WFRV

We all sleep in until 8:30am, not unusual for Ben but crazy-late for the
rest of us. Since Ben likes to sleep late (and you really don't want to
wake him up before he's ready - he's like a bear in hibernation) we've been
setting up our entire breakfast the night before so that we don't make any
noise in the morning except for the occasional scraping of a spoon in a bowl
of cereal. This morning since we all wake up at the same time we go wild
and make bagels for breakfast. Then of course we have to play mini-golf and
when we're renting the clubs the proprietor tells us the store will be
closed the next day because they can't get anyone to come in. She tells us
to keep our clubs and balls and play all we want tomorrow. Nice! She also
comments that although we have a Yankee accent we don't have a Boston accent
which she illustrates by saying "Pahk the cah in Scahtland Yahd". Sherlock
Holmes goes to Harvard.

After mini-golf we head into Cincinnati. The zoo is supposed to be a gem
but Mike and Sam are done with zoos so they decide to drop off me and Ben
and go to the aquarium in Newport, KY, which is also supposed to be
wonderful. Ben and I spend the day wandering around the Cincinnati Zoo and
Botanical Gardens; the number and variety of animals are great and are set
inside the Gardens so as you're walking from exhibit to exhibit you're
seeing amazing plants. I exclaim over most of them until Ben starts
referring to me as "Tree Geek", then I appreciate them silently. The sweet
potato vine and cranberry viburnum were especially beautiful.

While Ben and I are at the zoo Mike and Sam are at the aquarium petting
sharks. (The Shark Petting Tank is something I'd like to see at the New
England Aquarium.) Turns out the Newport area is akin to Faneuil Hall and
they have a great time eating lunch and book shopping before the aquarium.
I, on the other hand, have trouble finding something not beef or poultry to
eat at the zoo. Komodo Dragon.tastes just like chicken.

The black rhino smells so incredibly putrid that we have to run by the
exhibit. We get to see the cheetah cubs being fed; they are surprisingly
ferocious which explains why the keepers are armed with large prods. Many
of the animals are restrained not by cages but by moats which gives the
impression that you are standing right next to them and also makes for a
better picture. We see the American eagle and hear it cry; it is not the
screech that accompanies the Stephen Colbert eagle but rather a high-pitched
chirpy almost burbly sound. The screech commonly associated with eagles is
actually that of a bird of prey; I forget which one but we learned it in
South Carolina on a nature walk. And of course one would rather have the
national bird issue a virile noise and not some little-girl giggle. It just
feels right.

We all meet up again at closing time and decide to grab dinner in Cincinatti
as we're almost an hour from the RV park and the camp store, as we know, is
closed. We use the AAA guide and pick out a restaurant which is in a
recently gentrified area judging from the old man on the street corner
wearing a sandwich board that says "Poor People Used To Live Here". We
probably shouldn't have picked a place with the word "saloon" in the name
but in we go and are told that the non-smoking section is closed. I've
started to take for granted that restaurants are non-smoking but that's
definitely not the case around here. (This is near tobacco country, isn't
it?) The food is quite good but the people at the bar are smoking a lot and
our waitress is a little too chatty - it's one thing to talk about the
missing boy whose face is plastered on the TV in the bar, but another to
start talking about Susan Smith so that you have to explain THAT to your
kids over dinner. We also learn about her matching upper-arm bruises which
were caused by the shoulder-high moulding in the bar and not by her
boyfriend who's really too small to rough her up. And she says that she
believes in non-smokers' rights just as she believes in non-drinkers'
rights. We really don't want to know what she means and are happy when we
finally pay the bill and go.

Next we're off to Graeter's Ice Cream which is excellent. If you're ever in
Cincinnati go to one; they still make their own ice cream in an
old-fashioned machine and the store is an ice cream/candy shop with
tiled floors and vinyl chairs. All ice cream shops used to have candy as
well; stand-alone ice cream places are a fairly recent invention. (I know
this having just seen a documentary on ice cream. The only New England
place in the show was Four C's on the Cape. I've never been there but I'll
put in a word for Sundae School.)

It's late by the time we get back to the campground but the pool is open
until 10pm and Sam suggests a swim. Mike desperately needs a little quiet
time so the kids and I head over to the pool which is very big and ten feet
at the deep end, heated and overlooking the valley that drops down to the
river. We have the pool to ourselves and enjoy playing monkey-in-the-middle
and jackpot until it gets too dark for me to see the ball (oh am I getting
old); then we are treated to a pretty decent fireworks display across the
river and we also float on our backs and check out the starry sky which is
not spoiled at all by light pollution. All in all a lovely evening.

# posted by LDW @ 11:14 AM