By some stroke of crazy good luck I unexpectedly ended up with a free pair of tickets to the Friday night Reds v. Cardinals MLB game 3 hrs before it started. By another equally impressive stroke of good luck the seats were incredible (right up front, directly behind home base), the weather was extraordinary, the Ohio humidity was surprisingly non-existent, and we had seats in the priority section with padded cushions, extra leg room, wide aisles, and butler service throughout the game. The game was great – a real competition right up until the end (a Reds victory!), and because the seats were so close it was easy to see everything and really get into it. After the game we walked across the bridge to Newport, KY where we parked. After living my life in Texas where the nearest state border is a minimum of 6 hours away, I think it’s awesome that we can park in Kentucky to see a baseball game in Ohio. From the bridge we watched a beautiful display of post-show fireworks over the river with the Cincinnati skyline in the background. We weren’t the only ones tuning in for the view, however. The river was mobbed with over 200 boats who’d parked it on the water for the occasion. Gorgeous.
We navigated the parking garage maze and high-tailed it out to the tiny town of Amelia a ways East of Cincinnati and made it to the Starlite Drive-In Theatre just in time to park our car up close, tune the radio to 90.5 FM, and catch the 11:50 p.m. showing of “Super 8.” If you’ve never been to a drive-in, let me tell you how A) wonderfully comfortable it is to kick your shoes off, lean the seat back, roll down the windows and watch a flick in the cool summer’s air, and B) how totally spooky it is to watch a suspense flick at a drive-in. Even though the drive-in was huge with tons of parking room and a greasy spoon full-service snack bar included, and it was absolutely packed late on a Friday night, it was still kind of out in the middle of nowhere and every time something creepy happened in the movie I halfway expected an ax murderer to come sneaking into our back seat. It just felt like something you’d see in a horror flick – the unsuspecting young couple at the drive-in. The drive-in is a sublime location for suspenseful flicks set back in the 1970s or prior. But it was a lot of fun and we’ll definitely be frequenting it more often even though we didn’t crawl into bed until nearly 3 a.m.
Saturday morning we slept in (a real treat because that never seems to happen anymore!) and Ted got a quick cut of the grass in before we hit up the Farmer’s Market to fill up on farm-fresh jumbo squash, zucchini, green beans, eggs, and apple cider.
Later in the afternoon we ran some errands and stocked up on yummy meats as we used up a Groupon (love Groupon!) to a local butcher shop. While we were out we got caught by a mid-afternoon rain shower. It was positively pouring while we ran to the car. Amazingly, I was soaked – as in shoes slushy, mascara dripping down the face, hair sopping wet, clothes clinging, just jumped in a pool soaked – while Ted somehow only got a little damp. How that happened, we have no idea.
After I went directly into a towel and my clothes went directly into the dryer, we grabbed dinner at Hyde Park Pizzeria, Cincinnati’s best (in our humble opinion) pizza joint with to. die. for. pizza sauce. I was craving lasagna and it totally hit the spot. We capped off the evening at home watching “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock – a truly hilarious movie with some killer one-liners that both guys and girls will enjoy. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies. If you haven’t seen it, you need to get on that ASAP my friends.
Sunday we just laid low and took the day as it came – we slept in, reviewed our wedding photos and finally started the process of picking out some favorites to decorate our walls, hit up lunch and treated ourselves to a few tasty samples (cherry cordials and chocolate coated sea salt caramels = bliss!) at a nearby fudge shop, a quick shopping trip to look for some shorts for both of us (97% humidity and windows steamed over at 8 a.m. warrants shorts big time), a luxurious mid-afternoon nap, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church Festival. As I’ve mentioned before, Cincinnati knows how to throw a good church festival! Games, carnival rides, and nosh for a worthy cause? Yes, please! I may or may not have eaten my body weight in cotton candy. It was worth it. And Ted won us a fish!!! I am so excited to pick out our new little guy at the pet store! We capped off the night watching “Grease.” There may have been some singing involved.
Perfect American summer weekend? Yes, I think so. What did you do this weekend?
