The gang hit the road around 9am on Saturday, ready to roll to Cincinnati. It was a 450 mile drive through the rolling hills of Tennessee and Kentucky. There wasn't a whole lot of traffic, but it wasn't desolate either.
As the drive kicked off, I had my first and last blow up of the trip. The Tornado was whining and complaining about the portable DVD player - it's too high, it's too low, the earphones won't stay on, I can't hear, blah blah blah. Of course the movie player is supposed to make the drive easier, not harder for the driver. I let the kids know that, and they assured me we wouldn't have any more issues the rest of the trip. You always feel bad when you have to yell. They don't mean any harm, but sometimes a firm voice is needed. It still doesn't feel good though. So we got going again, and was smooth sailing the rest of the way.
We arrived in Florence, Kentucky around 2pm, just a couple minutes before the CEO. We went into the hotel room, and the kids loved it! It was a big, nice, new Homewood suites, and our room was huge. It's always funny to watch them react to the room, good or bad.
After settling in a little, we watched the US soccer team lose to Ghana and end their run, then headed over to Newport on the Levee for dinner. It was a nice shopping and dining area right on the river across from Cincinnati. We had some dinner and the kids looked around at the stores. The Bear was intent on shopping, and she was weighing her options here vs saving for the Mall of America. She ended up getting a little something, but saving most of her cash for stops further down the road. We watched a magician do some tricks, the Tornado loved when he pulled a coconut out from under his hat! It started to rain and we headed back to the hotel for the night. Some late night swimming in the indoor pool which the kids thought was pretty cool, then down for the night with a big day the next day ahead.
Sunday we woke up, packed up and headed back to Newport to go to the Reds game. It was super hot again, but there was a big storm looming over the area. We parked (after some problems with a self-pay lot), and started walking over the bridge to the game. The Bear was struggling (it's so hot, this is so long, ha), and the CEO wasn't loving it. For me though, it was another walk down memory lane. I remember going to Cincinnati as a kid with Mom and Dad, and walking the bridge to the Reds game. I always have great memories of the trips we took as kids, and it's things like walking the bridge that stick out in my memory. Not that it was the most fun moment of the trip or anything, just that it was something different.
The game was delayed for a while because of the storm, so we sat in the top row to stay covered until they told us we had to go into the walkway. The ballpark was pretty cool, and they had a ton of fun stuff for the kids to do. The Reds were playing their in-state rival Cleveland Indians. The storm cooled everyone off, and we really enjoyed the game. The Indians won the game 5-3, but it was close and the crowd was pretty into the game. Afterwards, they let us down on the field to run the bases, and that's always really cool.
We left the stadium, and headed back over the bridge to the car. A brief stop for a picture (The Bear and the CEO didn't stop :), then to the car. 360 miles to St Louis, it was looking like a midnight arrival. We stopped for dinner on the road, yay for Subway! As it got dark, we drove into a crazy rain storm, and the CEO was doing her best work behind the wheel. Between the rain, the high winds, and an already full day, it was pretty tense. As we approached St. Louis we could see the Arch, the ballpark, and with everything lit up it was really beautiful.
We parked in the lot and checked into the Westin, right across the street from the stadium. We got into the room, it was pretty tight, and convinced the Tornado he would love sleeping on the over sized chair!! By the time we all got to sleep it was about 2am, everyone was beat. A full day in St Louis the next day was waiting. One of the things that I was really enjoying about the trip so far was going from place to place, doing different things each day. It was exciting and interesting and I was loving every minute of it.
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