Menotripsical; BAR and Beyond - moving along

June 13th - rise and shine...

... no I didn't stretch to the waffle house; no need, for the little continental brekky available at Red Roof was the best bit of staying there. (I'm easily pleased.)

Thanks to Beth, I had masala teabags to add to the joy. I ate my first ever bear claw; the cinnamon buns were yummoolushus, and the cream cheese added to a well-balanced nuke-trash-us day-starter for each of my  mornings there. Ah the memories.

Cecilia and Bryan went over as they wanted a big fill-up before taking to the road... they were going to head back for North Carolina with a stop somewhere the other side of Lexington; but not before dropping your's truly off at Crestview Hills, Kentucky.

Why there? Well that was the rendezvous point to connect with darling Sweet William The Scot (SWTS) and his lady Lee and their good friend Janet.

Greetings were made, hugs were exchanged, and each car left but this time I was with the Nati Krew headed over the mighty Ohio River...

...fifteen minutes later (and only five minutes from 'home') a message came through that C&B were still at Crestview...... with my walking stick in their vee-hikkul.

Sigh.

A quick u-turn and back we went. More greetings and huggies and one cane later, those bridges were becoming familiar.  Blame the excitement. Maybe the meno. *cough!* We dropped off my stuff (I was actually staying at Janet's place, just round the corner from Lee and SWTS), we hydrated, then went and dropped Sweet Wills off at his house before hitting the road. Hard.

Let me tell you, those gals know how to tour a person round their city!!! From that minute till the minute we parted on the Wednesday... well... you'll see. I vaguely recall Lee saying we covered about 32 highlights of Cincinnati. She had prepared a list - and she had even printed out the itinerary I'd forwarded to all interested parties!!!

Many of the piccies you are about to see here and in following posts were taken from the car and demanding great things of the Fudge - which it couldn't always deliver; but we tried, the pair of us, to keep with the program.

...but wait... you are anxious to see a piccie of SWTS are you not? Well that's coming. He was excited too and couldn't think to keep still. Maybe he was attempting to demonstrate his skills in the Highland Fling!!!

We began the road-run of Nati with a drift around the "Painted Ladies". I just love architecture (it kinda goes with the trucks and shipping and planes and trains thing.... kinda...), so these were an absolute delight. My shots do not do them any favours at all, but they are fun memories nonetheless; and the images lend themselves to 'tinkering' as you'll see tomorrow.

This was one of the least freshly-painted buildings, but I liked it for that slightly worn, lived-in
look.

It's a YAMster hutch!

Yes I could totally live in this one.

No stairs and an almost level yard.

...adore the colours of this one... but will stop there for now. More piccies tomorrow, as mentioned. Must move on, just as we did in the car!

Next on the agenda was the Observatory. Oh yeah! Lee had totally got into what I loved... Gie thon wummin a medal... Not only did we get to see the current active telescope, but - just because I was an overseas visitor, the guide opened up the showpiece - the oldest telescope in the United States; for Cincinnati is the home of American astronomy! Well that was extra special I must say. (As I haven't yet got round to telling readers the Mac History in relation to astronomy and related matters, this was good guessing on the part of my gracious hosts!)

(click to biggify that info board.)

This is the 'new' scope which is used for most of the current observations.

The young lady demonstrated how the dome and scope are still all moved manually - everything being well-greased on a regular basis! The telescope itself has a very clever counterweight mechanism which helps it to track whichever object is being studied.

To the left is the building specially built to home the original telescope - which has a German precision lens still considered to be one of the best in the world... again, piccies continue tomorrow. Must keep going along with the flow here!!! Yuppers, there was lots to see and do. As we drove away from here we went up into Ault Park - a newer green area for the city and very lovely open spaces, with plenty of beautiful shade trees. Janet and I climbed many (maybe 87) steps to the 'lookout' only to find we were looking at trees and there was not so much 'out' now! That's the trouble with the darn things. They will grow... There was a beautiful cascade though...

The weather, as you can see, was favouring us too. If I recall, it was something like high 70's F/28'C and there was a gentle breeze blowing. Lovely.

After this there was a drive through Mariemont to see the Emery Carillon. There is very little info about the place beyond the description in that link. It is a striking building and a discussion between us concluded that the material used for construction is limestone.

Anyhoo... after this we tripped off to Maggiano's Little Italy for a meal. I was blown away by the attention; having heard that there were a few restrictions in my diet, the young server alerted the boss who came to our table and discussed the possibilities. He offered a solution, to be hand-prepared by himself - and my word was it good! A vegetarian tagliatelle supremo. Of course it defeated me. Those American portions... but the doggy box was supplied ... along with a second helping!!! I could well see why this is one of Lee and Janet's fave eating houses.

By now we had reached about 4pm... and it was still only the Monday... and there was still stuff to see...

Tomorrow, a few of the extra piccies from this first few hours together - then a rest for you all on Wednesday with a little menokakkul film; then back to the great Nati City Whizzbang Tour on Thursday's post!!!