A Night at the Museum

Last Friday we visited the Cincinnati Museum Center to take advantage of the Free Fridays series.  First we went to the Museum of Natural History and Science.  There are two "lifelike" caves you can walk through - a limestone cave and an ice cave. I tend to enjoy more of the 'interactive' exhibits so this was my favorite part. 

 Within the same complex, there is the Cincinnati History Museum.  I ended up enjoying this one more - maybe because I got to learn a bit more about the city I now call home. Like I learned that the zoo is the second oldest in the nation, so I'm excited to visit there hopefully soon.  The museum started off with the Cincinnati in Motion exhibit, which is a model of the city from the 1900s to 1940s. It was very extensive and pretty neat. My favorite part was walking the streets of the 'old town' and stepping aboard a replica of the steamboat the Queen of the West as part of the recreation of the Cincinnati Public Landing of the late 1850s.

 Since we were near downtown, we decided to eat at Senate, which is known for their 'gourmet' hot dogs. And yes, they even have a handmade vegetarian sausage!  It was delicious - as were the Truffle Fries. It was so crowded, we ended up eating at the bar, which wasn't ideal, but the quality food certainly made up for it.  

We walked around downtown a bit and took in the Homage to Cincinnatus mural. This was created in 1983 when the Kroger Company commissioned artist Richard Haas to execute the mural in honor of Kroger's 100th anniversary. I learned that Cincinnatus is the city's namesake, and he served as Roman dictator in the first century B.C.

 Our final stop of the evening was Eden Park where we happened to witness this little raccoon begging food off people.