My earliest memories of being in Cincinnati involve camping somewhere on the outskirts of the city, going to a newly opened regional theme park called King’s Island, and then almost always ending up in Kentucky as my dad invariably missed the exit on the way to Riverfront Stadium for a Reds game. Remember, these were decades before GPS. This was the early 70s, when the Reds were the Big Red Machine and half the players were future hall of famers. None of my memories, though, are of the city itself.

Fast forward to September 2023. I’m the family driver now, but Google is the family navigator. And it’s no longer a family of six living on one income and counting pennies. It’s just me and my beautiful bride and neither of us is much interested in sleeping on the ground–or even in a pop-up camper. So the accomodations we chose were a little less modest and had a considerably better view. As a result, I became aware, in a way I’d never been before, of just how breathtaking a city Cincy is. Our trip did not involve King’s Island, but it did include taking in a Red’s game. We also ate at some amazing restaurants, took in a neat museum, and spent a lot of time on the balcony of our apartment, which hung off the side of Mt. Adams, taking in the entire cityscape. Here are some pics from our trip.

We were so overwhelmed by the view we took a series of pictures as the sun set. It just got prettier and prettier.

To add to the view, we were treated to fireworks after the Reds game on Friday night. I don’t know if it was because it was the last home Friday of the season, but they were quite a dazzling spectacle, lasting over half an hour.

We had planned to go to the Zoo, but got a late start and decided it wasn’t going to be worth the cost for no longer than we would get to be there, so we opted for what we thought was the Cincinnati Art Museum. It turned out to be the Taft Museum of Art. This was still quite nice. We felt awfully cultured by the time we left.

The tour would be incomplete without images from the game. Sarah, being the thoughtful Angel she is, got us amazing seats. We were right behind the Reds’ dugout. I still didn’t catch a foul ball. As if the trip wasn’t enough of a gift, Sarah insisted I buy a cap. It looks a lot better on her, of course. And I’m so happy I got to see my favorite current Red, Joey Votto.