Sheila Marie and I loaded up a rental car (strangely, the same one Jason and I drove from Fayetteville to Des Moines the previous week) on Monday morning and headed for the Queen City of the West. The nearly 600 mile drive took all day, but we had a nice trip. We even managed to find time for a short detour to an outlet mall south of Indianapolis.
We awoke early on Tuesday morning and had breakfast together before I headed over to the Aronoff Center for load-in. The Aronoff is a modern performing arts center; it opened in 1995 and is named for Cincinnati's long-time State Representative and Senator Stan Aronoff. The Argentine architect Cesar Pelli designed the building as well as several other theatres I've played during this tour (The Overture Center: Madison, WI; Schuster PAC: Dayton, OH; Adrienne Arscht Center for the Performing Arts: Miami, FL), the World Financial Center in New York and, most notably, the Petronas Twin Tower in Malaysia. The Aronoff was spacious and IATSE Local 5 is one of the best in the business - meaning we were loaded-in in record time. Opening night went smoothly - as did the rest of the week at the theatre.
Sunrise over the Stage Door on Tuesday morning
The Aronoff Center
While I was at work on Tuesday, Sheila Marie welcomed Donn & Rhoda to Cincinnati. As has become customary, the Westfalls came to visit us after spending Christmas with the family in Edwardsburg and were set to spend New Year's with us. Conveniently, Cincinnati was right on their way back down to Florida!
On Wednesday, we visited the Carew Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon - the same architects who designed the Empire State Building. In fact, the buildings have many structural similarities (the Carew Tower and the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem were designed at the same time, shortly before the Empire State). The Carew Tower is a 49 story deco beauty. It features a shopping concourse on its lower levels as well as a beautiful hotel all outfitted in the French Art Deco style. The hotel's Palm Court (formerly the lobby and now the lobby bar and restaurant) is magnificent. The four of us ascended to the observation deck on the building's rooftop and braved the cold for an amazing view of the Ohio River Valley and three states: Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. (Joseph Thomas Carew, the building's namesake, was the owner of a clothing chain, director of several banks and a trustee of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad.)
The view looking West along the Ohio
With my beautiful Wife at the top of Cincinnati
Cincinnati's skyline - the Carew Tower will be eclipsed by the planned Great American Insurance Building at Queen City Plaza in 2011.
We also explored Fountain Square - Cincinnati's equivalent to Rockefeller Center. Centered around a fountain entitled "The Genius of Water" dedicated to Tyler Davidson, Fountain Square is home to an ice rink, the city's Christmas Tree and many restaurants and shops. (The fountain figures prominently into the opening credits of WKRP in Cincinnati.) While we were there, we had to try one of Cincinnati's signature offerings: Graeter's Ice Cream. The Graeter family began making ice cream in 1870 using the "French Pot Process". This labor-intensive method yields only 2 gallons at a time and gives the ice cream very low air and high butter fat contents. Whatever the method, Grater's ice cream is DELICIOUS. I went back four more times that week...
Donn & Rhoda with the Davidson Fountain
My first taste of Grater's Black Raspberry Chip
We also celebrated Christmas with the Westfalls on Wednesday back at the hotel. We were ensconced at the Garfield Suites - named for the 20th President of the United States and Representative from Ohio - a staple of touring shows. Our rooms were more like one bedroom apartments than traditional hotel rooms, giving us plenty of room to spread out and making visiting with family more comfortable. Christmas with Westfalls is always a lot of fun - made even more so when they bring all the gifts from the big Westfall Family Christmas Eve party!
