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| Pedaling our way through Cincinnati |
The kids were pretty tired today but when we said that tomorrow was the day that we were going to see our cousins, they sprung up out of bed as fast as they could. They have been counting down the days since we started our journey waiting to see their cousins. We all slept well last night and we were not in too much of a hurry today. We had a few stops to make but not too far to go from hotel to hotel.
Robby took different kiddos each time he left the room today-for ice, to get the cart. And then on our way to breakfast, Robby, Anderson and Reagan went to load the car. That is changing our routine a bit but it really works out. That left me with the Graham and all of the little people. The lady at breakfast must have felt sorry for me because she offered to help me at least twice. We did fine though and the kids sat down and then picked out their food without any commotion at all.
When Reagan and Anderson came back, Reagan said it was freezing out there. Things are unseasonably cool this trip and that just makes me really, really happy. We could have really been toasty on some of these days if not for the cooler weather. Today at breakfast we sat down overlooking the Ohio River. It was the prettiest breakfast view that we have had on the trip.
As we were loading the car, Reagan looked out over the river and said “It is like a postcard.” We have been to Cincinnati before but I sure don't remember the city being this beautiful. The Roebling suspension bridge, built in 1867, is here and we thought that we would walk across it. It is over the Ohio river separating Kentucky and Ohio. It was a perfect walk; at first Robby said that we were just going to go halfway but the weather was so nice, we went the entire way.
On the way, we were able to see workers building a playground. Robby saw a picture of the playground and wanted to walk and get a closer look. But on the way to the picture, we saw a place renting quadcabs-you know, that bike thing that 4 people can sit on and pedal. Robby just went in to look and even though I kept telling the kids we didn't know if we were going to get to do it, the kids were going nuts. They were looking in the windows, jumping up and down and when Graham saw Robby writing something, they knew that we were going to get to ride that silly looking car.
It was a beautiful riverfront area for our little ride. And oh my goodness, peddling for 6 kids was tough work. Robby was doing most of the work but I was trying to help some. I think Andesron was the only one that could actually help us pedal in any way. Whitman started out up front with Keaton but he wasn’t too keen on riding with us. He did his best to get off the bike so most of the time, I was struggling with him!
The kids all loved, loved this-we had to stop just about every 10 feet for someone to change spots-so they could set up front, so they could try to help peddle or so they could steer. By the end, Robby found us a spot where we could just keep making a loop with having to peddle a bit up the hill but then we could coast down for a bit. Anderson was the one who drove us into the grass. But when we would have to make the turn for our loop, it would look for a second that we were going to hit the railing above the river. Of course, each and every time we did this, Keaton, who was sitting up front, would shout “Don’t put me in the river.”
We spent every bit of our hour and had to peddle quickly to get ourselves back to the bike shop on time. It was so much fun and the kids really enjoyed it-we might just buy one of those things. Kidding, of course, where in the world would we put it. In a year or two the kids would be able to help peddle but by that time they will be too big to cram on that thing.
After we returned our bike, we had to walk back across the suspension bridge to get to our car. We did have a drink on the way across….but the people that worked the hardest on the bike, hardly had a sip with all of the other hands asking for drinks. It was almost cool though on our way back across the bridge with the sun in the clouds. We were all no longer sweaty by the time we made it back across.
Campbell was so excited that we were able to drive across the suspension bridge on our way out of town. But before we made it too far out of town, we stopped at William Howard Taft's boyhood home. We went through the museum, saw a film, stamped our National Park books and even toured his house. The guide asked a few times if we had any questions (we were the only ones on the tour). Robby felt like he had to ask some question so he did but my Graham is also getting good at asking questions. You have to stick with him and often work to understand what he is asking but once he gets his questions out, they are valid questions.
We did learn on our tour that Taft didn’t really get stuck in the bathtub after all. But when he became president, he did have a new bathtub installed in the White House. The new tub was big enough for 4 average size folks. After we had learned all about our 27th president, Taft, we had our picnic on the picnic tables by the parking lot. The kids found some neighborhood friends to play with while we made lunch. Then it was time to hit the road again.
