Trip Journal: Weekend in Cincy – The Zoo, Good Brew and a Few Mummies, Too!
Weekend road-trip to Cincinnati, Ohio
Friday, April 12 - Sunday, April 14, 2019
Planning a Weekend Excursion. We were looking for an idea or two for a weekend excursion for the spring, and by “we” I mean Lynn (hey, all she has to do is figure out where she would like to go and I’ll figure out the rest!). Her initial idea was D.C. for the cherry blossoms, which would be an easy destination, but also something we can do just about any year. However, while looking through the Farm and Dairy, probably sometime in December or January, she saw an ad for an exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center for “The Time of The Pharaohs.” That really piqued her interest! We decided to add this to the list of options, figuring we should go in March or early April before the grass gets to growing. Of course that will overlap with the cherry blossoms which were predicted to peak around April 6th this year. Since the Egyptian exhibit is a one-time gig and only runs through August 18th, we figured Cincinnati should get the priority. It is only a little over 3 hours to drive to Cincy, so the starting plan was to just drive down on Saturday morning, checkout the museum, find a brewery for dinner then drive home on Sunday. Simple.
As is typically the case, we built some details into the Cincinnati plan over dinner at Lagerheads. So on Tuesday the 19th of February, I was enjoying a Five Wire IPA and Lynn her normal green apple martini when she said that she had been looking at Cincinnati on Google maps earlier today. Turns out that the zoo is not that far from the Cincinnati Museum Center so perhaps we can combine those two for a long weekend. Sure, we might as well make the most of the trip. Probably a day for each since we do not know how much time we need for either site. Maybe out on Friday and back on Sunday with the zoo on Saturday and museum on Sunday. We'll have to look into the Cincy brewery options. Looks like there are a few good hotel choices near the zoo as well as several local brew pubs in the area so we are good on those points. We’ll just have to lock in which weekend we will make this excursion then get a lodging reservation.
Our first attempt at this weekend trip was for March 22, but the cat sitter was not available. However that ended up being OK as the weather was marginal for the weekend. I then had an impromptu business trip to DC the first week of April, so that sort of knocked out the weekend of the 5th (and the weather was still a bit iffy in Cincy). The next option was the weekend of April 12th and the long-range forecast looked pretty reasonable. At 10 days out, Saturday the 13th was looking nice for the zoo at 59 degrees F and only 10% chance of rain, but this is Ohio and I bet the Cincinnati weather prognosticators are not that much better than the Cleveland crew (although the southern forecasters don’t have the Lake Erie weather machine to deal with). So we kept an eye on the weather and it continued to track nicely as we moved toward the weekend. Well, Saturday was looking ideal for the zoo and getting better as we got closer to the trip but Sunday was likely to be wet but that was not an issue as we would be inside at the museum.
Our starting plan was to drive down Friday late afternoon/early evening and grab dinner near the hotel. Saturday we will dedicate to the zoo then dinner at one of the local breweries while on Sunday we will take in the Egyptian exhibit then drive home during the afternoon so that we home in time for evening chores. We added more detail as we got closer to the trip and as is always the case we tweaked the plan as those details fell into place. We also tried to keep this trip as simple as possible, so we decided to leave the bridge cameras at home and just carry the pocket devices (Canon SX710 HS and my phone). Those both take nice photos and we won't be needed the long zoom. Besides we were not expecting to take a lot of photos.
I studied the local beer options of which there were plenty, but not all served food. Of course we ruled out the big beer places along with Boston Brewing and Rhinegeist (we know their beer already). Moerlien Lager House looks like a winner with several interesting beers and a killer dinner menu. That should work for Saturday night. I also found a southwest place, Cactus Pear, which looked really good. The downside was no beer, well at least nothing local just the mass produced Mexican lagers but there is always a margarita for a change of pace. Maybe that for Friday evening. I also looked to see if there were any craft beer sales at the zoo since this something that we are finding to be more commonplace. I could not find a definitive answer on the beer, but my guess is yes based on the food offerings. I reckon we’ll just have to see how that plays out in real time.
On Monday the 8th we made the decision to go forward with the little excursion. The only piece of the puzzle that we had to lock-in was the cat sitter. Lynn made that call and Nicole confirmed on Tuesday that she was available for the weekend. OK, now we can lock in lodging. I had scoped out the Hampton Inn near the zoo but when I went to the website to make a reservation they were sold out for the weekend. That’s not good. The next closest place was available but more pricey and without “free” breakfast. I looked a little further afield and got a nice deal at the Springhill Suites Midtown. Still just a short drive to the zoo and very convenient to downtown so it should work out nicely (I stay at a Springhill Suites for my business trips to Reston, VA, and like their operation). We decided that there was no need for dinner reservations at this point nor would we buy advance tickets for the zoo or museum (the museum on-line ticket sales showed the number of tickets still available for each entry time for the Egyptian exhibit, 70 total for each time slot; all of the time-slots were in the 65-70 tickets available range so this will not be an issue and gives us a little more flexibility on the timing). Our final tweak to the plan was that we opted to just eat dinner at home on Friday before hitting the road rather than on the way down. We figured we could save Cactus Pear for lunch on Sunday after the museum.
On Thursday, I discussed the weekend plan with Erin, one of my bright, young engineers, as she is from Cincinnati and asked if she had any suggestions for things to see and do as well as dining options, just in case we had time to fit in anything else around our main attractions. She checked in with her sister who still lives in the area and come up with the following suggestions:
Day 1, Friday, April 12 – Heading Southwest. Seems like southwest is the dominant direction when we travel. Usually, the distance is a bit longer. Nope, not the desert southwest this time, just southwest Ohio. Sort of kitty-corner across the state for us instead of nearly across the country. But still south and west, so at least a little warmer than here on the north coast.
