where you can receive guided tours. A lot of thought and imagery is put into each animal with stories that you can read while waiting to ride.

So I guess the reason I like the Albany Carousel better is for the sentimental feeling it gives. 

And little kids don't care about that. 

What they care about are cool animals and going around in a consistent circular and vertical motion. 

And for $2 a ride (which is cheaper than the zoo's carousel) I thought it was pretty good. 

We will be back. Dun dun dunnn.

I mean, just look at these faces :D

Smale Park

I have a couple of favorite things I like to do in Cincinnati: 

1. If it's an unbearably hot and humid day I drag the kids out of our air conditioned home to Smale Park to play in the water area (my other favorites are Summit Park and Clippard Park).

2.  Get take out curry from Krishna (it is the best) and take it to Smale Park for a picnic dinner.

Summer 2018

Summer 2018

Cincinnati has several really neat parks (Ault, Eden, Summit, and Fort Liberty Playground just to name a few). We really like Smale for a variety of reasons:

• It's close to the river so you get the ambiance of the water plus the occasional barge which my kids love to watch
• Walking across the Purple People Bridge
• The bench swings
• The water play area
• The flying pig
• The huge chimes that you can play by stepping on key pads on the ground
• The variety of people that you meet
• What we call "the maze" but is really just a path that you follow back and forth that leads to a giant rock in the center
• The playground
• The flower gardens
• The statues and monuments
• Carol Ann's Carousel
• The Skystar

Summer 2019

Honestly, I'm probably forgetting things. There is so much to do at this park which keeps it exciting and fun - if the kids don't want to do something then there's a dozen other things for them to do at the park.

What we really don't like about Smale Park:

• The bathrooms

Summer 2019

Summer 2019

And seriously, if you haven't been to Krishna's - Go!

Summer 2019

Summer 2019

Glendower Mansion

Last Saturday was the Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day. I first found out about this event two years ago from a co-worker - and I love it! It provides an opportunity to go to a museum (for free!) that we wouldn't otherwise go to. There were a list of museums in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky that were participating (the list changes a little every year) and I ultimately picked the Glendower Mansion. Located in Lebanon, it was less than an hour drive away and it advertised that it was Civil War Encampment weekend at that there would be cannon fire. I was pretty sure Hulk was going to love that. I was right. Little Viking Girl did not. I should have brought headphones. 

Embarrassing story: while at graduate school at UC, there was another student in the lab I was working. He went home to visit family in Lebanon. I thought he meant Lebanon, OH. Nope. He meant the country. -.-

We started off by exploring the grounds. They're not that expansive but they're well maintained. As advertised, there was a Civil War camp taking up half of the grounds. We learned about the different guns and artillery used during the war and were able to see a few demonstrations. The disparity between the guns used at the beginning of the war and the guns used at the end is incredible. At the beginning of the war, it took nearly three minutes to load and fire a gun. By the end of the war you could load a gun with several rounds and shoot them off in sequence. It was at this point Little Viking Girl decided she is terrified of guns. They were loud! I can't imagine being a soldier during the Civil War, battles must have been deafening.  

After the artillery demonstration we walked around the Civil War camp. It wasn't very big (you can see it in the background of the picture to the right) but we were able to see the bunk tents, a laundry station, a meal prep station, telegraph tent, and a music tent. The people participating in the camp were very friendly and they were excited to teach us about what life would have been like during the war. Hulk was only interested in the music tent and the tent with all of the guns on display. But after he let me drag him around the camp for a while we went back to our car for snacks before touring the mansion.

Service tip: when going out with kids (be it a museum or a nearby park) always bring snacks and water. Seriously.

The house was well maintained and had a lot of interesting antiques spread throughout. There were several friendly tour guides that lead groups through the house. I thought the tour was interesting but my kids did not. Baby #3 slept through it and Viking Girl entertained herself by running through the rooms. I was able to stop Hulk's whining by giving him my phone with instructions to take pictures of the things he liked. This now means that I have roughly 129,048,093 pictures of antique furniture, portraits, and other random objects on my phone. I was able to keep the kids from touching anything and the tour guides thought my kids were cute so I am still considering the day a win. 

