tbt: Our trip to Cincy

Today on throwback Thursday, I wanted to recap our Cincinnati trip to keep adding to the our travel adventures collection.  Danny's parents are both originally from Cincinnati which is why Danny grew up a Reds and Bengals fan (I can't say I agree with it, but I've vowed to be somewhat loyal to both teams).  Danny even went so far as to work for the Cincinnati Reds in 2010 and also worked for their AAA team, the Louisville Bats in 2009 and 2011.  Cincinnati has a special place in Danny's heart so we decided to plan a trip to visit and see the Reds in action in the Summer of 2012.  To preface this post, I am not totally against the Reds.  I actually grew up as both an Indians fan and a Reds fan, but I just choose to root for the Indians first.  As far as the Bengals go, I'm not the biggest fan only because I went to Paul Brown Stadium with my Dad in 2006 to see the Packers and the Bengals and I received way too many "Who Deys" while wearing my cheesehead.  Danny and I have been back since to Paul Brown when the Bengals were playing the Packers and I felt so much better because 1. I had a 6 foot 2 inch Bengals fan with me and 2. The packers won.

Anyways to get back to our trip in 2012, Danny and I headed down to Cincinnati and bought tickets to see the Reds play the Cards.  This is a huge rivarly and it was fun being a part of it.  It was a sold out game and we barely got tickets.  We also met his parents at the game since they are only an hour away and they are huge reds fans too.  We got to see them at the beginning of the game and grab something to eat, but then we went to our seats to watch the game.  The Reds ended up winning which was good for Danny and Reds fans everywhere since they were nearing the playoffs.

Danny and his parents, Kathy and Doug

Danny's parents

Some highlights of that night include seeing my brick at Great American Ballpark.  When I was younger, I watched the Reds like I mentioned before.  For Father's Day one year, I decided to get my Dad a brick since they were building the stadium.  It said, "Marc and Suzy: Fans Always".  Everytime I'm at that Ballpark, I have to visit our brick.  Another interesting thing that happened that night was the city (almost) caught on fire. It just so happened to be fireworks night and Danny thought it would be nice to watch the fireworks from the bridge.  Turns out there were way too many sparks and it ended up catching the hill right underneath the fireworks on fire.  It was a crazy night.

Me and my dad's brick at Great American.

Waiting for the fireworks.

After watching the fireworks we headed to some Newport bars, one in particular was Hofbrauhaus.  Its a traditional German style beer hall.  People were dancing in the aisles, on the chairs, it was very different than any other place I had been to.  We hit up a few other bars and then headed home.

At Hofbrauhaus.

The next day we headed to Kings Island.  Kings Island is the amusement park near Cincinnati.  Danny and I both grew up going to Kings Island since we were both very close to it.  I like Kings Island compared to other amusement parks because it is a little tamer.  I am not a thrill seeker whatsoever (which Danny discovered this weekend) so Kings Island has the perfect amount of "thrills" for me.  Our first ride was somewhat of a kiddie roller coaster, but I still screamed my head off.  Danny realized quickly that he was going to have to be patient with me if he wanted to get me on some of the bigger rides.  He eventually did, it just took some working my way up to them and of course, some convincing.  All in all, a very fun day.

That night we headed out to eat and out for drinks on the water.  Since Cincinnati is right on the river, there are a lot of resturants near or on the water.  We went to Don Pablos for dinner and then went to a bar actually on a boat.  It was so much fun and we talked through a lot of things.  We were newly engaged (about a month) so we talked a lot about the future.  One thing in particular that I remember talking about that night was what we were going to name our dog.  We always knew we would get a dog and Danny and I often have the future talks, so it was not out of the ordinary.  That night we decided when we got a dog, we would name him Yogi.  9 months later we held true to our promise and adopted a pup that we named Yogi.

It was a great weekend in Cincinnati and we are hoping to go back soon to visit.  It helps that we have good friends that just moved to Cincinnati this past spring that we need to visit! Also, we love watching the Reds and I'm excited to see them in DENVER in a few weeks to play the Rockies!