Exploring Cincinnati!

As of Wednesday, we'll have been here SIX MONTHS! Crazy! We definitely have not had the drive to explore our new city like we usually do when we move somewhere. Not having that deadline changes things! And owning a home and having lots to do to take care of it on the weekends makes a difference too. Anyway, we decided to finally go into the city on Friday! Eli had the day off of school and Jeremy only works half days on Fridays, so after lunch we headed into the city. It was a beautiful cloudy mid-70s day. We parked in Newport, Kentucky, which is just across the river from Cincinnati. We parked in this area called "Newport on the Levee" that had all these really cute shops all along the river. I'd love to go back on a date night sometime to walk around and have dinner there.

Anyway, so we parked the car and walked across the "Purple People Bridge" into Cincinnati! It's a pedestrian-only bridge that connects Kentucky and Ohio and is about a 1/2 mile long. It was fun to walk across the river and see the boats and everything.

 Cincinnati in the background, across the river.

 Purple People Bridge in the background. It was more of a light periwinkle, I think it had faded from its original purple. Eli was disappointed it wasn't really purple.

Hello big tummy! Yikes, it's hard to take a flattering pregnant photo.

We hung out by the river for a bit once we got across and then we walked almost a mile more into downtown to "Fountain Square". I thought it would be cooler than it was, but oh well. We saw lots of big buildings along the way and tried to make it fun. Fountain Square also has a Graeter's Ice Cream shop which made it a big hit. Cincinnati is famous for Graeter's Ice Cream - and for good reason. It is SOOO good. They are most famous for their giant delicious chocolate chunks in a lot of their flavors. Everyone enjoyed eating their ice cream cone outside and then we headed back toward the river.

 L to R - chocolate chip, chocolate chip, mint chocolate chip, double chocolate chip (that was mine), and toffee chocolate chip. Their chocolate is really good! Our all-time favorite flavor of theirs is the black raspberry chocolate chip, but we were trying to branch out.

We stopped at a little park and let the kids play on the playground before crossing the bridge again. It was a LOT of walking - over 3 miles - but the kids did really well! They were all really tired by the end, and skipping Anna's nap to walk that far probably wasn't the best idea, but it was fun to get out and do something. Cincinnati has a lot of great museums too, but I wanted to save those for winter when we can't be outside.

 Making silly faces in front of Proctor & Gamble's headquarters. It's hard to tell in the pics, but this building was HUGE! There were actually multiple buildings and extensive grounds. P&G and Kroger are both headquartered here in Cincinnati, and therefore are major employers for people around here.

 More of the Proctor & Gamble headquarters...and more silly faces.

After we got home, we ate dinner and then had a Family Movie Night watching the new Cinderella! It was so good! I think everyone enjoyed it, even Anna, which is saying a lot. She usually gets bored half way through family movie night, but she stayed interested the whole time. It was a good day!