Sage and Dugan give their dad, Dug, big hugs as he leaves to return to Chicago after delivering his precious cargo in Cincy and staying overnight. We've planned a whirlwind week of adventures for the kids including separate day camps at Greenacres in Indian Hill.
Sage is ready for her "Clay Tossing" class at Greenacres where she is learning to use the potter's wheel to make clay pots.
Dugan is in a camp called, "Survival" where he is learning to build a fire without matches and how to fish as well as many other survival skills.
Every day after day camp we took the kids on some kind of adventure--always a surprise. On the first day we went downtown to the Natural History Museum. What used to be a bustling train terminal has been transformed into several museums and an Omnimax theater.
German-born artist, Winold Reiss, designed the mosaics that line the rotunda of the Museum.The two large murals in the rotunda illustrate the history of transportation, westward expansion and the growth of Cincinnati.
We enjoyed seeing an amazing film, "Flight of the Butterflies," about monarch butterflies that traced their annual migration from as far north as Canada all the way to a mountain top in Mexico.
Our Museum of Natural History & Science is the perfect place to discover many incredible moments, to learn and have fun!
As we left the museum, a surprise shower came along, but it didn't ruin our lunch plans or our afternoon. Downtown Cincinnati, in the distance, looked hazy in the rain, but the lovely rainbow that followed was worth waiting for.
Every July Graeter's ice cream shops have a coloring contest for all ages. Dugan and Sage have been entering these contests for many years, so they were anxious to do it again. The neat thing is that even if you don't win, you still get a free cone just for entering. Their entries are always very creative.
On another day we picked up Dugan and Sage from camp and drove downtown to the International Friendship Park where we ate our picnic lunch.
From there we headed up to the observation deck of the Carew Tower for fantastic views of Cincinnati. We all had a great time taking photos from high above the city.
Our next place to explore was the Freedom Center Underground Railroad Museum. The displays here certainly had an impact on each of us. The Freedom Center is a museum based on the history of the Underground Railroad, the network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves to escape to free states and Canada. The Center also pays tribute to all efforts to abolish human enslavement today.
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The next day we went to a program at the Drake Planetarium and then drove to Sharon Woods where we rented a paddle boat for the four of us to paddle together around the lake for an hour. What fun that was!
We had lunch that day at the Pizza Tower where they gave each of the children a ball of dough which they used to create all kinds of games and little characters. We bought gigantic chocolate chip cookies there for each of them, which they ate at home with Graeter's ice cream.
One of the most enjoyable things for the children was to watch the wildlife in our yard. Sage was captivated by the little chipmunks running around the yard and put sunflower seeds by each of the chipmunk holes she found. They laughed at the squirrels that eat upside down on our bird feeders and got to see many kinds of birds, including a red-tailed hawk, blue jays, cardinals, mourning doves, hummingbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches and goldfinches. A beautiful doe also wandered through our yard while we all sat on the deck.
Visiting our neighbor, Pat Smith, and playing with her little dog was another enjoyable time for Dugan and Sage!
East of Cincinnati in Loveland is a most unlikely sight...namely a stone castle that was built by hand by one man over a period of nearly 50 years. The castle sits above the Little Miami River along whose banks he collected the stones which became the castle walls.We took a picnic lunch to eat near the castle along the banks of the river.
The game room in the castle provided a place for Sage and Dugan to play a game of checkers.
Just northwest of Cincinnati in Hamilton is a very unique attraction known as Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. The park combines nature and more than 70 contemporary sculptures within a 265 acre expanse. We opted to see the park by means of an "Art Cart" which added a fun aspect to our tour. Both of our grandchildren are very creative, so they could appreciate and take photos of the sculptures throughout the park.
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Jungle Jim's International Market is an experience that Dugan and Sage will not forget. It's more than a grocery store. There are lots of attractions for the whole family.
Dugan found a tank filled with fish that were the same kind of fish that he had caught in the lake at his day camp--bass.
Dugan discovered an "ice cream fruit," about which he had done a research report at school but had never seen. Of course, we bought one to take it home to see if it really tasted like ice cream! It didn't!
After the children finished their day camps on Friday, we had all day Saturday for adventures together. We invited Sage's friend from camp, Morgen, to go blueberry picking with us at Rouster's Farm. She and her grandfather met us there and joined us at Frisch's for lunch. The day was a little rainy, but it didn't stop us from picking many pounds of blueberries!
Sage and Dugan worked together to follow Judy's recipe for a blueberry dessert, which they baked and saved to serve when Bonnie and Dug arrived in Cincinnati the following day.
In the evenings we often played family games together. One evening Dick taught Dugan and Sage how to play cribbage.
On Sunday we picked up our 92 year old friend, Cliff, in Mt. Washington, where he showed us the canes he had just finished carving. Then we took him along on our day of adventures.
We drove to Mason to see the Lebanon, Mason and Monroe Railroad steam engine and to have a picnic lunch together.
After a most enjoyable week of surprise adventures together, the lovely sunset from our front yard seemed to bring closure to our seven days of making memories.
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