Sheila models the oven mitts that Santa brought her
The fun continued after the show on Wednesday night. Not only was it our first day on the town in Cincinnati and Christmas with the Westfalls, it was also New Year's Eve! The company put on an after show celebration at the Below Zero Lounge and were kind enough to invite Donn and Rhoda along as well. We had a great time ringing in 2009 with the cast and crew. Between Sheila Marie, Rhoda and I we took tons of pictures. A few of the highlights:
SME and Angelina work the dance floor
Ken & Rhoda
Donn, JV & Rhoda welcome 2009
New Year's Day was a more sedate affair. After the late night, we all slept in quite late and emerged with just enough time to grab a bite before the MSU game kicked off. At half-time we called the rest of the Westfall clan to catch up on their New Year's celebrations and thank them for sending Christmas our way. We even got a little bit of football gloating in when we called the McCools in Atlanta (and thank goodness we got it in at half-time...). We drove over to the Kentucky side of the river for a German Meal to properly welcome 2009. All four of us ate plenty of cabbage to ensure good luck for the year ahead.
By Friday, we were feeling up to some more sight-seeing. We began at the Cincinnati Fire Museum. The Cincinnati Fire Department is the oldest fully paid professional department in the US. When it was organized in 1853, the Fire Department took the place of a system wherein volunteer fire companies were paid by property owners for putting out fires. Only the first company to arrive was paid, so there were often brawls between companies and sabotage of rival companies equipment was common. The museum is housed in a retired 1907 firehouse and features all kinds of artifacts from the city's fire-fighting past as well as modern life-saving equipment.
When this photo appeared on my facebook page, I got all sorts of comments about me on a stripper pole - in fact, I'm trying out the firemen's pole in the old firehouse.
From the Fire Museum, we went on to learn more about the history of Porkopolis (as Cincinnati was affectionately known when it was America's leading pork product producer) at Cincinnati Union Terminal. When it opened in 1933, Union Terminal replaced five separate railroad stations that were scattered all over town. The building is an Art Deco masterpiece and was once a very busy passenger station. Today, the building's beauty has been restored, but Amtrak only runs a handful of trains through the terminal. The building has been repurposed as the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, housing the Cincinnati History Museum, Museum of Natural History & Science, an Omnimax Theater and a Children's Museum. The station's former control tower also houses the Cincinnati Railroad Club overlooking the, still bustling, freight yard.
Union Terminal - the 3 openings in the flanks of the building allowed taxis, buses and streetcars to pass through the building (each in their own, dedicated lane) so passengers could disembark and board inside the station.
Before all three Westfalls could leave town, we had more Cincinnati specialties to sample. After our history lesson, we made a stop at the Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse for their "world famous" ribs. They were tasty - not Rendezvous Ribs revelatory, but barbecue is always welcome on my dinner table - and the view of the Ohio River reflecting the colors of the setting sun was amazing. On Saturday, we all sat down for Skyline Chili. I had mine in the traditional "five way" fashion (with beans, onions and cheese over spaghetti) while others had their chili plain or over coney dogs. I was probably the biggest fan at the table, but everyone enjoyed the experience. Of course, both the ribs and chili were followed up with more Graeter's ice cream!
The whole clan modeling our fashionable Skyline bibs
On Sunday, I had to say goodbye to Donn, Rhoda and Sheila Marie. It was weird to send Donn & Rhoda off to Florida and SME to New York as I was preparing to go to South Bend... This is the first time in a while that Sheila and I don't have our next visit firmly scheduled and it was hard to see her head to the airport.
As Cincinnati is Ken's hometown, he treated the Spamily to pizza from LaRosa's between shows on Sunday. It was a wonderful gesture and everyone dug in with gusto. It also gave me one, last excuse to get some Graeter's... We also got to visit with Ken's mom, Barb, and Geoff in Cincinnati - it was Kentastic!
LaRosa's pizzas spread out in the loading dock with the hungry masses gathered around
I quite enjoyed Cincinnati and was pleased to get to share it with part of my extended family. Like Milwaukee and Pittsburgh, Cincinnati had a unique flavor and atmosphere. I always enjoy being back in the Midwest and felt right at home. I hope I have occasion for another visit!
JV
An extra pic - lest you think life on the road is always glamorous, I offer Cincinnati's VFMHRW:
That's the hotel's parking garage.
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