This was a work day for Lynn and me, although I was telecommuting since I had no onsite commitments today and we had to run one of the cats to and from the vet (it’s always something with our furry herd, but nothing series today). Once Lynn was back home, we finished off some leftovers for dinner, loaded the Edge, set our destination in Baby and were pulling out of the driveway right at 6:25 PM. Actually pretty much on schedule. I had fueled up the Edge as one of my errands earlier in the day, so we had plenty of range to get to Cincinnati. We had an easy drive this evening. Baby did have to do a little rerouting around Columbus due to issues on I-71 through and south of the city, so we lost a little time but we were still at the hotel by 10:00 PM. Interesting that we were on route 42 a couple of times during the drive, first just getting from home to I-71 then due to the detours. I checked that once we got into our room. Turns out that route 42 parallels I-71 from Cleveland to Cincinnati, but takes about twice the time as the old way runs through so many towns. But Baby was right on target and took us directly to the Springhill Suites Midtown.
In addition to the route 42 trivia, I checked a couple other items once we were settled in the room. First I tried to make a reservation at Moerlein Lager House for dinner on Saturday but the website was showing no availability. I guess that’s possible, but unlikely. I’ll have to check again tomorrow. But I did do a little more research on local beer and food options, just to be on the safe side (there are several local breweries but most don’t have much in the way of food). We caught the weather on the local news. Should be beautiful tomorrow, but Sunday sounds like Alderaan the day the Death Star arrived. We’ll figure it out.
Friday, April 12 - Sunday, April 14, 2019
Planning a Weekend Excursion. We were looking for an idea or two for a weekend excursion for the spring, and by “we” I mean Lynn (hey, all she has to do is figure out where she would like to go and I’ll figure out the rest!). Her initial idea was D.C. for the cherry blossoms, which would be an easy destination, but also something we can do just about any year. However, while looking through the Farm and Dairy, probably sometime in December or January, she saw an ad for an exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum Center for “The Time of The Pharaohs.” That really piqued her interest! We decided to add this to the list of options, figuring we should go in March or early April before the grass gets to growing. Of course that will overlap with the cherry blossoms which were predicted to peak around April 6th this year. Since the Egyptian exhibit is a one-time gig and only runs through August 18th, we figured Cincinnati should get the priority. It is only a little over 3 hours to drive to Cincy, so the starting plan was to just drive down on Saturday morning, checkout the museum, find a brewery for dinner then drive home on Sunday. Simple.
As is typically the case, we built some details into the Cincinnati plan over dinner at Lagerheads. So on Tuesday the 19th of February, I was enjoying a Five Wire IPA and Lynn her normal green apple martini when she said that she had been looking at Cincinnati on Google maps earlier today. Turns out that the zoo is not that far from the Cincinnati Museum Center so perhaps we can combine those two for a long weekend. Sure, we might as well make the most of the trip. Probably a day for each since we do not know how much time we need for either site. Maybe out on Friday and back on Sunday with the zoo on Saturday and museum on Sunday. We'll have to look into the Cincy brewery options. Looks like there are a few good hotel choices near the zoo as well as several local brew pubs in the area so we are good on those points. We’ll just have to lock in which weekend we will make this excursion then get a lodging reservation.
Our first attempt at this weekend trip was for March 22, but the cat sitter was not available. However that ended up being OK as the weather was marginal for the weekend. I then had an impromptu business trip to DC the first week of April, so that sort of knocked out the weekend of the 5th (and the weather was still a bit iffy in Cincy). The next option was the weekend of April 12th and the long-range forecast looked pretty reasonable. At 10 days out, Saturday the 13th was looking nice for the zoo at 59 degrees F and only 10% chance of rain, but this is Ohio and I bet the Cincinnati weather prognosticators are not that much better than the Cleveland crew (although the southern forecasters don’t have the Lake Erie weather machine to deal with). So we kept an eye on the weather and it continued to track nicely as we moved toward the weekend. Well, Saturday was looking ideal for the zoo and getting better as we got closer to the trip but Sunday was likely to be wet but that was not an issue as we would be inside at the museum.
Our starting plan was to drive down Friday late afternoon/early evening and grab dinner near the hotel. Saturday we will dedicate to the zoo then dinner at one of the local breweries while on Sunday we will take in the Egyptian exhibit then drive home during the afternoon so that we home in time for evening chores. We added more detail as we got closer to the trip and as is always the case we tweaked the plan as those details fell into place. We also tried to keep this trip as simple as possible, so we decided to leave the bridge cameras at home and just carry the pocket devices (Canon SX710 HS and my phone). Those both take nice photos and we won't be needed the long zoom. Besides we were not expecting to take a lot of photos.
I studied the local beer options of which there were plenty, but not all served food. Of course we ruled out the big beer places along with Boston Brewing and Rhinegeist (we know their beer already). Moerlien Lager House looks like a winner with several interesting beers and a killer dinner menu. That should work for Saturday night. I also found a southwest place, Cactus Pear, which looked really good. The downside was no beer, well at least nothing local just the mass produced Mexican lagers but there is always a margarita for a change of pace. Maybe that for Friday evening. I also looked to see if there were any craft beer sales at the zoo since this something that we are finding to be more commonplace. I could not find a definitive answer on the beer, but my guess is yes based on the food offerings. I reckon we’ll just have to see how that plays out in real time.
