A Vacation!
Before I write about the trip we just went on, here are a couple of other pictures. Above is the garden I planted. The spinach isn’t doing too well, and I have only seen one potato plant so far. But the corn, lettuce, beans, sugar snap peas, cucumbers and carrots (and weeds!) are doing great. In other areas of the yard, we have a raspberry bush, grape vine, pumpkins, tomatoes, cantaloupe and watermelon.
Below is a precious picture of my baby with his paternal grandmother.
The trip:
We decided to go see the new Creation Museum (www.creationmuseum.org) outside of Cincinnati and saw a few other things along the way. First, we stopped at the Tippecanoe Battlefield Monument.
Once we arrived in Cincinnati, we went to the Butterfly Show (which is a room full of butterflies) at the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park, close to the Ohio River. (See this website for a coupon.) There were beautiful butterflies and flowers all around. They also had a desert garden, bonzai garden and a rain forest with huge trees. I could almost imagine seeing a jaguar or anaconda in there! I highly recommend the conservatory. I think we’ll definitely go back and give it more time next time we’re in Cincinnati.
A view of the Ohio River.
We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites, which is in Kentucky, very close to the Cincinnati Airport. It was very nice. The suite had two rooms with a door separating the two, so we put the baby in one room. The rest of us slept (sort of!) in the other room. Actually, it wasn’t too bad. They all slept pretty well–better than I expected. The hotel was very nice. We would definitely stay there again. Right next to it were 2 other hotels which are probably also very nice–Comfort Inn and Marriott.
The next day we went to the Creation Museum. (See this website for a discount coupon.) It was very impressive. I’ll give a few tips, though, of things we would have done differently. The museum opens at 10 a.m. and we drove into the parking lot right at 10. (We would’ve been there earlier, but had two diaper issues, one requiring a change of clothes and then I had to nurse before we got there.) That meant we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes. It was suggested to us when we paid that we see the "Men in White" special effects movie at 10:45 and our planetarium time was assigned to us at 11:30. So, we walked around the lobby for about 15 minutes, then stood in line for the movie, watched it (about 25 minutes long), then stood in line for the planetarium. By the time the planetarium show was over, it was noon. The line for the cafe was very long, so I thought we should see a little of the museum first. What I didn’t realize was that it is a walk-through type of museum. We did about 20 minutes of it and the kids were too tired and hungry, so we had to walk back through the wrong way to get out. So, next time we will arrive early, and go straight into the museum so we can be fresh and have a chance to read everything and watch the many video displays. It really contains incredible exhibits; it just doesn’t work to go through it with 5 kids 6 years and under at 2 p.m.!
The cafe had pretty good food, and we ate outside. After that we walked aound the grounds, which were beautiful, even though they aren’t finished yet.
Notice below that my baby had fallen asleep. He got about a 30-minute nap!
Adam and Eve
The next morning we took the scenic route and traveled along the Ohio River at the southern border of Indiana. We ate lunch in Madison, and then headed down to the Ohio River to take a look around. When we parked I looked over in the big field beside us and noticed that it looked like a Civil War Re-Enactment. So, we went in and had a great time looking around at the tents, seeing some artillery demonstrations and hearing a concert of Stephen Foster music.
Next, we drove around Columbus, Indiana, which is like a drive-thru art museum (or at least that’s what I told my kids!). There is some very interesting architecture and sculpture.
We stayed in Nashville, Indiana, which is a very cute town (but expensive lodging). Below are some pictures from Brown County State Park.
Finally, we drove around Bloomington and Indiana University. We were all very exhausted by this time. We arrived home about 7 p.m. I can’t believe we did so much in only 4 days. We had a wonderful time and will certainly make another trip out this way sometime in the future!
Looks like you had a great trip and although this may sound odd, I love the shape of your garden. Hope it is growing well for you.
I'm impressed that you made so many stops and saw so many interesting things! This is why women should have children when they're young….while they have the energy 🙂
Enjoy your summer,
Barb
http://barbaramfrank.blogspot.com