Cincy

One busy week completed, yay! And now, many more to come, sigh :) Getting back into the swing and I will hopefully get back into posting regularly!

Cincinatti, A New Adventure

Part of my 'busy' was a trip to see my sister and her family in their new city - Cincinatti. Coming from a flat and barren area of the world, all cities with hills and dense vegetation seem intriguing. Cincinatti definitely has both attributes. The landscape here is decidedly green despite the locals vehement cries of drought. The Ohio river makes a stately appearance, seen from every part of the hilly inner city. The river-centric city imparts a contrast in feelings; restless wandering with muted mometum and a calming, well-worn consistency. The downtown area is thriving with life, a pleasant mixture of business and play in a template of downtown revival. Like many other river cities they have an adult playground that spans a portion of the river on both the Ohio and Kentucky side; touristy, yes, but still enjoyable and a good place to gage the regional diversity. While not as diverse as some other areas of the country, it was far from the black and white I found in Memphis while my sister lived there.

We tried a smattering of ethnic food, just to see if Cincinatti would offer future culinary excursions or if we would be conjuring up our own. Thai, Turkish, Mexican and Ice Cream (yes, ice cream is regionally distinct and on every damn corner, lol) were all excellent.

The architecture is tudor, cape cod, post colonial, greek revival and as you pierce the concentric inner city circles - sprawling single level 50's ranch style, 70's Brady Bunch split levels and finally, the late-model ubiquitous standard of two story with high peaks and arches.

One noteworthy observation about this region is that everyone is tall. I mean really tall. My sister's neighbor, an undercover narc for Cincy PD, is 6'8", his 9 year old daughter is as tall as me. Everywhere I went I felt like a midget. I dont know what people in Cincinatti actually look like, but I can tell you that they have great taste in belt buckles :-)

San Francisco Recall

One area of dowtown had such a sheer grade upwards that I instantly felt my calves ache by the mere sight of it; instant recall of the many treks up Castro to visit friends in Noe Valley. 18th street - flat, uneventful, what a nice walk, 24th street - a little tightness in the legs but almost there, 30th street - a little out of breath, searing leg pain and hoping for a taxi.

I would have had pictures to share but unfortunately my 6 year old niece accidentally broke my digital camera.

The Bee Boring Incident

There is always a niece story post visit, this trip was no exception.

One day I took my nieces to play in the park by my sister's house. Cincinatti is full of parks, each neighborhood is built around one or more, in this respect it reminded me of Savannah, Georgia. The neighborhood park was great - jogging trails, bike paths, mokey bars, slides - the whole nine. In one area they had dumped sand to resemble a beach with dunes. My nieces immeadiately jumped into the sand and there they stayed for an hour. They befriended an 8 year old boy who they buried up to his knees in sand then they wandered away laughing as he beckoned - 'But wait, you need to undig me!'. Dont worry, he dug himself out.

At one point my younger niece started screaming hysterically. I rushed over to see what happened.

"A bee, BEE BEE BEE, its biting me, its biting me, its in my arm! Get it out! GETITOUT GETITOUT GETITOUT! She was drawing a crowd, I feared a citizen's arrest for child abuse, neglect or proper prevention of bee boring.

No marks, a tiny bit of swelling. Ant bite? Maybe. Bee sting? No. A bee boring its way into her arm stinging her repeatedly? Maybe thats 3-year old attention whore tactics in play. Screaming and moaning somewhat tempered by a cold water bottle placed against the 'bee entry site' then completely abolished when we arrived home and she saw 'Boomer', the neighbor's golden retriever. Poor Boomer, I dont think he was wanting to play horsie to a 3 year old girl but he was a good sport. So much for the bee boring its way into her arm; the healing powers of the golden retriever are apparently much stronger than ice cream or staying up past bedtime.