On Monday the 8th we made the decision to go forward with the little excursion. The only piece of the puzzle that we had to lock-in was the cat sitter. Lynn made that call and Nicole confirmed on Tuesday that she was available for the weekend. OK, now we can lock in lodging. I had scoped out the Hampton Inn near the zoo but when I went to the website to make a reservation they were sold out for the weekend. That’s not good. The next closest place was available but more pricey and without “free” breakfast. I looked a little further afield and got a nice deal at the Springhill Suites Midtown. Still just a short drive to the zoo and very convenient to downtown so it should work out nicely (I stay at a Springhill Suites for my business trips to Reston, VA, and like their operation). We decided that there was no need for dinner reservations at this point nor would we buy advance tickets for the zoo or museum (the museum on-line ticket sales showed the number of tickets still available for each entry time for the Egyptian exhibit, 70 total for each time slot; all of the time-slots were in the 65-70 tickets available range so this will not be an issue and gives us a little more flexibility on the timing). Our final tweak to the plan was that we opted to just eat dinner at home on Friday before hitting the road rather than on the way down. We figured we could save Cactus Pear for lunch on Sunday after the museum.
On Thursday, I discussed the weekend plan with Erin, one of my bright, young engineers, as she is from Cincinnati and asked if she had any suggestions for things to see and do as well as dining options, just in case we had time to fit in anything else around our main attractions. She checked in with her sister who still lives in the area and come up with the following suggestions:
- If it's nice out, there's a nice walkway down along the river downtown.
- Newport Aquarium is really good, but pricey.
- If you like ribs, the best ribs ever are at Montgomery Inn, there are a few locations around town but the main one is on the river on a boathouse.
- My sister recommends Moerlein and Woodburn for breweries.
- American Sign Museum is unique.
- There is an art museum is next to Eden Park which is nice.
Day 1, Friday, April 12 – Heading Southwest. Seems like southwest is the dominant direction when we travel. Usually, the distance is a bit longer. Nope, not the desert southwest this time, just southwest Ohio. Sort of kitty-corner across the state for us instead of nearly across the country. But still south and west, so at least a little warmer than here on the north coast.
This was a work day for Lynn and me, although I was telecommuting since I had no onsite commitments today and we had to run one of the cats to and from the vet (it’s always something with our furry herd, but nothing series today). Once Lynn was back home, we finished off some leftovers for dinner, loaded the Edge, set our destination in Baby and were pulling out of the driveway right at 6:25 PM. Actually pretty much on schedule. I had fueled up the Edge as one of my errands earlier in the day, so we had plenty of range to get to Cincinnati. We had an easy drive this evening. Baby did have to do a little rerouting around Columbus due to issues on I-71 through and south of the city, so we lost a little time but we were still at the hotel by 10:00 PM. Interesting that we were on route 42 a couple of times during the drive, first just getting from home to I-71 then due to the detours. I checked that once we got into our room. Turns out that route 42 parallels I-71 from Cleveland to Cincinnati, but takes about twice the time as the old way runs through so many towns. But Baby was right on target and took us directly to the Springhill Suites Midtown.
In addition to the route 42 trivia, I checked a couple other items once we were settled in the room. First I tried to make a reservation at Moerlein Lager House for dinner on Saturday but the website was showing no availability. I guess that’s possible, but unlikely. I’ll have to check again tomorrow. But I did do a little more research on local beer and food options, just to be on the safe side (there are several local breweries but most don’t have much in the way of food). We caught the weather on the local news. Should be beautiful tomorrow, but Sunday sounds like Alderaan the day the Death Star arrived. We’ll figure it out.
Day 2, Saturday, April 13 – Zoo Day. We were up at 0600, maybe a little later. We hit the breakfast bar (good stuff, although the oatmeal was on the thin side) then cleaned up for the day. I looked for some alternative dining options but also checked Moerlein Lager House reservations again and it is now working and grabbed 7 PM slot. I also reviewed options for things to do once we were done with the zoo and came up with some good options based on Erin’s input and searching the web. OK, we are good to go.
Chilly start to the day, but looks like a nice day in the making. I opted for just a tee-shirt, figuring it would warm up. “Save the Chubby Unicorns” was my wardrobe choice for the day. Very appropriate for the zoo. Mostly blue skies greeted as we drove to the zoo, but only in the low 50s F for the start of our adventure, but it warmed up quickly, reaching to around 70 F by the time we finished. Ideal.
Baby was again right on target and got us to the zoo parking lot just before 10:00 AM. We were shocked at how packed the lot was. There were already a lot of folks here. Well, it is a nice day, so understandable. But that made for a bit of a line at the ticket booth so it was right at 10:30 by the time we were walking into the zoo. But that was the last long wait we had for the day (even the lines for lunch were only a handful of folks deep).
This is a great zoo. And the bonus was the botanical garden. I think we were both expecting these two venues to be adjacent to each other but instead they are integrated; when you enter the zoo, you enter the botanical gardens. No, wait, that’s not quite right. It seems that you are in botanical gardens already as you walk toward the entrance as there were wonderfully colorful beds of tulips surrounding us. It is a combination of critters and plants from that moment on as we toured around the grounds.
Chilly start to the day, but looks like a nice day in the making. I opted for just a tee-shirt, figuring it would warm up. “Save the Chubby Unicorns” was my wardrobe choice for the day. Very appropriate for the zoo. Mostly blue skies greeted as we drove to the zoo, but only in the low 50s F for the start of our adventure, but it warmed up quickly, reaching to around 70 F by the time we finished. Ideal.
