Cincinnati rivers.....

I am currently on vacation, mostly visiting family at this time – and my original hometown is Cincinnati, Ohio. While there, I went on a riverboat cruise on the Ohio River with my sister-in-law and niece and nephew. That is an interesting way to see the city, and to see what is developing along the river front (lots of condos and some big houses). It is also interesting to see how the Ohio side of the river is putting in more and more river front parklands.

A couple of days later, I went to the Theodore Barry International Friendship Park on the riverfront. It is located east of downtown. On this day, there was supposed to be some canoe and kayak races, but I did not see any of that going on (I used to do whitewater kayaking for years). However, this lovely park has many interesting features. They put areas in the park to represent Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Those areas have some plantings native to those areas and some designs that are representative to those areas. They also made a “story circle” which is a Native American tradition where one speaker sits on a rock while the listeners sit in semi-circles around him. The rock is located under a tree, generally a big one that is a landmark. The person sitting on the rock has the floor and will speak for as long as he likes with no interruptions. They also have a “hands of the land” display, with is mounds of earth shaped like two open hands. Lots of area for kids to climb and play within the hands of the land. There is also a Plaza of the Sun and other interesting displays. The whole park is along side the Ohio River, with several nice views of the river.

After seeing this, I went up to the Cincinnati Art Museum, which is FREE. They have an excellent display of local artists up right now, and the usual French Impressionists, which I love to look at again and again. Another great museum in Cincinnati is the Children’s Museum, which is located in Union Station with a couple of other great museums.

Today, I am up in Columbus and we went to COSI, another great museum – this one costs money, however! It is a museum about science, and is well put together to entertain children while teaching them. I got to share this experience with my two lovely nieces!

This blog will mainly be on vacation, with limited posting, until August.