Day 184: Cincinnati, Day 2

After a peaceful night's sleep in Kentucky, we drove across the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge, the baby blue painted bridge that connects the town of Covington in Kentucky with Cincinnati. Lisette still needs to find a "Welcome to Ohio" sign to take a picture of after missing the teeny sign yesterday, but surprisingly there still wasn't a sign to be found after crossing over. Ohio doesn't make a big deal about entering its state! However, upon crossing over there's a prominent sculpture proclaiming "Sing the Queen City", a reference to residents calling Cincinnati the "Queen City of the West" in the early 1900s.

We met our friend Martynas (cameo in our journal entries for the next week!) in downtown Cincinnati, so we could walk around and explore the city. First we headed to the waterfront, passing the Great American Ball Park, a baseball stadium that's home to the Cincinnati Reds. There were people playing baseball in the park, with it being broadcast on the huge screen within the stadium, but it looked like more of a fun game with regular folks.

We then continued on to the Smale Riverfront Park, which offers panoramic views of the Ohio River, looking out to Kentucky. It's a pretty park to jog along, although the temperatures already in the morning probably precluded a lot of folks from making the effort (that and well, it was a Monday). Toward one end of the riverwalk is the National Steamboat Monument, a three-story, 60 ton, exact replica of the original red paddle wheel from the American Queen riverboat, which was the world's largest steamboat.

Lots of Wonderful Murals

Turning back towards downtown Cincinnati, we saw plenty of beautiful murals, including murals of a still life of fruit, Neil Armstrong the astronaut painted in rainbow colors, and more (this shows the various murals in the city). The murals lined the streets on the way to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, which turned out to be the area where we'd had drinks and dinner last night and is home to many craft breweries and trendy bars. Murals can really help make a city come alive, besides represent them, and it's great that none of the murals that we saw had been graffitied on or vandalized in any way.

After Martynas scuttled off to watch the Cincinnati Open finals (interestingly, both the men's and women's finals would be played on the same day, and it was on a Monday rather than on a weekend), we saw the impressive mural, "Homage to Cincinnatus", a Romanesque mural that apparently commemorates the 100th anniversary of Kroger, a national grocery and retail chain that was founded in Cincinnati.

Nearby, the Cincinnati Music Hall is a beautiful and prominent built High Victorian Gothic style, with red and black brickwork, sandstone accents, and decorative and ornate carvings. Built from 1876–1878, it's on a cobblestone street, making it feel like we'd wandered into Europe. The building is massive (it's actually 3 buildings in one), and still hosts musical performances and cultural events today. The Music Hall is across the road from Washington Park, a pretty park where little kids were running around the fountains in their swimsuits, having a blast and staying cool.

Art Deco Architecture (But No Ice Cream!)

A short drive from downtown is the Cincinnati Union Terminal, a striking building that was constructed during the Great Depression in the bold Art Deco style. There's a long road leading to the entrance, making the Terminal stand out even further, and once we were inside, we were in awe of the largest half-dome in the western hemisphere, which was adorned with intricate mosaics that detail Cincinnati's industrial history, spanning over 1,114 square meters (nearly 12,000 square feet).

While the train station is still operational, it's no longer as busy as it once was, and is celebrated more as a historic and iconic building, and is home to the Cincinnati Museum Center, which has multiple museums including the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, the Duke Energy Children's Museum, and the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center. There was also a Barbie exhibition when we went there.

We'd planned to get a Graeter's Ice Cream (which started in Cincinnati in 1870) from the Rookwood Ice Cream Parlor, a vintage parlor which has been restored to look like what it did back in the 1930s, with handcraft pottery tiles, and pastel green and pink colors. We arrived around 2pm, only to find it closed... despite a sign saying that it was open from 12-3pm! The information desk told us that they often don't have people who can open the store, so nobody shows up and it stays closed. We were surprised and disappointed, as we peeked in the interior and it looked like it would have been fun to sit inside and eat ice cream, feeling like we'd wandered back in time. On a hot day like today, they would have definitely gotten customers coming in... their loss!

Unique and Historic Places of Worship

Back downtown, right in front of Cincinnati City Hall is a Black Lives Matter mural, painted on the street in the wake of George Floyd's murder. The next block over are a couple of places of worship--the Isaac M. Wise Temple is an incredibly ornate synagogue built in 1865 during the US Civil War, making it one of the oldest synagogues in the country. Unfortunately it was closed so we couldn't check out the interior. Across the road from this is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains, a Catholic church built in 1845. Its most illustrious feature is a towering 68 meter (224 foot) spire. Inside, what was most striking to us was that unlike all of the churches that we've been to, there was no domed ceiling--rather, the ceiling was a vaulted flat shape, with two sets of Corinthian columns leading up to the altar.

Nature, Views and Ice Cream

We escaped back to the air-conditioning in our RV, making a brief stop at the Krohn Conservatory, walking around its beautiful surroundings, seeing butterflies also enjoying the flora. Lisette also got to drop off a couple of Spanish textbooks at a Free Little Library there, after realizing she no longer needs them, so hopefully someone else will find them useful! These free community libraries are such a great idea and over the years we've dropped off and also picked up lots of books.

One of the best views of Cincinnati that we saw besides the Smale Riverfront Park from this morning is Mt. Adams Steps/Lookout (also called the Overlook at Celestial and Hill), which offers great views of downtown Cincinnati, the Ohio River, and Kentucky. Since we'd missed out on getting ice cream at Union Terminal, we found a Graeter's Ice Cream parlor, which sold ice cream, shakes, chocolates, cakes and other desserts.

The two older gentlemen who were working at the store were sweet and a bit quirky, giving us free lanyards while we were sitting eating our ice cream inside (we overheard a couple of customers next to us commenting on the lanyard in curiosity, saying, "It's for your keys!"). But the store was very clean and they were generous in letting us sample a couple of flavors before deciding what we'd order. Apparently one of their bestsellers is Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, which Lisette loved, and Michael's order of Butter Pecan, and Banana Chocolate Chip was also delicious. They seem to be known for their gourmet, soft chocolate chips, and there are plenty of flavors that include them!

We drove back across the suspension bridge that connected Cincinnati to Covington, Kentucky, as we'd had a peaceful nights' rest there last night. Ready to explore the last few places we wanted to see in Cincinnati tomorrow, ahead of continuing on to Kentucky!

Route Map