Justin and I are notorious for jam packing our vacations with an all-day agenda. We definitely never get bored while traveling.
We had breakfast outside on the porch. The weather was amazing. It was in the low 60's and hate to say it but was a little chilly. The porch and garden were beautiful.
For breakfast we had coffee and juice, baked eggs with a French croissant and a really good fruit salad.
Breakfast was very yummy. We loved our stay at the Redbud
We packed up and headed out early we had a game to get to. The drive from Wilmore to Lexington is just beautiful with tons of horse farms.
Our mission before leaving Lexington was a quick stop by the Lexington Cemetery
Anytime we travel I'll will always look up famous people who are buried in the area. Don't ask me why, lol I guess that's part of being a Funeral Director or maybe just being weird, lol.
The cemetery was just so beautiful and peaceful. A very pretty place to be laid to rest. Lots of old graves from the 1700 and 1800's.
I love spotting unique headstones.
Our mission was to find Jim Varney's grave.
Remember Jim Varney? Hey Vern! Ernest Goes to Camp! If you know, you know!
This is the back of his grave.
Jim Varney was a huge actor of Justin and my childhood. We both watched all the Ernest movies growing up in the 80's and 90's. A core memory stuck in both our heads.
This is the front of his grave. He is buried next to his Dad and what looks to be his grandma. Nestled in the back of the cemetery next to a little stream of water. You would never know he was buried there. He had a few trinkets left by people who have visited.
Justin does a great impression of him, makes me laugh every time he does it.
We really didn't have time to do anything else In Lexington. I wish we would have had a few days to explore the entire town, but we had to keep moving. One of these days when we are retired, we will be able to explore as long as we want to.
Our next destination was Cincinatti.
As you get closer to Ohio, we rounded the corner on the highway and came down this big hill and there was Cincinatti sitting on the other side of the river. It was pretty cool to see. And yes, it was kinda smoggy the day we went because of the big Canadian wildfires, Ohio was getting hit with the smoke.
Another look at the city. It's not a huge city, about the size of Austin.
Crossing over the Ohio river for the first time marking off another state on our list
A view of the Cincinnati Bengals Stadium
We head a 12:30 Reds game we had to get to. We got right to the stadium and had to wait in traffic for a while, then we parked pretty far from the stadium and had to walk but that was okay because we needed some exercise.
We finally made it and got our tickets.
Pretty cool to say we got to see a game at the Great American Ball Park
Justin was excited!
Even though I know nothing about the team it was still a lot of fun to be there and watch the game
The stadium had great views of the city!
We found our nose bleed seats and enjoyed our hotdog and peanuts
and our $15 beers!
The weather felt awesome, and we enjoyed the game
The stadium is nestled right on the river. I really enjoyed just looking at everything around us and also watching the game
We were having a blast
Even though they lost we stayed to the very end
We enjoyed looking at all the views
After the game we walked along the river back to the car
This building was an old fire station turned into an office building.
Our next stop was Findlay Market.
Findlay Market is a hub of vendors who sell meat, produce, local and international foods and shops.
It's the oldest operated public municipal market house. Built in 1852 and still operates the same way in 2023. That's 171 years!
We got there near closing time so there wasn't a lot of people roaming the streets and a lot of the merchants were fixing to close
The iconic Cincinatti Reds statue and bench
We went into the main hub market
It's basically a meat market but also has places that serves lunch and dinner
We decided to stay across the river in Convington, Kentucky in an Airbnb. The first time we have ever booked an Airbnb. We stayed at the Pickle Factory Hotel, Lol No clue why it was called the Pickle Factory, but this is the outside of the building
There were two flights of stairs and looked like an apartment you would see in New York.
You first walk into this living area. This was indeed an apartment. It was super nice but also weird to be renting an entire apartment for the night.
The bedroom, again it was very nice and clean
And a view of downtown Covington. It was cool to hang our heads out of the window and view the city. We slept with the blinds open, it was cool to look at all the lights from the buildings. It was definitely a difference experience then a regular Holiday Inn Hotel
We were starving for dinner, so we made dinner reservations and got all fancy.
We wanted Italian food and wanted to eat in Ohio. We searched everywhere in downtown Cincinatti, but all the good old fashion Italian joints were booked so we had to drive out of the city limits to another place. But it gave us a chance to see some other parts of town that we wouldn't have gotten to see.
There are six main bridges you can take across the Ohio River from Kentucky to Ohio, this is one of the old bridges. This bridge is the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge
We ate at Buca Di Beppo. We have a couple of specific requirements when we go on vacation and one being we do not eat at chain restaurants or any restaurant you can find in Texas. We like to experience food particularly to that region or the state. We did not realize this was a chain restaurant when we got there but it was already too late when we walked in.
We also didn't realize this was a family style restaurant either, meaning they bring you family style portions. These portions could have fed a small Army! It was nuts!
This doesn't look like alot of food, but it was! This was the pasta me and Justin shared. We also had a huge salad and appetizer that we shared. The worst part was we couldn't take any leftovers with us so a lot of it got wasted.
The food itself wasn't really anything to die for. It was your typical average Italian chain restaurant food and the price for everything was insane! Knowing all of that we probably would not have picked out this restaurant for dinner, lol.
But we had a good time and lots of laughs with our waitress.
After dinner we headed back downtown. Here's a view of the city at sunset.
Then back over the old bridge to Covington for the night