Baby was again right on target and got us to the zoo parking lot just before 10:00 AM. We were shocked at how packed the lot was. There were already a lot of folks here. Well, it is a nice day, so understandable. But that made for a bit of a line at the ticket booth so it was right at 10:30 by the time we were walking into the zoo. But that was the last long wait we had for the day (even the lines for lunch were only a handful of folks deep).
This is a great zoo. And the bonus was the botanical garden. I think we were both expecting these two venues to be adjacent to each other but instead they are integrated; when you enter the zoo, you enter the botanical gardens. No, wait, that’s not quite right. It seems that you are in botanical gardens already as you walk toward the entrance as there were wonderfully colorful beds of tulips surrounding us. It is a combination of critters and plants from that moment on as we toured around the grounds.
Lynn had the map and picked a direction. The Main path through the zoo is sort of a lumpy oval with plenty of side trails to check out the various exhibits. Lynn pointed left, so we’re going our normal clockwise route. We were still oohing and ahhing at the tulips and we walked to the reptile house. Here’s the highlights and things that we learned today:
- Many comments on Chubby Unicorns. The first was before we even saw our first critter. We passed by a young family and the mom said she like my shirt then wanted to point it out to her little girl. I stopped a turned around so that the youngster could see and Mom asked her what was on the shirt. The little girl was probably only four or five but she knew it was rhinoceros. Cute and smart! By the end of the day we had tallied a dozen or so “Nice shirt” or similar comments about Saving the Chubby Unicorns.
- Once inside the reptile house we were very impressed by the exhibits. They were nice sized and appeared to be nice homes for the snakes and lizards. But they were also well decorated and really looked like places out in the wild or even not so wild. One of the desert scenes was set up to look like an abandoned railroad was running through the enclosure. Little things, but important details.
- Cat Canyon was one of my favorite areas of the zoo and within that area I really enjoyed the Night Hunters exhibit. This was a collection of nocturnal predators, including several little cats. I man tiny. Smaller than a small house cat. But they were active so that we saw most of them moving about. They was also particularly cute, especially the Black-footed Cat and the Sand Cat. The latter was sleeping on top of a rocky wall and looked just like a domestic kitten. Deceiving as this is a wild cat.
- This is a sad story, the demise of the Passenger Pigeon. One of the headers in the Passenger Pigeon Memorial building read “From Billions to None.” This was a bird that was estimated to number in the billions and flocks were seen that tallied well over a million birds. But it is now extinct due to extensive commercial harvesting, sport hunting and loss of habitat. The signage stated that firearms alone were not capable of destroying the species; traps, nets, poison gas and chopping down trees to get at nests could eliminate hundreds or thousands of birds at a time. The new technology of the time was also brought to bear as the telegraph was used to inform hunters where the roosting and nesting colonies were in real time and the expanded railway system enabled the shipping of tons of pigeons at a time to faraway cities. By 1870, the pigeon population was plummeting. By the time we realized the passenger pigeon was in real trouble, it was too late. The last known wild pigeon was killed in Ohio in 1900. Before long just a single captive flock existed at the Cincinnati Zoo. Sol Stephen, General Manager of the Zoo at that time, recognized that getting his birds to breed would be the passenger pigeon’s last hope for survival. Despite his legendary success with animal breeding, the Zoo’s flock was unable to produce any new birds. By 1910, a lone female named Martha remained. A reward of $1,000 was offered to anyone who could supply a mate for Martha but none was found. When Martha passed away on September 1, 1914, is was the first documented extinction of a species at the hand of man. Her body was frozen in a 300-pound block of ice and shipped to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
- We walked the loop through the Rhino Reserve. Hey, there’s the real chubby unicorns. Except they have two horns. Chubby Bicorns? Dualcorns?
- Nice enclosures here for the Okapi, Bongo and Zebra. Lynn commented that we were looking at Plains Zebras. My response: “Plain? Those are striped zebras! Can’t you see?”
- Prosperity, the White African Lion was one of Siegfried and Roy’s animals and is the official mascot of the United States Senate.
- For lunch we stopped at The Grove which is a collection of food trucks and trailers, one each featuring fried chicken, tacos and burgers. Of course we went with the taco truck, Taco Caja, but the interesting beer was at The Coop (the fried chicken place). They had an IPA from Taft’s Brewing, a Cincinnati brewery, called Gavel Banger. Quite good. Nice aroma and great taste. It has a bite but not harsh. We gave it a 4.0 on untappd, but probably could have gone a little higher. And we had a second beer. The tacos were also excellent. The Zoo security folks were in line with us at the taco truck so it must have been the best choice. Shoot, lunch was worth a return trip to the zoo!
- While enjoying lunch I was doing a little people watching. Lynn commented that she was surprised about how many comments I was getting on my Chubby Unicorn shirt as she does not read shirts. I was shocked. How else can you learn about the important lessons in life, not to mention an occasional good chuckle? Shoot, the sayings on tee-shirts are often the best part of people-watching. I spotted a fun one while we were having lunch, an image of an ancient, relatively speaking, cell phone with the caption “Cellphoneasaurus.” Clever.
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We were finished at the zoo at 4:30, walking out the front gate (after the customary stop at the gift store) and heading to the parking lot. We were back at the hotel at 4:50. Well, that ended up being a full day at the zoo. Even if we hadn’t had a relaxed lunch with a second beer we would not have had time for another tour stop today. I reckon the sign museum and the aquarium will have to wait for a return trip. But this ended up being an excellent zoo with plenty to see. Well worth the investment of a full day. The tulips were a major bonus!
