Louisville & Cincinnati 2022 [part two]

[For part one click here] [From travelogue email sent at 10:04 p.m.] Saturday, March 26: Cincinnati Just like we did with Indianapolis, with our day trip to Cincinnati, I ordered all of my intended points of interest from south to north, so we would be as close to already headed back south—or in this instance, southwest—toward Louisville by the time we were finished. This made even more sense with Cincinnati, as the final destinations were actually in Northern Kentucky suburbs, across the Ohio River from the city. In the case of Cincinnati, however, even the northernmost stop was just adjacent to Downtown to the north: Over-the-Rhine, billed as "one of the largest, most intact urban historic districts in the United States." It covers over 362 acres, dates back to an initial influx of German immigrants in the 1840s, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, and after decades of dereliction and poverty, has been the more recent subject of revitalization and gentrification. The neighborhood's name is a reference to the Miami and Erie Canal that once connected Lake Erie to the Ohio River, once called the "Rhine of Ohio" but officially abandoned in 1913 after a historic flood finished the job of its steady decline in the latter half of the 19th century due to the advent of railroads lessening the use of a water route. I rather wish I had known this last weekend, but I literally only learned while doing the bit of research needed for this very paragraph that an attempt was made in the 1920s to convert the bed of the canal into a Downtown subway, the lack of funds for which prevented completion. The remnants of it that exist today comprise the nation's largest abandoned subway. Anyway, all of that is just a brief overview of what is clearly a rich history of this neighborhood, which I put on my list mostly because it tended to be included in any "Cincinnati In One Day" web pages I found in preparation for visiting. I found a place to park the rental car—surprisingly easily finding street parking—and almost immediately noticed the city's wonderful public art. This giant mural of a little girl wound up making one of my very favorite photos I got the entire weekend, which I took while we walked to the more specific destination we were headed for inside of Over-the-Rhine:

Findlay Market, which is located roughly a mile north of Downtown, is Cincinnati's equivalent to Seattle's Pike Place Market. In fact, it is notably older, being the "oldest continuously operated public market" in the entire state of Ohio, founded in 1852 (Pike Place opened in 1907). In the above photo, you can see Barbara at lower right (long gray hair), headed toward the north entrance. Beyond the two huge words that make up the FINDLAY MARKET sign, and the buildings to which they are affixed, is a long, narrow strip of market shops running perpendicular, which we walked from one end to the other through—the crowds in there actually kind of nuts. I decided to spend $2 on a cookie (just throwing my cash into the local economy!) and settled on a chocolate chip cookie so thick and soft and delicious I now regret never having taken a picture of it.

Barbara and I looked on a map posted just outside Findlay Market of the entire Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, and decided we would walk the half a mile or so to what was labeled as Washington Park, which, aside from giving the slight impression of New York's Central Park with its near-ish views of downtown high-rises, as a park, was just . . . fine. But, my favorite thing I saw there, standing across the street to the west, was this huge, beautiful building. Upon closer inspection we discovered it to be the Cincinnati Music Hall, built in 1878.

Once we reached the Cincinnati Music Hall and decided to walk back the way we came, probably missing a lot of interesting stuff in the neighborhood we just didn't realize was around or close by, we began losing interest in the area and decided to move on to the next thing on my planned list. But then, the next place we went to wasn't on my list at all—because when we reached the car, we noticed houses high on a large hill behind us, and we both commented on what great views of the city they must have. I figured there must be a way to get up there and see said view, and when I opened up my Maps app, I found a park called Bellevue Hill Park, which I then looked up and found photos of city views! Once again, bizarrely, this park was labeled on the online map as "permanently closed," but we decided to drive up there to see what we could see anyway. GPS guided me as always, and when we got there, the entrance was totally unobscured, and we weren't even the only other people up there just to take in the view. I got several great pictures, including some taken through the pair of binoculars I was eternally grateful I'd had the wherewithal to pack for this trip.

This photo represents the next two destinations combined: first, Fountain Square, a literal public square in Downtown that is Cincinnati's equivalent to Indianapolis's Monument Square, just with far less grandeur to it. (Indianapolis has its own Fountain Square, which is a neighborhood outside of Downtown—though it does also have its own literal fountain—whereas Fountain Square in Cincinnati is that city's primary public gathering space.) The centerpiece fountain, Tyler Davidson Fountain, was built in 1871, and its water motif is in homage to the Ohio River. And second, much more prominently seen in the above photo even though it's technically in the background, is Carew Tower, the 49-story, 574-foot, art deco (a style I love) skyscraper that was Cincinnati's tallest building for an incredibly long time—from its completion in 1930 until the construction of the Great American Tower in 2010, which actually has a lower roof at 495 feet but is topped with a "crown" that takes its official height to 665 feet (cheaters!—I mean, at least this isn't just a spindly spire). Carew Tower has an observation deck on its top floor, which, again, was listed online as "temporarily closed." After the delightful surprise of the Soldiers & Sailors Monument observation deck in Indianapolis the day before, I dared to get my hopes up, and told Barbara I wanted to go and see if it was actually open, and if it was, I wanted to go up. Barbara, who had chosen to wear her winter boots that are apparently one size too large due to the forecast of quite cold weather—the high in Cincinnati on Saturday was all of 40°F, and there were actually occasional light snow flurries there that day—had already noted that the boots were giving her blisters, after that mile walk in Over-the-Rhine. So, she said she would just stay in the car, after I found a place to park closer to Carew Tower and I went inside on my own to check it out. Predictably, the observation deck was "closed until further notice." I still very much enjoyed spending a few minutes wandering around the bottom two floors of the building, checking out its art deco design, and noting that all but one of the many shops in there were closed. The one exception was a Cincinnati souvenir shop on the second floor with about three shoppers in it.

