July 12, 2008 Riverboats, Buses and Airplane, Oh My!!

Danny woke us up at 6, but I’d already been awakened at 3:20 by a LOUD hissing sound. It turned out to be the steam from the calliope “statue” on the dock in Cincinnati. We arrived in the middle of the night. Whose brilliant idea was THIS, having this noise next to people trying to sleep?? I went back to sleep until 6:30, but then we had to get moving.

We went to breakfast, and Danny was worse than the other night. He is SO not going on another family vacation!!! I had grits for breakfast, and they were pretty good! We went and waited in the Grand Saloon until they called our bus. Then we went out to ID our luggage and make sure it was placed under the bus. We had a real grouch for a driver, and an annoying tour guide. When we passed the stadium where the Bengals play, she said “watch out for our Bengals!” like they were gonna be the champs this year. Helloooo? Sorry lady, we’re from GIANTS country!!! We stopped at a hotel to pick up some other people, but never did get anyone else. The whole time, the driver left the bus running, with the door open, behind another bus whose engine was also running. We finally complained about the smell, and he closed the door. One guy said, “Hmmm, I wonder what HIS carbon footprint is?” We had a good laugh at that.

It’s sort of a gloomy day, but hopefully the rain will wait until we get to the airport. We went to the Cincinnati Museum. It’s at the old train station. The place is beautiful! All art deco, built in the early 30s. They have a “whispering gallery”. If you whisper into a water fountain on one side of the huge room, a person at the fountain on the opposite side can hear you! It was cool talking back and forth to the kids. Then we went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Museum. It was really interesting. It told all about the tragedy of slavery, how it began, etc.

We got to the airport about 12:30, and our flight was at 4:35. So we had lunch at Moe’s—a nice pubby sort of place. We went to our gate, and checked to see if there was any internet access place. They did have Wi-Fi in some of the terminals (not ours, of course), but no computers, so without my laptop, it was useless. Danny discovered a massage chair, so I sat and had a 15 minute massage. No big thrill, but it felt good. We went to look for something to bring on the plane for dinner, and they had a Quiznos. I got a turkey sub and some fresh fruit.

Our flight was delayed twice, but we finally took off about 6. The plane was freezing, even with my sweater on, and a blanket. My dinner was disappointing, and the fruit was awful. Our bags all made the trip safely, so we loaded up the limo and headed home. We got in about 9. I did a load of laundry so we’d have clean underwear, unpacked and repacked, and read the mail. I finally got to bed about 12:30, knowing I’d be up early tomorrow to drive down to Williamsburg.