Weekend Getaway

This past week-and-a-half at work was extra busy and stressful. Couple that with the warmer weather we've been having, and I was ready to get out of the house. Husband is also in-between sports seasons, and he had the weekend free. So, on Thursday night, I take a short break at work so that we can talk on the phone, and he mentions going away for the weekend. Of course I say yes!

Last fall, we had a similar getaway where we went to Cleveland. Saturday was spent at the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. Then we went downtown to eat and walked around. That Sunday, we stopped by the zoo on our way home.

This time, we threw out a few different ideas: Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Columbus. We agreed on Cincy, so I booked our hotel room at the Hyatt Regency downtown.

On Saturday morning, we dropped Dog off at my mom's house and took the trip down I75. Since our check-in wasn't until 4 p.m., we first went to the Newport Aquarium just over the river in Kentucky. I had been there several years ago, but I had pretty much forgotten most of it. Husband had never been there. Here are some photos:

After the aquarium, it was only 3:30 p.m., so since we still had some time, we decided to take a walk along (and across!) the river. I am scared of heights, so for me, walking across the bridges was a scary experience. We walked from Newport across the river back to Cincy.

Great American Ballpark

Then, we went along the road by the Reds' stadium and Bengals' stadium. Next, we crossed the original bridge that was completed in 1865 back over the river.

After that, we walked through the streets of Covington and Newport, pretty much following the Queen City Tour. Neither of us realized how much history is in the area. The houses and other buildings are still as they were in the early-mid 1800s, so that was really neat to see.

After we made it back to our car, we checked into the Hyatt Regency, and pretty much left immediately for Spring Grove Cemetery. I know, I know - a cemetery doesn't sound very romantic, haha. We attended a presentation about owls in southwest Ohio, which was actually very interesting.

Peregrine Falcon

Great Horned Owl

Barn Owl

Barred Owl

Following the presentation, you could caravan to the back of the cemetery (which is, like, 700 acres) to hopefully see owls in their natural habitat. However, Husband and I were extremely hungry by this point, so we decided to just drive back to the hotel, get ready and walk downtown.

Husband chose the restaurant when we went to Cleveland, so he said it was my choice this time. I decided to try a place called Via Vite, an Italian eatery right on Fountain Square. The food, my friends, was absolutely amazing, and we highly recommend trying it out.

After dinner, we took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the city, which was my favorite part of the whole trip. While I don't have any photos of that, I did get one of the Fountain Square statue:

Steve, the driver of the carriage, was awesome and dropped us off right at our hotel so we didn't have to walk back. On Sunday, we spent the day at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, which was fun... probably more so for me than Husband, but that's OK.

All-in-all, it was a fantastic mini-vacation, and we're actually thinking about going back to Cincinnati. We did not realize just how much there is to do in that area. :)