Cincinnati v. 26

Well.... not all of Cincinnati.  

We decided to shorten our visit to places closer to home so Becca could go to Abby's birthday celebration at... the BIG TIME RUSH concert.  If you're not 12, you may not have heard of them.  They had a blast!

Big Red Machine mosaic at All American Ballpark

We saw Becca's favorite team at their home field- the All American Ballpark.  It was a very strange game.  The Reds had won their last 10 games and were playing the lowly Padres.  The first 2 innings took about 2 hours as the Reds catcher got thrown out for arguing balls and strikes; the Padres catcher was yanked after a trainer didn't like what he saw after 1 swing of his first at bat; and the Reds pitcher got yanked after throwing over 60 pitches and giving up a bunch of runs. It was Keystone Kops baseball!

Some of Becca's favorite players!

   We sat in the "Scout" section, and actually saw some scouts.  Interesting... Some scout observations:

---Hawaiian shirts are the fashion choice

---World Series rings are enormous

---Scouts don't make eye contact with fans

---2 out of 3 were very experienced (70 years old or better)

---Scouts do not get chatty with fans

We've been talking about going to Kings Island for years, so we passed on sight seeing, and chose thrill seeking.  We were not disappointed!

Bob and Bec after the DROP TOWER

Bob and I traded off on rides- I do not like the spinny vomit inducers, and I will only do wet rides near the end of our visit (I hate walking around in wet clothes!), but I love roller coasters.  Bob will go on all of them.  My fave was the Firehawk, which starts you out face up on your back and goes down the first drop head first, then loops you face down- it is as if there's nothing holding you back.  Very cool.  We all went on the Diamondback, which is the fastest and tallest in the park.

Becca's favorite game...

Becca played the stupid games that I hate...  The only way I can stomach them is if she plays with her own money and I can keep nagging her about how she may as well flush her cash down the toilet.  Hopefully the message gets through and she never gambles.  Not sure if that will ever happen- she keeps winning things.  Stupid things, but that old intermittent reinforcement is a real motivator.

Back home for a few days then we loop around Lake Michigan!