We left Pittsburgh on Monday, May 21 and drove to Cincinnati. We're trying, as much as possible, to not drive on interstate highways between cities. Driving U.S. Highways and other local roads is slower, but it provides more local flavor - every interstate exit has the same fast food places and gas stations. However, there weren't a lot of good non-interstate options from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, so we took three 7x interstates (79, 70, 71) and made good time.
Our hotel was in Newport, Kentucky which is just across the Ohio River from Cincy. We stayed right on the river but our hotel room only had a good view of the highway. But we had a nice river view dinner outside the first evening at a restaurant near our hotel. On Tuesday (May 22), we explored Cincinnati by driving around. It's a pretty big city but the traffic wasn't bad. We visited Eden Park on the bluffs over the Ohio and then drove through downtown and to the Over-the Rhine (OTR) area. Cincinnati had a large German population in earlier years and the OTR area has been redeveloped into the kind of live-work-play area favored by millennials and Gen Z. We visited the Findlay Market in OTR and had lunch there. This is the third city market we've visited on our trip (after Philly and Toronto). Findlay was good, but smaller and less crowded than the other two.
The Cincinnati Reds play in the Great American ballpark which is right downtown alongside the Ohio. I always thought the Reds were pretentious with calling their stadium the "Great American" ballpark. However, the tallest building in downtown is the Great American Insurance building. So no pretentions, just a naming rights deal with the stadium. We really enjoyed this ballpark - wide concourses, good statues of former Reds greats (that's me and Johnny Bench below) and nice views of the Ohio River. In addition, Tuesday nights are $1/$2/$3 nights. Ice cream for $1, hot dogs for $2 and beer (Bud Light) for $3. We don't drink beer, but took full advantage of the hot dogs and ice cream.
The Reds played the Cardinals. Probably 20% to 25% of the 14,000 attending were Cards fans - including the guy sitting next to us wearing an Adam Wainwright jersey. As it turned out, Wainwright was pitching for the Cards. For those who don't know, he is the long-term star pitcher for the Cardinals, and he got his 197th career win over the Reds (the final score was 8-5). In addition, Paul Goldschmidt of the Cards hit homers in his two first at bats - I was hoping for a four homer game, but he cooled off and had just the two homers. I know, I know - what about the Reds? I'm not slighting the Reds - it's just that with Joey Votto (likely future Hall of Famer) still out with injuries, there's barely anyone on the Reds team that I know - and I follow baseball pretty closely. The Reds did make a furious comeback in the bottom of the 9th and loaded the bases (actually the Cards closer walked two of them), but all for naught.
It was a beautiful night to watch baseball, and we've now completed 12 of the 30 stadiums. Next stop is Detroit.
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