Cincinnati

Marty and Vicky start out

We're off! We hit the road on Monday, heading to Cincinnati to visit our daughter Christina at her new digs. She just relocated there from DC in May as part of a job change. The travel weather was nice: cool and a bit overcast most of the way. Traffic was remarkably light on I-80. We didn't really run into anything significant until we got near Akron, Ohio.  Not too many snarls anywhere along the way, even around Ohio's largest city, Columbus. We made it, all 432 miles,  in pretty much exactly 8 hours. Our biggest delay was the incredibly slow service at a place we stopped for lunch in suburban Columbus. 

Christina lives in a very nice apartment complex in an upper-middle class suburb about 20 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati. Nice amenities (pool, gym, clubhouse) at the complex, which is nestled among suburban homes, a gated community, golf courses, parks, and shopping and restaurants along the main drags. Christina works from home half the time, but it's a straight shot into downtown Cincy on the days when she has to report to the office. I went for a run at a park in her neighborhood this morning. Lots of  people walking dogs, jogging, playing tennis. A girls high school running team was out for one of their summer morning workouts. Pleasant as a place can be.

A Ukranian-owned Slavic deli in Christina's neighborhood

This evening, we went to a Reds game. We seem to be shopping for a team to follow based on where our daughter lives. Unfortunately, this has led us to be fans of some of the worst teams in baseball. We followed the perennially awful, but somehow lovable Pirates even after Christina moved away from Pittsburg over two years ago. The Reds aren't perennially awful, but this year they're worse than the Pirates.

Outside the Great American Ball Park, home field for the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds field is quite nice. Right on the Ohio River. Not quite as nice a view of the city as from PNC Park in Pittsburgh, but a good place to watch a game. The Reds played the Dodgers close for 6 innings. It was 4-2 Dodgers at the 7th Inning Stretch, despite the Dodgers outhitting the Reds 12-3 to that point. We left then because we'd had a good time and we sensed what was going to happen. Checked the score when we got back to Christina's apartment: 8-2 Dodgers in the 9th...

We had our game faces on. It didn't help.

Tomorrow, we head out again, this time for the farm country near Madison, Wisconsin, to visit our son Andy.