I had a very interesting, amazing, awesometastic Saturday! I say that with absolutely no hint of sarcasm in case you were wondering. I'm one of those people that, when things don't go according to plan, even drastically, I count it as an adventure! I've had many such adventures and this was one of those times.
This trip was planned months ago. I recently started dating a guy I met my freshman year of college. He was there during some of my memorable college days adventures: the bus wreck, the 2 tornadoes, the flashflood, and my first broken bone are some honorable mentions. He lives near Cincinnati, OH and I live in Kentucky so it's a little bit of a long distance relationship. This trip was actually the first time we saw each other in person since we started dating. We, along with my 3 roommates, were going to meet at his apartment and go to the Cincinnati Zoo and also see some sights in the big city. None of us ladies had ever been to Cincinnati.
I must say, the zoo was the best zoo I've ever visited. I saw my first arctic fox and snow leopard there. My favorites tend to be the big cats and penguins. The lion exhibit was amazing. It wasn't labeled very well, which actually worked in our favor. We looked down a random path and were like "Wonder where this leads. Let's find out." We found my personal favorite, the lions! I am 4ft 9in. I have trouble seeing in crowds, but since the place wasn't labeled well, the crowd was small and I could see just fine. While we were there one of the lions stood up and started to roar. Of course I was transfixed. Lions are my favorite, have been since I was about 5 years old. Right after that I saw my first Manatee. I must say, the Manatee was fantastic. I could have stayed in that exhibit for hours. The underwater viewing area was very calming and worked wonders for my anxiety. We also checked out the insect exhibit. I knew it was going to be interesting and I wasn't disappointed lol. So many creepy crawlies. I did find a big glass container full of walking stick bugs. I'm a little strange. I am not afraid of spiders. I am afraid of centipedes and walking stick bugs. I got way too close to the glass before I realized what was inside! *Involuntary shiver* And some of those walking sticks were HUGE and the name for that particular variety suggested strongly that they could jump. Thanks for the nightmares Cincinnati Zoo.
There are 2 more things I'd like to say about the Cincinnati Zoo. First, we looked at the exhibit for the last carrier pigeon and my boyfriend pointed out to me that the building it was housed in was one of the original buildings for the Cincinnati Zoo. I find facts like that fascinating. It's like I get to personally encounter a piece of history. The other thing was the parking lot. I know, what could possibly be interesting about the parking lot? Well, a few weeks ago I came across a picture online of a parking lot with covered parking for cars. The parking spaces were shaded by solar panels! That's a double benefit and an inspiring idea. Cars don't get super hot and clean energy is harvested. The Cincinnati Zoo parking lot was exactly like that. I got so excited and had to explain my excitement to everyone. I mean, really, who gets excited about a parking lot?
It was after the zoo that things got really adventurous and interesting. My boyfriend wanted to show us a bit of the city. We got a bit more than we bargained for lol. That day just happened to be Comic Con and a Cincy Reds game day. Cars and people everywhere! I don't have much experience with big cities so the traffic jam didn't bother me at all. It gave me more time to take in the sights. It was very educational. I had assumed most cities were basically the same. Not so. Cincinnati is terrifying! We passed a lot of run down places with abandoned houses. The city beautification project had been around painting doors and covering windows. I found that slightly creepy. We also passed a heated yelling argument on the side of the road that involved a good sized group of people. It sounded and looked like any moment that fight was going to come to blows. It was a much bigger and rougher city than I currently live in. It was a place that you couldn't pay me to get out of the car and walk just a block on my own. I know we girls would have been freaking out if we were alone in the city without a guy. We would have hightailed it out of there fast. But we did have one guy and that made us all feel a bit more secure. I don't know how guys deal with feeling like they're in danger, especially if there are ladies present who are looking to the man for protection.
I must mention the awesome cop! We encountered a significant problem in the traffic jam. Cars crossing our road when they had the green light were blocking the intersection and when we got the green light, nobody could move forward. It was getting ridiculous when a cop showed up and stood on the street corner. He started raking people across the coals for daring to block the intersection. One man in particular got more than a mouthful from this cop. I guess the cop made an example of him because the intersection cleared up fast after that and we got to move forward. We had our windows down and shouted "THANK YOU!!" to the cop as we passed.
It was after awesome cop that we ran into trouble. One of my roommates has a great memory for turns and road names. I could not have remember so much. So, with tons of her help, this is what happened.