We cleaned up and chilled in the room until about 6:15 when we hopped an Uber. Our driver, Jay, got us downtown in no time (no ballgame so no traffic). He dropped us right outside Moerlien Lager House at 6:30. Since we had some time to kill we walked down to the river to take in the view. We were just upstream of the Roebling Suspension Bridge. Lots of folks out enjoying the spring weather, including many kids in formal wear. Seemed early for prom. I reckon this is the spot for photos. Nice area, so another place to check out in more detail for a future visit. We took a short walk down toward the bridge then back to restaurant for a beer before dinner. Flight of IPAs with one pale ale. The DIPA was the best of the lot but none were great. Good beers but not outstanding.
We scored a great corner table along the front glass wall with views of the river and the ballpark. Lynn speculated that we got a better spot since we made a reservation. Whatever the reason it was nice to have the views and a great perch for people watching. And there was plenty of activity outside to watch. More prom kids, a Segway tour, bikers, skateboarders and folks just out for a stroll. I nice place to end a very good day. And we haven’t even gotten to dinner.
We scored a great corner table along the front glass wall with views of the river and the ballpark. Lynn speculated that we got a better spot since we made a reservation. Whatever the reason it was nice to have the views and a great perch for people watching. And there was plenty of activity outside to watch. More prom kids, a Segway tour, bikers, skateboarders and folks just out for a stroll. I nice place to end a very good day. And we haven’t even gotten to dinner.
The short story is that the food was excellent! We had another round of beers with dinner. Lynn had the FC Cincinnati Blood Orange IPA which was sort of disappointing. I tried the Bay of Bengal DIPA; better but still not great. The Gravel Banger from the zoo was the best beer of the trip. The food we ordered was the highlight. We started with the fried pickles and Anaheim peppers. Pretty darn good. Lynn had the filet mignon which she enjoyed. I had the salmon Oscar with a side of the “angry mac and cheese.” I had scoped out the menu on line earlier in the week and noted the mac and cheese; right up my alley. I had to Google “hot mett” as I had never heard of that. Sausage of some sort; must be a Cincinnati thing. But it was tasty! A bit of a splurge for dinner, but you can’t be good all the time. Good thing we walked all day!
Uber back to the hotel with Janice. She was a hoot! She entertained us with stories of the college kids and their antics of going to the bars late. She thought it was odd how the kids refused to wear a coat when going to the clubs even though it would be freezing. Kids, they’re indestructible. But we’re not. It’s been a long day and we are now well fed. We crashed very soon after getting back in the room.
Zoo day photo gallery.
Day 3, Sunday, April 14 – Egyptian Exhibit. No rush this morning. Sort of a dreary, rainy start for the day. As usual, I was up ahead of Lynn and spent a little time surfing the internet, catching up on email and making a few trip notes. Bummer, the southwest joint I had found as a lunch option does not open until 5 PM today. No worries, we will adapt. We took our time getting ready then headed down for breakfast at 0800. Lots of soccer kids in the breakfast area. There is obviously a girls tourney happening somewhere in the area. Lynn put 2-and-2 together as to why the Hampton Inn was booked. No worries there as the Springhill Suites was perfect for us. Yeah, the oatmeal was a little thin, but otherwise all was good. Nice hotel, plenty of space in the room, good location. I would stay here again.
We got packed and ready to go. We were on the road a little before 10:00 AM. It was along about a 10 minute drive from the hotel to Union Terminal, even with the slight detour we made due to a missed exit. Hey, no worries, just more of Cincinnati that we got to see. We pulled in the parking lot for the Cincinnati Museum Center at a couple minutes past 10:00 and walked up to the impressive terminal building. Once inside we were awestruck the cavernous terminal, the massive mosaic tile murals that wrapped around the curved walls of the rotunda. During the course of the day and through some post-trip research I found out that the terminal building was completed in 1933 and that the rotunda's interior dome spans 180 feet, with a height of 106 feet. Quite impressive. This was clearly a masterpiece of the Art Deco period. The station was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers and 216 trains a day. Passenger train service halted in 1972 but resumed in 1991 when Amtrak started operating from the terminal.
Uber back to the hotel with Janice. She was a hoot! She entertained us with stories of the college kids and their antics of going to the bars late. She thought it was odd how the kids refused to wear a coat when going to the clubs even though it would be freezing. Kids, they’re indestructible. But we’re not. It’s been a long day and we are now well fed. We crashed very soon after getting back in the room.
Zoo day photo gallery.
Day 3, Sunday, April 14 – Egyptian Exhibit. No rush this morning. Sort of a dreary, rainy start for the day. As usual, I was up ahead of Lynn and spent a little time surfing the internet, catching up on email and making a few trip notes. Bummer, the southwest joint I had found as a lunch option does not open until 5 PM today. No worries, we will adapt. We took our time getting ready then headed down for breakfast at 0800. Lots of soccer kids in the breakfast area. There is obviously a girls tourney happening somewhere in the area. Lynn put 2-and-2 together as to why the Hampton Inn was booked. No worries there as the Springhill Suites was perfect for us. Yeah, the oatmeal was a little thin, but otherwise all was good. Nice hotel, plenty of space in the room, good location. I would stay here again.
We got packed and ready to go. We were on the road a little before 10:00 AM. It was along about a 10 minute drive from the hotel to Union Terminal, even with the slight detour we made due to a missed exit. Hey, no worries, just more of Cincinnati that we got to see. We pulled in the parking lot for the Cincinnati Museum Center at a couple minutes past 10:00 and walked up to the impressive terminal building. Once inside we were awestruck the cavernous terminal, the massive mosaic tile murals that wrapped around the curved walls of the rotunda. During the course of the day and through some post-trip research I found out that the terminal building was completed in 1933 and that the rotunda's interior dome spans 180 feet, with a height of 106 feet. Quite impressive. This was clearly a masterpiece of the Art Deco period. The station was designed to accommodate 17,000 passengers and 216 trains a day. Passenger train service halted in 1972 but resumed in 1991 when Amtrak started operating from the terminal.
