Even though yesterday was a wet day it turned out to be a great day for an anniversary. The G-man and I drove to Cincinnati in the pouring rain. Once we arrived in Cincinnati the rain stopped. The sun didn’t shine but at least the torrential rains stopped. Our first stop was at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It is a unique setup. They have several museums housed in the same building. You could visit all of the museums for one low price or you could pick and choose. We chose to visit two of the museums. We toured the History museum and the Natural History museum. What can I say, we are both history buffs.

I love their museums! In the History museum they had a room that was a miniature Cincinnati. There was even a miniature plane flying around. And it was all set in the 40’s. They had little street cars that really worked and even a train going around the city. Everything was to scale and looked so realistic.

In the history museum they have a huge section dedicated to Cincinnati in WWII. Both the G-man and I are big WWII buffs so we really enjoyed seeing the artifacts from that era. They even had rooms setup like a home in the 1940’s. They also had a streetcar from the 1940’s that you could get in. Then you turn a corner and you are on the riverfront in the early 1900’s where there is a steamboat that you can get on and there are shops on the waterfront that you can go in. The G-man went into a dressmaker shop and the shop owner tried to engage him in conversation. She never stepped out of character and that was making the G-man very uncomfortable. It was fun to watch him squirm as he tried to answer her questions and sneak away at the same time.

The Natural History museum had a cave that you went through complete with underground waterfalls, streams, fossils and a live bat colony and in another section it had a similar cave only it was set in the ice age. There was even a swamp scene that you walked through. The folks in Cincinnati really know how to do up a museum. Their exhibits actually put you in that era and in that setting. It was so cool! Although I must admit I did get freaked out in the cave and ran out. What can I say, it was just too realistic for me.

After the museums we headed off to the Kentucky side of Cincinnati to Newport on the Levee. There we stopped for a wonderful seafood lunch Mitchell’s Fish Market. All I can say is try the oysters! We had an assortment of raw oysters for an appetizer. The Garrish Island oysters were a little too salty for my taste, but the Martha’s Vineyard oysters were absolutely perfect. Now if only they had some Chincoteague Island oysters (oyster Mecca near my home town)

After lunch we walked by the river and could even see the lights of the baseball stadium where the Reds were playing a game. Unfortunately we got stuck in the post-game traffic on the way home and that sucked but what-cha gonna do. The rains started on the ride home and lasted for the 1 ½ hours it took us to get home. You would think that with the Starbucks we had ingested prior to leaving the Levee that we would have been wired on the way home, but actually we had to fight to stay awake. Who stuck the sleeping pills in my latte?

What I learned from yesterdays outing –
1. Driving for distances longer than 1-hour break my poor little back and hurts my tailbone.
2. I could eat raw oysters every day for lunch as long as they have a little drop of Tabasco on them.
3. Starbucks lattes don’t always wire you up so now I drink them before bedtime.
4. Anniversaries don’t always have to have a romantic theme to them to be fun.
5. And the most important thing I learned is that I made a good choice by marrying my G-bear 12 years ago and if I had it to do all over again I would.