And after miles and miles, we ended up back in traffic. This time though we weren’t moving at all, completely stopped and the gas level was tick, tick, ticking lower. I though I was going to have to get out and push. Thankfully, there was a gas station in the middle of our stopped traffic so that was wonderful-wonderful also for Campbell who had told us miles back during the stopped traffic that she needed to potty.
We finally made it to Louisville and while on the way, Keaton became the slug bug calling out queen. She can spot those slug bugs from miles away. It is so funny. Our Louisville stop was the Louisville Slugger museum and factory tour. We have been there twice before but Whitman needed his own bat. When Anderson came to Louisville when he was little, we bought him a bat. Then when Graham was small and we were here, he got a bat. We thought we were buying the same size bat but when we pulled Graham’s out of the box, it was much larger than Anderson’s bat. So to complete the set, Whitman’s bat was bought to be even larger than Graham’s bat.
My boys would so love to play baseball but since we have no plans of living our life at the ballpark they will not. Now if Upward ever has baseball, we might consider it-8 weeks, practice 1 night a week and game on Saturday-that is manageable. Anyway, they do use their bats...for their birthday pinatas!
Last time we were on the bat tour, it was a weekend so they were not in production. But today they were and it was so much more fun (and we had a great tour guide ... that can make or break any tour at all). The boys were so interested in everything that was said and you would have thought the man was passing out gold when he handed everyone a tiny baseball bat. Yep, that is 8 little baseball bats we are now going to bring home.
I have no idea what we are going to do with those. I know what I have done with the bats that we have received before-garage sale. Robby suggested that I let the kids play with them. I certainly don’t think that is a good idea-the house has windows and the kids have bones so wooden bats to play with isn’t going to work. I did say that I was going to hang one on my Christmas tree. Robby made fun of me because he thinks I have forgotten that our tree really isn’t that big and I have already bought at least 5 new ornaments on this trip-1 being a sack of flour and at least one other very large one-and we can’t even put all of our travel ornaments on our tree as it is now. I need a bigger tree-a much bigger tree. Somebody help me remember that around Chirstmas time!
The next stop was supper-for some of us. When the name of your supper restaurant is The Pie Company, it is probably a good bet that not much supper is going to be eaten. Robby and I did have a sandwich but the kids were not interested in sandwiches at all-they saw the row after row of pies and the rows of cakes and the zillion flavors of ice cream and sorbet. Yes, you can give us the loser parent award but none of them even finished their desserts (I didn’t either-but I sure did bring mine home for tonight’s midnight snack)
It wasn’t too far until we made it to the hotel tonight and it was probably the earliest we made it to a hotel. Seriously, we didn’t know what to do unloading the car while it was still daylight outside. Actually, the kids and us needed an early night tonight. They all took baths or shower -Whitman staying in the longest. He (and Graham) have a bit of a stuffy/runny nose (Actually, Campbell is getting it and Reagan has a tiny touch of it but I think everyone feels fine. But almost an hour in the steamy shower should really be good for Whitman’s stuffiness...as well as sleeping in that nice and steamy bathroom.
We had thought about swimming tonight but just decided to take it easy. This was the first night that Robby had to wait to get the clothes in the washing machine so that put us behind a bit but not too badly. After showers and baths the kids watched tv, played on their kindles and worked on their travel journal for today. I should have been getting out their books to read that I brought but oh, well, I guess we are on vaction-there will be plenty of time to read when we get home! Actually, I have a whole list of books to check out and things to learn about when we get home.
This was really a good day and hopefully tomorrow will be just as great. We are always surprised at how well our days work out. Like today, we really didn't know what all we would be able to see but our main stop was the Louisville Slugger but we were able to squeeze in a few other stops and the day timed out just perfectly.
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