Unlike the zoo yesterday, there were no long lines for admittance for the Museum this morning. Maybe the threatening weather was keeping folks away, although at present the rain had stopped and the skies were not that ominous. We quickly had our tickets for the 10:30 entry into the Egyptian exhibit, plus some additional details on touring the rest of the museum. We made a quick tour of the main floor rotunda area to get the lay of the land then took the elevator down to the lower level for the start of the Egyptian exhibit.
There were maybe a dozen of us total waiting for the 10:30 entry. Once inside and through with the introductory film from the staff folks we were released into the exhibit. I’m glad that we had a small group as we were sort of crowed around the displays in the initial room of the exhibit, but it soon thinned out such that we were not interfering with each other (well, not too much anyway). The staff person indicated that the exhibit would require about 90 minutes to 2 hours to tour. Well, we are in no hurry and have no schedule and since it is not that crowded I reckon we’ll just work through at whatever pace we set.
The exhibit was very interesting and I think provide good insight to the life of the ancient Egyptians. I remembered a lot of the information in the exhibit from the Great Courses lectures Lynn had purchases a few years ago (I watched the series a couple winters back while trudging away on the treadmill). There was a nice variety to the artifacts and information presented, ranging from the daily life of the population, their religion and focus on the afterlife and of course the Pharaohs. I thought it was a well-balanced exhibit in that respect as there seemed to be something from most aspects of this ancient culture and civilization. Of course there appeared to be a fascination on the part of the ancient Egyptians with death and the afterlife; there time on Earth seemed focused on preparing for the next step of their overall journey. Here are some of the points I noted:
There were maybe a dozen of us total waiting for the 10:30 entry. Once inside and through with the introductory film from the staff folks we were released into the exhibit. I’m glad that we had a small group as we were sort of crowed around the displays in the initial room of the exhibit, but it soon thinned out such that we were not interfering with each other (well, not too much anyway). The staff person indicated that the exhibit would require about 90 minutes to 2 hours to tour. Well, we are in no hurry and have no schedule and since it is not that crowded I reckon we’ll just work through at whatever pace we set.
The exhibit was very interesting and I think provide good insight to the life of the ancient Egyptians. I remembered a lot of the information in the exhibit from the Great Courses lectures Lynn had purchases a few years ago (I watched the series a couple winters back while trudging away on the treadmill). There was a nice variety to the artifacts and information presented, ranging from the daily life of the population, their religion and focus on the afterlife and of course the Pharaohs. I thought it was a well-balanced exhibit in that respect as there seemed to be something from most aspects of this ancient culture and civilization. Of course there appeared to be a fascination on the part of the ancient Egyptians with death and the afterlife; there time on Earth seemed focused on preparing for the next step of their overall journey. Here are some of the points I noted:
- The first displays of the exhibit focused on the importance of the Nile, the river that brought life to the civilization of Egypt.
- The written language of the ancient Egyptians is fascinating and beautiful; works of art really. There was a section of the exhibit that delved into this subject: “Divine Inspiration – Toth, the god of wisdom, invest hieroglyphics. And, by late in the fourth millennium, Egyptian scribes have mastered this writing system. This language of “sacred sign” takes hold and the number of characters grows steadily. By the Ptolemaic dynasty there are about 7,000 hieroglyphs. We expect these characters to by symbolic – and logograms are. But others-phonograms-simply represent sounds as our own alphabet does. Many hieroglyphs appear the same but have different meanings. The determinatives that follow then indicate whether they should be interpreted as symbol or sound. Each hieroglyph is like a work of art, painstakingly carved in stone or painted on a wall. A quicker cursive script called “hieratic” is linked onto papyrus or small pieces of stone for daily record keeping. Hieroglyphics can be written right to left, left to right to top to bottom. Sometimes the writing changes direction within a single text, determined by the scribe’s aesthetic vision. Your clue lies in the human and animal characters. What direction do they face? If they look to the left, start reading from that side.”
- “How do we know so much about a language that’s been dead for one-and-a-half millennium? We have the Rosetta Stone to thank. The Rosetta Stone features two languages – Egyptian and ancient Greek – in three scripts: hieroglyphics, demotic and ancient Greek. Named for the Egyptian port town where it was discovered in 1799, the Rosetta Stone bears an order Ptolemalos (Ptolemy) V, written in 196BC. He commands that his message be inscribed in stone, in all three writing systems so priests, officials and Greek rulers will all understand it.”
- Of course there was a sizable part of the exhibit dedicated to the Pharaoh. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between the gods and the people. There were specific insignia that were associated with the pharaoh. “Uraeus is the work for a rising cobra. Among other things, she embodies Wadjet, goddess of Lower Egypt. The serpent is a complex symbol in ancient Egypt. IT can be considered protective because of its aggressive self-defense or regenerative for its molting. But it is also destructive to the point of deadly. The royal beard, braided and tied around the chin, is characteristic of a living pharaoh. It is straight and gets wider at the bottom, unlike the beard of a deceased pharaoh, which tapers downwards and rolls forward slightly. Both beard shaped can also be worn by gods. The king’s kilt belongs to the royal regalia and has its origin in the Old Kingdom. The belt is fixed by a clasp, usually inscribed with the pharaoh’s name. At the back, the bull tail identifies the wearer as a ‘strong bull’ who provided prosperity and fertility for his people. The crook (heqat) and flail (nekhakha) are the most important symbols of the pharaoh’s divine power to protect and punish. The crook, as a hieroglyph, means ‘ruling’ portraying the royal as protective shepherd of his subjects. But he is also equipped with the flail, so he can rule with discipline.”