Little Viking Girl's favorite part of the house was the room that was set up as a nursery. We walked in and her face just lit up when she saw the baby dolls. There was also a rocking horse in the room. And I was able to keep her from touching it while maintaining a good mood. If that's not a mom win, I don't know what is.

The tour guides provided information on the history of the house, the families that lived there, the furniture, and local legends. My favorite antique were the early piano/organs (there were at least three in the house). I want to know what it would have been like to play one. There was also a wooden flute. I played the flute in high school and I will occasionally let Hulk play with it, so we were both excited to see an antique flute.

I had never been to Lebanon before. We didn't see much of the town but the part that we did see was very neat - larger old fashioned houses. I don't think we'll visit the mansion again any time soon and, aside from the Civil War Encampment, it was not kid friendly at all. But we didn't break anything and no one seemed upset by our presence. It was a good experience :)

FC Cincy (The Bailey Sings As One for You)

Last year Cincinnati's resident soccer team joined the Major Leagues marking this year as its inaugural season. And we finally attended a game. The matches are currently held at Nippert Stadium on UC campus. Which, in our humble opinion, is the perfect location for the team for a variety of reasons. But the team is currently building a permanent home called the West End Stadium that will open in 2021. It's using tax-payer money. While I appreciate the opportunity to enjoy sporting events, I have strong opinions about my tax money going to build sports arenas (of any kind, this is not specific to soccer).

ANYWAYS

It was a good game and FCC played well against the Chicago Fire. Neither JC nor I had ever been to a MLS game before (which kind of surprised me). JC played on a club team in high school and again while at Xavier University. He loves coaching Hulk's soccer team and playing on our church's team. He loves soccer. So I had assumed that he'd attended a game before. While I don't dislike soccer (unlike other sports *cough* football, baseball, hockey, tennis, golf... *cough*) I was lamenting having not brought a book while we waited for the game to start. Relationships are all about compromise. I attend sporting events with JC so that he doesn't have to go by himself and he puts up with me reading a book or asking dumb questions about the sport the whole time. It works.

What impressed me the most about the experience was the fan base. They are the most enthusiastic and energetic group of fans. Ever.

About an hour before the game starts, the fans march down the street towards the stadium: chanting, drum playing, releasing smoke bombs. If you're planning on going to a game, you should definitely try to witness the march. The crowd then congregates around the Bearcat Statue (pictured above, after everyone had left) and sings and chants for several minutes while releasing even more smoke bombs before marching into the stadium. When in a large crowd, it was hard to tell what the chanters were saying so when we got home after the game I tried to look it up. Turns out that there are several chants. The next time we go to a game I am either going to print off the list or try to memorize a few.

A nickname for Cincinnati is the Queen City or the Queen of the West. This goes back to the pre-Civil War era when Cincinnati became the largest city in the midwest. In one of the chants, they reference "The Queen" which is a reference to Cincinnati.

Two other things I learned about the FCC fan base:

1) The Pride - I knew that the FCC fans called themselves "the pride" but I thought that was a reference to an alliance with the LGBTQ+ community. Turns out the FCC mascot is a lion with wings so "the pride" is a reference to a lion's pride. #gofigure

2) The Bailey - this is where The Pride sits during the games (as opposed to general admission where we sat). The fans sang, chanted, and played drums THE ENTIRE GAME. I couldn't believe it. I feel like I would have gotten tired and bored of chanting after 5 minutes - forget about a 90 minute game! But that also might explain why there are so many chants, 90 minutes is a long time to sing the same chant over and over so with several different ones it makes it less monotonous.

Right before the game starts there are fireworks and more smoke bombs. Little Viking Girl loved the game. She would try to clap along with the chanters and would get upset if JC and I weren't clapping along as well. She's our little athlete. Hulk was desperate to leave just after half time. He would stay locked in his room all day playing legos and drawing if I let him.

One thing that I would do differently (other than bring a book 😉) is bring headphones. I'm not naive enough to believe Little Viking Girl or Hulk would wear them but the level of noise was a bit much for Baby #3. He's only a month old and the game was over stimulating for him. But after we got home he slept for nine hours straight. Which was nice.