We took a wrong turn left onto 50E. It was the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. We took another left onto Torrence and tried to find a place to turn around. Funny enough, we passed a cul-de-sac and a parking lot where we could have turned around. One of my roommates didn't let those opportunities pass silently lol. She became quite the backseat driver and the exchanges between her and my boyfriend got funnier and funnier as we got deeper into this problem lol. We turned left onto a one way street connected to a parking lot and attempted to turn around there. Unfortunately the way the roads connected, that was impossible. Sad day. So we turned right on Madison instead and found ourselves headed back into the city. We did not need to be heading back into the city lol. After a few twists and turns we ended up on 8th street and then took a left onto Dalton. The road was closed. We were sooooo close to where we needed to be! We could see where we needed to be! We took a left and another left and encountered more closed road signs. This led to some colorful language in the car lol. We found ourselves confronted with a choice. We could turn back onto 8th or go downhill on a random road under the bridge. We needed to be on a lower level anyway to connect to 50W and it looked promising. We went with the random road. We followed the road under the bridge and ended up going under the bridge long ways. It look deserted and so shady it could give sunglasses a complex. It looked dangerous, scary, like a prime location to be murdered! All at once we just stopped and said "Nope.....nope, nope, nope, NOPE!" We promptly turned around with haste and got the heck out of Dodge! We took the right back onto 8th. It was at this moment that we all started to wonder if this was some sick game and if we would never get out of the city. Maybe we would just have to stay, settle down, and resume our lives here forever. It looked bleak. Hope was fizzling like a spent sparkler on the 4th of July. My boyfriend knew that we need to cross the railroad tracks to get to 50W. We were on the wrong side of the tracks haha! And oh how we knew it after that under the bridge incident. We took a right and attempted to find a way across the tracks. Finally. Success! We found a road that went, not over, but under the tracks. That was a little scary and sketchy looking but at least we were on the right track now lol. We found 50W!!!! We all collectively signed and started to relax. There was a feeling in the air of fist pumping and high fiving. We could taste freedom. Then we saw the detour sign. The relief started to spill out of us like air out of a balloon. Don't get me wrong, we had all been laughing our heads off, some people laughing so hard they cried. One of our number gave up and took a power nap. But we truly, honestly, really really did not want to have to live here because we couldn't find our way out! We got to a big decision moment. We could stay on 50W, even with the construction and see what happened or we could take the detour. Strange, you often don't get a choice like that. We chose to stay on 50W and hope. We all held our breath. 50W did not let us down. We made it out! We were alive and free to live the rest of our lives far away from that place! Hallelujah!!!
We made it to the William Henry Harrison Memorial without incident. It's the burial place of our 9th U.S. President. He gave the longest inaugural speech and served the shorted term as president. His speech lasted nearly 2 hours and his presidency lasted 32 days. His inauguration had taken place on a cold and wet day in March. He didn't wear a hat or an overcoat and rode on horseback instead of in a carriage. After his super long speech he was in a parade and then attended 3 balls. He got Pneumonia. He was the first U.S. President to die in office. According to my boyfriend, the U.S. flag that flies above his grave is never lowered to half mast because flags flying over the grave sites of former U.S. President are never lowered to half mast. I never knew that!
I must review my first (that I can remember) visit to Skyline Chili. We asked my boyfriend to take us to a local place. Cincy is known for 3 way chili. It's a recipe I grew up eating. It's spaghetti noodles, chili, and cheese. That was the version of spaghetti I knew as a child. I was excited to get to try out the restaurant that inspired one of my childhood favorite meals. Of course, I ordered the 3 Way. I took my first bite and I was home. It tasted just like my childhood! It really took me back! I rate it an A for Awesome!
Before I end this very loooooong post, I must mention something. On our way back home, we girls had our very own detour moment! We took an exit that we thought would take us to Winchester road, but instead it was an exit to a whole other road that took us to Winchester the city! It was at this point that we started to wonder if this day could possibly be real. Surely it was dream! But whose dream, we couldn't decide. The next exit wasn't particularly close either. We just had to ride it out and hope for the best. It was hilarious! Adventures are the best! Of course, we did eventually make it home. We were soooo happy to see our dear apartment!
Well, that was my crazy Saturday. I'll remember it fondly for years to come. :)
Thanks for reading!
-Kawika
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