- The ancient Egyptian civilization dates back about 5,000 years and spanned over 2,000. It was divided in to three periods (Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom) which were separated by transitional periods, called Intermediate Periods. There were multiple dynasties that ruled over Egypt during these centuries with scores of pharaohs.
- One room of the exhibit highlighted four of the pharaohs: Khufu, Akhenaten, Ramesses II, and Hatshepsut. More details from the displays are listed below.
- Builder on a Grand Scale – The most famous Old Kingdom ruler is Khufu, known for his colossal tomb monument. The Great Pyramid of Giza is immense, about 44 stores high. Ironically, although he builds the greatest pyramid of Egypt, the only known image of Khufu himself is a small ivory figure from Abydos. Khufu is son of King Snerfu, whose own three pyramids at Meidum and Dahshur establish the shape that will become iconic. Married to at least two women, he fathers more than ten children and reigns for 25 to 30 years. Some later sources consider him a tyrant but, contrary to common belief, no slave labor is used to build his incredible monument.
- The Rebel Pharaoh – Akhenaten is born Amenhotep IV, a name that means “Amun is satisfied”, Son of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, he becomes a rebel with radical ideas directed against the mightly priesthood of Amun. He tries to establish a monotheistic religion focued on the son god Aten (the solar disc aspect of Ra, representing daylight and his celestial body). The priests are not convinced; they find the concept of just one god outrageous. So the pharaoh leaves Thebes, changes his name to Akhenaten (Beneficial for Aten) and builds a new capital at Amarna. The new city’s written name is Akhet-Aten, meaning “Horizon of Aten”. Here Akhenaten builds massive temples palaces, gardens and residential quarters, in short time the east bank of the Nile becomes home to 50,000 people. But the ruler is too self-centered. He neglects his allies and developments outside Egypt. When he dies, the Egyptians consider his religious doctrine a failure and they return to their traditional practice of worshiping many gods.
- The Great One – During his rule of 67 years, Ramesses II becomes history’s best-known pharaoh. He leads Egypt to world power again after the Akenaten interlude. He ends the war with the Hitities, making the world’s first recorded peace treaty and sealing it through a royal marriage. His is a dynasty in every sense of the work. Ramesses II has seven official consorts, many secondary wives, 40 daughters and at least 45 sons. During 50 years of peace and prosperity, Ramesses II builds extensively. At his death at the age of 90, he leaves a legacy in stone. This includes the Ramesseum, his own temple; the new capital city of Pi-Ramesse; the temple of Abu Simbel; and many expansions to the great complex of Amun in Karnak.
- The Divine Consort – When Thutmoses II dies, his wife Hatshepsut takes the throne as co-ruler with her stepson, who is too young to rule. But after a few years Hatshepsut assumes the full power of pharaoh, a role that is rare for her gender at the time. She becomes the highest priestess and the most powerful woman in the state, with the title “Divine Consort of Amun”. During a peaceful reign of 22 years she has several temples built, including her own impressive funerary shrine in Deir el-Bahari. It tells the story of her divine birth and rise in status , the recognition from gods and admiration from subjects. The temple also celebrates her expeditions to Punt, legendary land if incense, in south Nubia. After her death, her stepson Thutmoses III takes the throne.
- Work – Life - Death Balance. This was an interesting spin on today’s “work-life balance” mantra. But it is surely on target for the ancient Egyptians as so much of their time was spent planning and preparing for the life after death.
- One section of the exhibit looked at, well, The Look of the Egyptians and their devotion to beauty and aesthetics. “Beauty (neferu) in ancient Egypt aims for perfection – in this life and the afterlife. Feasts and festivals – highlights of the Egyptian calendar – are prominent occasions for dressing up. These events take place in the temple complexes, in the ports, on the Nile’s west bank and on the river itself. An elaborate example is the Sed Festival, celebrating a pharaoh’s jubilee (a multi-year anniversary of their reign).” Here are some more details on the attention paid to looking good in ancient Egypt:
- Big Hair is a Big Deal – Wigs are popular, made of human hair or palm fibers dipped in beeswax. Big hair is a sign of youth and health. Priests, however, shave their heads – sometimes their entire bodies. Temple rituals require purity and cleanliness.
- Since most women spend their days at home, their complexion typically appears fairly light. Men who work outdoors are portrayed with darker skin. Both sexes use black liner to accentuate their eyes and brows, and women apply blush makde from henna. Make-up is made by blending mineral powder with animal fat then storing it in decorative jars. Fragrance oils and ointments are worn on top of the head, ensuring that Egyptians smell of rose, mush or myrrh instead of unpleasant body odors.
- The ancient Egyptians love jewelry so much that they take it to their graves. Both men and women wear bracelets, collars and rings that range from simple to magnificent. Their hair is dressed with tiaras and crowns made of flowers ad ribbons. Charms, idols and Udjat eyes aren’t just adornment – they possess magical powers.
- Jewelry-making requires precision. Ancient craftsmen work with precious materials: amethyst, carnelian, turquoise, lapis lazuli, golf, silver, bone and ivory. Egyptians also create faience (a quartz ceramic) and beads of precious glass, used only for the elite.