I decided to make our last stop in Ohio proper—but not in Greater Cincinnati—our lunch stop, another place I had found when looking up local restaurants with city views. I found this clearly very local tavern called, appropriately enough, City View Tavern. Their website no longer works because it still requires Flash, but Yelp works just as well; in fact that was where I discovered that their menu includes a full page of meat free choices. That said, our experience there started off a little dicey. We walked in, found the space to be surprisingly quite small, and still very empty: one group of friends just nearing the end of their time having drinks at the bar; the man only later made clear to be the cook sitting at the end of the bar nearest the kitchen; and one woman bartender, who chatted with the patrons for several minutes, walking back and forth to and from the kitchen to get ice twice, never once even looking in Barbara's and my direction. We were beginning to think she was deliberately ignoring us and starting to discuss whether we should just leave and find another place—something we had already had to do in Louisville my first night there on Thursday, when we went to a pizza place near my hotel, and stood for probably ten minutes by the "Please Wait to be Seated" sign without a single sign of an employee, either at the host podium or even attending any of the other diners. But, then the lady finally addressed us, and took our orders, and told us it would take 15 to 20 minutes. That was when the guy got up from his seat at the bar and went into the kitchen. I had a veggie burger that was . . . fine. Barbara, though not a vegetarian so this kind of surprised me, ordered a vegetarian Reuben, which impressed her so much it turned her negative first impression of the place right around. I was just happy to get the best view yet of the city.
"Northern Kentucky" We got back into the car, and then headed for the bridge back across the Ohio River—as the next destination I had in mind, I wanted to access from that side. in the suburb of Newport, Kentucky. And, while I was searching for that next destination, which my phone's map GPS clearly did not have positioned correctly, we happened upon this very cool, huge bell. (For scale, note that Barbara can be seen in the above photo, standing inside the metal structure, at lower left.) I only discovered when researching for tags I put on my photos on Flickr that it's a 12-foot by 12-foot "World Peace Bell," billed as "the world's largest free swinging bell."

Then, what turned out to be my favorite thing from the day in Cincinnati: the Purple People Bridge, a half-mile pedestrian bridge that spans the Ohio River between Newport, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. Side note: am I crazy, or does this thing actually look blue? Anyway, it was first built as a railroad crossing in 1872, then was rebuilt, on its original but widened piers, in 1897. It was restored as a pedestrian bridge in 2003, with separate, self-contained crossings—one wide (seen clearly here), and one quite narrow, between the wider pedestrian space and further bridge superstructure elements on its eastern side.

I walked nearly to the Cincinnati side, far enough to turn around and walk back on the narrow path, getting a fun video clip along the way. Also: they sure seemed desperate to get people to rent their bridge for events. I passed several signs like the one shown here.

Barbara, for her part, once again remained in the car, not being up for taking another mile-long walk with blistering feet. She didn't seem to mind waiting, at least, while this time I really did kind of take my time—including, after getting back to the Newport side, walking a bit around "Newport On the Levee," a commercial complex I had found both in searches for "Cincinnati In One Day" as well as best views of Cincinnati. Seen here are reservable "igloos" at Kon-Tiki's Fire Lounge. But, the most interesting thing I encountered at Newport on the Levee was the stairs down to quite close to the southern banks of the Ohio River, where there were the crumbling remnants of what clearly had once been a road. What happened there? What river flood presumably caused that? I have tried my damnedest to figure that one out and have come up empty, aside from the Ohio River flood of 1937, but these pieces of concrete don't look old enough to have been a part of that.
Sunday, March 27: Louisville The last full day of the trip, Sunday, was reserved for Louisville itself—and the best candidate I found for a restaurant with a city view, Copper & Kings Rooftop Bar & Restaurant, where I made reservations for lunch at noon. Why their website doesn't prominently feature photos of this view, which is spectacular even from just the third floor, I'll never know. But! The entire complex structure, largely built of shipping containers and also housing a distillery for brandy, gin and absinthe, was something both Barbara and I found to be very cool—in spite of Barbara having been sober for the past 30 years. Hey, they have a full menu!

In fact, in spite of the menu's incredibly limited vegetarian options—which I already knew going in; I intended to make due for the sake of this view—both Barbara and I ordered the "Patatas Bravas," which was so delicious it turned out to be the best meal I had the entire trip. And, with the waitress's quite open stamp of approval in support of a drink she said was "so good," I also had the one warm cocktail they had available: "Happiness Is a Warm Toddy," made of American Brandy, Curaçao, Earl Grey concentrate, brown sugar, and lemon in hot water. It was notably tastier even than I expected. I also love this "portrait mode" shot I took of it, unfortunately only after I already drank half of it.

