Ohio - Oh, Here We Come!

Day 70

BB Riverboats - an awesome experience!!

In a previous post I mentioned that my sister Jaimee spent part of the summer visiting our relatives, The Thompson family, out in Cincinnati, Ohio; I also mentioned that I was able to go out to Ohio and visit as well. And it was a wonderful, fun trip (and at the time it was the furthest east that I have ever been)!

Dad, Jordan and myself drove out to Cincinnati to visit the relatives and to bring Jaimee home with us. We were in Ohio from August 11th to August 16th in 1993 and it was an awesome experience! Here are some highlights from the trip:

Uncle Dave, Jordan, Nancy, Jaimee, me, Dad and Carol

Our first night in Cincinnati we all went out to dinner at this really cool restaurant, called The Montgomery Inn At The Boathouse. I remember that everyone said that the place was really “swanky” - and it was true! It was so much fun just being together, and it was nice to be reunited with Jaimee. I had really missed her, and I’m sure my dad and Jordan felt the same way.

The next day, August 12th, the Thompson family took the Case family out for a really “one-of-a-kind” experience: BB Riverboats!! This was a truly fun experience - my first time on an actual riverboat! I felt like ‘Tom Sawyer’ or ‘Huckleberry Finn’ riding on this big, beautiful, authentic riverboat. And there’s a good reason for that, as the riverboat was named Mark Twain! There was dining and dancing on the riverboat, and I remember that my dad actually got out on the dance floor and danced with Jaimee and my dear cousin Nancy. It was so fun to watch; unfortunately, I was too chicken to get out on the floor and join in the fun. [In my defense, I was anxiously waiting for “The Electric Slide” and then I would get down and boogie! It never happened…]

On Friday the 13th(!!) we went to a really fun amusement/theme park called King’s Island. For anyone who is a fan of The Brady Bunch, remember the episode where the Brady family and Alice went to King’s Island and Mike got his architectural plans mixed up with Jan’s poster?…Anyway, it was cool to be able to go to this exact place! There were tons of fun rides, including a roller coaster called The Racer, and yours truly actually rode it. I have a big fear of roller coasters and so I usually wuss out when it comes to riding them, but I gave it a shot here and survived. Funny, I still wuss out even though I’ve been on many roller coaster rides since then and I’m still alive. Don’t know what my deal is! Oh, this roller coaster had two tracks side by side and one coaster would run forwards, the other backwards. And my brother Jordan had to show up his older brother by riding the backwards coaster!! I’m such a wimp!!

The weekend was great fun. On Saturday we all went to the mall, did some shopping and just hung out. On Sunday we went to church with the Thompson family, including cousin Laurine, then spent the rest of the day just visiting at their home, taking it easy. I think we were all beginning to feel the fatigue set in from all of the things we’d been doing for the past few days.

Our last day in Cincinnati was on Monday the 16th, and before we headed out on the road for home we went to a Cincinnati Reds baseball game at Riverfront Stadium. It was the Reds vs. the New York Mets (I have no idea which team won, though). Truth be told, I am not a baseball fan at all, but it was a fun experience to go to a baseball game while visiting Cincinnati.



My relatives were so much fun, so accommodating and entertaining and they showed us a great time there! I was so glad to have been able to visit them, to enjoy a city I had never been to before and to experience new things!