B-day present to me, road trip to Cincinnati & environs. Beautiful weather, first week in January. Landed in Covington (VRBO lodging); Google nav crapping out so we drove a bit and landed downtown and found a Cincy Zone parking spot – of course, I had uploaded the apps for local parking before we left. Couldn’t find the restaurant we had picked but saw a spot with a funny sign in the window and lots of people traffic. There we had a great lunch at Amerasia Kung Fu Food –https://m.facebook.com/KungFoodChu; entertaining barkeeps, super food, great prices etc. so off to a good start. Headed up to Mt. Adams (via back roads) to re-visit the past; no more shops there and few restaurants but fabulous views, architecture and nightlife offerings. Windy, twisty one-way streets, they must have top-notch snow removal; that or nobody works out of the home. Got some pics of one of our favorite spots there years ago, Blind Lemon http://mtadamsbarandgrill.com/the-blind-lemon/ .

On the way back to our digs we spent a couple of hours driving the streets of Covington and admiring the German-influenced architecture. Found a Kroger and picked up porkloininacookingbag, grab & go mashed tatties (2 nites-worth, frozen b-sprouts and cauli-broc steamers. Next day we walked the Purple People Bridge in spite of the wind @ 40° ; love the love locks. headed to Findley Market – found the parking spot I had mapped – that’s exciting to anxious me. The Market is grand and after hours of ogling all the fabulous offerings we ended up walking across the street to Harvest Pizza https://www.harvestpizzeria.com/for lunch (nav once again failing me – when the first direction is “head east” I’m like where the f is east and head for the closest next-best place. Harvest was delightful; tasty, organic offerings and kick-ass pizza. Downtown was the next stop; again parking issues but found a meter and pulled in; got out to plug the info into my phone and I heard someone hollering ‘move up’; a kind person in the building across the 4 lanes of traffic was telling me that I was wasn’t parked right and to move forward. I hollered back ‘thank you!’, moved and when I got out, he was gone. Parking angel. Nuttin’ downtown except Fountain Square and the ice rink https://myfountainsquare.com/ice-rink/ – more nostalgia; 27 or so years ago for my then birthday we drove up for a night or two when our boy-o was just starting to play hockey; our gal was with us and the boy skated on the rink.

Back to the VRBO digs, night walk in the neighborhood north, fabulous views on the Licking River; dinner was Kroger seasoned chicken breast – 20 minutes in the oven + leftover spuds & veg. Watched the Boys from Brazil on ROKU (the only TV offering), a movie we saw back in the 70’s. Next day we checked out and headed to Newport. I drove to the Purple People Bridge; we walked it to the other side in spite of the wind @ 40° ; I spent a few happy moments reading the inscriptions on the love locks that are fastened to a dedicated area of the bridge .

Drove the streets of Newport, we especially appreciated the stunning architecture of Mansion Hill; blocks of beautifully restored homes – then off to lunch at York St. Cafe – http://yorkstonline.com/ what a fun delicious spot and a great way to end the trip! Almost…we decided to drive into Carrollton – we used to camp at General Butler State Park. Downtown is trying to be something, but hasn’t quite made it. Pity, it’s right on the Ohio River but maybe too far off the beaten path? I did, however, manage to find a lovely gift shop https://www.facebook.com/artfulgiftsetc/ fully loaded and scored yet another beautifully painted gourd (by the owner’s husband).

A quick drive through General Butler – the grounds were well kept with a few folks camping in the cabin area. We made our way up to the lodge and noticed quite a few cars parked. After I returned home I tried to look up accommodations but the website was sorely lacking in user-friendliness. We like to take a short whole-family glamping trip in late summer that’s fairly close by and a couple of cabins would fit the bill, it’s a nice park with enough activities to please. I’ll try again.

Ta