May 10th

Last week my parents visited Cincinnati, and we had a great time doing the tourist thing around town. When the arrived, we hopped across the river into Kentucky to enjoy the excellent seafood from Mitchell's at Newport on the Levee. I had never been there before, but I had heard good things and I was pleasantly suprised by the diverse seafood menu and riverfront venue. I am a big fan of Newport on the Levee anyway. Kind of ironic that one of the best spots in Cincinnati is in Kentucky!

The next day, we checked out fountain square downtown, and then took in the Cincinnati Zoo. Actually, I had a little car trouble, and then we went to the zoo. For some reason, my car battery decided to die just after I drove down to pick up Mom and Dad from their hotel. We had a nice time interacting with some of the locals at the downtown KIA autoparts. ( My father reassured me that KIA doesn't stand for what I thought it did...)

The zoo was fantastic and well worth the price of admission. The animals were all kept in open enclosures so that at times we felt like they were watching us! The polar bears and the lowland gorillas were quite amazing, but the highlight of the day was definitely the Manatee springs exhibit. We spent about a half an hour in that one exhibit watching the manatees... manatees being petted by divers, manatees munching on lettuce, and manatees rolling around a playing in the water. I have never seen such gentle and peaceful looking animals as those manatees.