Last night we enjoyed an unintentional date night. It started out with a 3 o’clock appointment with our least favorite realty company on earth to see an apartment for rent. The apartment was in one of the neatest neighborhood’s in Cincinnati, Columbia Tusculum, a nifty and unique neighborhood we’d love to live in, but ultimately the apartment was small, overpriced, and just not right for us. After the speediest in-and-out showing ever we decided to do what has become a healthy habit for us lately – drive aimlessly and directionless around parts of the city we’ve never explored before, exploring and searching for a promising new place to call home. This is a surprisingly fun activity for us. It’s incredibly relaxing to not be tied to a schedule or an agenda and to just turn down any which street you please, unaware of the treasures you’ll find. It’s adventurous and we’re always surprised by the things we come across. It’s how we found the house we live in now and the apartment that we are most interested in renting, as well as a number of stellar restaurants we love to frequent. One of my fondest memories in Cincinnati thus far is the very first day we arrived here, before we were even married, and we spent the afternoon driving around in a brand new city, completely oblivious to where we were, and looking for a place to call our first home together. It was exhilarating, fun, and totally surreal.
So we tootled around for a few hours, getting lost and soaking in some great neighborhoods in our city that we never knew existed. We randomly ended up crossing an apartment community only a few miles from our house in Anderson. We love the Anderson area, though it’s a bit of a commute from work, and we were hoping to stay within its boundaries if at all possible. We toured the apartment and were pleasantly surprised by how much we liked everything it had to offer. As of right now, and after all the disastrous dumps we’ve been disappointed by lately, it was a breath of fresh air to find a place we both would be happy with!
Before long we ended up in another one of our favorite neighborhoods, a neighborhood we’d be thrilled to live in if the rent weren’t so pricey, the little suburb of Mariemont, which looks like this:
and this…
It’s a fabulous little historic village with German style architecture. It’s the perfect town for taking long walks and enjoying the gorgeous weather. The main square boasts a sweet little three screen movie theatre (pictured above), a fancy bistro with exquisite and eclectic menu called The Quarter (I can’t wait to eat here one day…when we’re rich), one of our favorite Italian pizza nooks – Mio’s, and a Greater’s Ice cream. It’s the kind of town where people ride their bikes, walk their dogs, go for a jog, walk instead of drive, and invite their neighbors over for a drink on the front porch.
We were hungry by the time we ended up in Mariemont, so we walked around the main square for a bit taking in the scenery, then grabbed a cozy booth at Mio’s for a feast of seasoned breadsticks, basil tomato and cheese bread, and delicious calzones. I entered a coloring contest on the butcher paper tabletop and I totally expect to win “most creative!” After dinner I had a Graeter’s coupon burning a hole in my pocket so we walked down the street to this beautiful sight:
We indulged in a dish of their signature black raspberry chip ice cream at the old-fashioned counter bar that overlooks the street. I’m convinced that if Graeter’s ever took their black raspberry chip ice cream off the menu that half the population of Cincinnati wouldn’t know what to eat for a treat anymore. Yes, it’s that good. After we were adequately worn out from exploring, happy to have found a promising option for a potential home, and sufficiently stuffed with mouth-watering Italian and the world’s best ice cream, we headed home to catch the pre-season Bengals v. Lions game.
Unexpected date nights are the best!