- Gravesites reveal razor blades, curling tongs, tweezers and mirrors made of polished metal. The ideal of beauty is supported by elaborate jewelry, clothing, grooming and makeup. Singers, dancers and musicians wear long diaphanous robes. It is rare for a dignitary to be obese, and woman are always depicted as being slim. Love songs of the Ramesside Period wax poetic about a woman’s tight waist, shining skin and ‘fingers like lotus flowers’.”
- The final couple of rooms of the exhibit focused on the afterlife beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. One of the tag lines was “Death is just a Phase” which reminded me of the line from the 1999 Brenden Fraser and Rachel Weisz version of The Mummy from Imhotep, “Death is only the beginning.” The display had this to say about the beliefs of ancient Egypt: “Like many cultures, people in ancient Egypt hope that life eternal follows death and that their burial practices keep them safe for the hereafter. Stone structures and pyramids protect the early tombs of the pharaohs. Later they are carved into the rock of the Valley of the Kings. After entombment, no living person is allowed access.”
- "A shabti is a small servant figurine that accompanies the dead to the grave and works on the dead’s behalf in the hereafter. The name means “responder,” since the shabti responds to a call to work. In the New Kingdom, a shabti is needed for every day of the year, and kept in a special shabti box."
- The final display of the exhibit was a merger of today’s technology and how it is used to study the artifacts from the distant past. The display was projecting the layers of a CT scan of a mummy, I forget who it was listed to be other than it was a women and she had many layers of wrapping on her mummified body.
There was a very nice collection of dinosaur artifacts including several full skeletons of these massive creatures; the ginormous, long-necked herbivores and the sleek form of the big carnivores. I remember these guys. They were my first idea in terms of what I wanted to be when I grew up.
After the Natural History Museum, we looked at the dining options in the CMC. Well, actually I was looking at the beer options. But there was really nothing of interest; the only IPA or pale ale that I spotted was the Great Lakes Burning River (a very good beer, but I can get that at home). We decided just to finish our then tour and get on the road. Our last stop at the CMC was the Cincinnati History Museum. I guess the centerpiece of this exhibit was the diorama of the city, complete with operating trains. Very nicely done. There were a handful of interesting automobiles on display along with street car used in Cincinnati.
- Crosley Super Hotshot, 1950 – Entrepreneur Powel Crosley, Jr. aimed to capitalize on the post-war car boom by producing affordable and efficient compact cars. However, with gas costing only 22 cents a gallon, most Americans were not concerned with gas mileage. Many favored large, powerful cars built for the highway. By 1932, Crosley car production ceased.
- Depot Hack, 1925 – In an age of steamer trunks, travelers needed a way of moving their belongings to their lodging after a long journey. The “Depot Hack” was effectively a station wagon. This modified Ford Model T had open seating and space to haul baggage from railroad stations to hotels. The word “Hack” in the car’s name comes from the English work “hackney,” which is an old-fashioned English slang term for an open-air cab or taxi.
- Chevrolet “National AB” Four-door Sedan, 1928 – The 1928 Chevrolet sedan rolled off the line at the Norwood General Motors plant. Chevrolet offered more body styles and colors than the Form Model “A” – and outsold it. The care sold for $635.0, the equivalent of $9,325 today, when accounting for inflation. The GM Assembly Division Pan in Norwood opened in 1923 and operated until 19887. During its 64 years in operation more than 8 million vehicles rolled off its assembly lines.
- Roebling Suspension Bridge – The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge is named for the civil engineer who designed it. The bridge measures 1,619 feet between the shore anchors and the original cables were made of one million pounds of wire. When it opened in 1866, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It help that record until 1883 when Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge opened.
We were on the road just a little after 1:00. I was expecting a wet ride home but conditions were quite nice with a blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. We stopped for gas once we were outside of the Cincinnati urban sprawl. We also grabbed a snack for the road rather than take time for lunch (dark chocolate covered pretzels for me; living large on this mini-vacation!). We were home at 4:50. Great weather all the way home so no issues there. Once we turned onto Columbia Road (so within 10 minutes from home) we spotted the dark sky to the south. Bad weather is coming. But no worries, we beat it. Just no walk on the CIT tonight. Shoot there were even Tornado warnings in the area this evening. We ended the weekend like we end so many of our trips with dinner at Lager Heads. We got that about 5:30, had a Feeling Tangerous hazy IPA and a salad and were home by about 6:15. The rain finally rolled through while we were having dinner but it was done by the time we were ready to go home. That worked out very well.
Final Thoughts. That was a fun little road trip. Both the zoo and the Cincinnati Museum Center were well worth making the drive across Ohio. While the beer was lackluster, the food at Moerlien Lager House was outstanding. Shoot the best beer of the trip was the Gavel Banger from Taft's Brewing that we tired at the zoo. Fortunately for the girls soccer tournament, the weather on Sunday ended up being quite pleasant. Hey, the Queen City has some interesting places to see. We still have a nice list of other sites to see in Cincy. I think there is plenty more to see and do to support at least another weekend excursion. We’ll just make sure to get to Cactus Pear when it is open.
Final Thoughts. That was a fun little road trip. Both the zoo and the Cincinnati Museum Center were well worth making the drive across Ohio. While the beer was lackluster, the food at Moerlien Lager House was outstanding. Shoot the best beer of the trip was the Gavel Banger from Taft's Brewing that we tired at the zoo. Fortunately for the girls soccer tournament, the weather on Sunday ended up being quite pleasant. Hey, the Queen City has some interesting places to see. We still have a nice list of other sites to see in Cincy. I think there is plenty more to see and do to support at least another weekend excursion. We’ll just make sure to get to Cactus Pear when it is open.