Then, the one place Barbara specifically asked me to take her: Falls of the Ohio State Park, in Clarksville, Indiana—again across the Ohio River, this time again across from Louisville. The city skyline can barely be seen in the distance in the above photo, beyond the bridge, and beyond Barbara walking along an actual pedestrian walkway down toward the riverbank, in the middle of a bunch of tree trunks from what, again, presumably were deposited there from some flood. I should have thought to ask an employee about this inside the Interpretive Center. It's just that we spent only a few minutes in there after we agreed we didn't see any need to pay the $9 fee to go inside and see all the exhibits. The park itself outside was interesting enough. Speaking of which, something I find rather interesting: the state line through Louisville is not in the center of the Ohio River, as you might expect. It actually runs along the northern side of the river, giving the river in its entirety to Kentucky—as well as, according to Google Maps at least, much of the land area of the park, which you might otherwise have assumed all of to be Clarksville, Indiana. Apparently this has to do with border decisions from colonial times—challenged by Indiana multiple times, but never changed.

Inside the Falls of the Ohio State Park Interpretive Center, there is a mammoth skeleton. (The park also includes fossil beds.) I have to give Barbara credit for this shot, as she was the one who, standing under it, discovered that from this angle it looked rather like a giant insect. There are no falls at Falls of the Ohio State Park, by the way. There used to be, in the eighteenth century, although apparently even then the "falls" were closer to rapids, which lowered the elevation of the Ohio River by 26 feet over two miles, most of which was later covered up by the McAlpine Locks and Dam, constructed in 1830. The Falls of the Ohio is also where Lewis and Clark met, and shook hands, in an apparent gesture seen as the start of their expedition.

After the Falls of the Ohio, Barbara had another favor to ask: if I would drive her out to the Home Depot, where she hoped to find some fasteners for bolts to a table she needed to finish putting together in her apartment. The Home Depot didn't have what she needed, but we wound up relatively close to another place she was interested in seeing, at the suggestion of a neighbor friend in her apartment building: another cemetery. This one Cave Hill Cemetery, which I only learned after arriving there is the final resting place of Muhammad Ali. I was charmed by these tiny plastic boxing gloves left on his giant, horizontal gravestone.

  Barbara had downloaded a map of the cemetery online and was looking at it on her phone, and when she mentioned other notable people buried there, I decided I definitely wanted to see the grave site of one Patty Smith Hill, the woman who wrote "Happy Birthday." It took us a kind of ridiculous amount of time to locate her grave, based on the map labeled with lettered sections and a web page I found giving both the letter section and her plot number. Once we finally found it, Barbara and I sang Happy Birthday to her.
Oscar Party 2022 And here we come to the reasoning for this weekend in particular being chosen for my trip. I had three weekends to choose from while Shobhit was in India, but this was the weekend of the Academy Awards! And I wanted to watch the Oscars with Barbara, just like I did every year during the ten years she lived in Seattle. Most of those years, I only half-jokingly suggested people come to compete for "Best Gown," and Barbara had a history of bringing it. She let me know earlier this month that this year she wasn't going to come with a gown, though. And, well, although it was just Barbara and me in person, between the number of people we got on video chat with—and I got on FaceTime with my friend Gabriel (and his girlfriend Lea) during most commercial breaks—you could say that this year's "Oscar Party" included a good five people, which alone would make it my biggest Oscar Party since 2009. If you count Shobhit's mom, who actually got on Skype to say hi to Barbara, with whom she had become friendly during her eight-week stay with us in 2008, then it's the biggest Oscar Party I've had since 2008. Fourteen years! I'm going to go ahead and count her. She's seen in the photo above, smiling and saying hi to Barbara. Shortly thereafter, Shobhit suggested his mom come back and say hi to me as well, something that in the past she would just ignore and walk away in response. To my genuine surprise, Shobhit's mom even smiled and said hi to me. It was brief, but it was almost jarringly pleasant, and literally the first time in the 18 years Shobhit and I have been together that she was openly, directly, personable to me. Shobhit only got on Skype with me a few times during the telecast, which of course I have tons to say about. But that's a conversation for another time and place!

Did I mention Barbara mended the sleeve tighteners on my going-on-ancient UNFI jacket? In fact, I just figured out I've had that jacket, which Elin gave me at work after a vendor rep had gifted to her and she said she'd never wear it, for over a decade. The glue on those flaps failed maybe a month or two ago, and I had been holding them down with safety pins so they would stop flopping around at the ends of my sleeves. Barbara offered to bring her sewing supplies and sew them back together for me during the Oscars. She did a great job!
Bonus! Just one last photo from Cave Hill Cemetery. I took this when we were still near Muhammad Ali's grave and I really love how it turned out. I had long been assuming there was a good chance this might be the one and only time I ever go visit Barbara in Louisville. So much for that! I'm already making lists of other things I want to do the next time I visit, probably in two or three years. Nashville is only a two and a half mile drive from there! [All associated full photo albums can be found on Flickr here.]