To celebrate my completion of graduate school at Eastern
Kentucky University, Ariane and I took a little trip out to the Ohio and
Kentucky area to do some sightseeing and spend some time away from the
kids. I love my kids more than anything
but there is nothing better than a childless vacation, especially when you are
just sightseeing.
Ariane has family that lives in Ohio so we were able to
spend a few nights with her aunt and some of her cousins. She really enjoyed seeing them again and it
was cool for me to get to know some of them.
We went with them to a Cleveland Indians game one night.
The tribe managed to beat Oakland, but it does help when you
hit four home runs in the game, pretty exciting.
While we were up in that area we decided to go see a few
sacred sites like the church history sights in Kirtland and the Pro Football
Hall of Fame in Canton.
The hall of fame was cool, we got to see all kinds of cool
football memorabilia.
Of course the highlights were the Denver Broncos stuff like
the John Elway bust and jersey.
The Super Bowl jersey of Terrell Davis and the rings from
their two super bowl wins.
There was some old Broncos stuff from their AFL days.
Arianes personal favorite was the jersey worn by Tim Tebow
when he won that miracle playoff game a couple of years ago.
Probably the only time you’ll see anything
that says Tebow in the Hall of Fame.
After our trip to the Hall of Fame we went up to Kirtland to
see the church history sites. We went to
the Newel K. Whitney Store, where the school of the profits was held and many
revelations were given that made up several sections of the Doctrine and
Covenants.
We then went up the road to the Kirtland Temple, currently
owned and operated by the Community of Christ (formerly known as the Reorganized
LDS church).
It was really neat to be in
that building where so many sacred things took place.
After a couple nights in the Cleveland area, the mistake by
the lake as Ariane’s Uncle Dave called it.
We drove south to Cincinnati where we caught a Reds game.
The Reds lost to the Atlanta Braves 7-4, the
Braves hit a grand slam in the game. I
wasn’t to broken up about the loss since the Reds play in the Cardinals
division and a Reds loss helps the Cards out.
After out night in Cincinnati we then headed across the Ohio
River to Louisville Kentucky.
We took a
tour of the Louisville Slugger factory and museum; they make all the bats for
major league baseball.
They had some cool stuff there like one of Babe Ruth’s bats
that he used when he hit 60 home runs in a season.
We got to hold some game used bats, like
Mickey Mantles, that I am holding, and Johnny Bench’s, that Ariane is
holding.
We even took a few swings in a
batting cage, here I am using Evan Longoria’s bat, I even managed to foul a few
pitches really hard.
They had a cool Lego exhibit there as well. Here is a replica of Wrigley Field in
Chicago.
While in Louisville we spent the night with an old friend of
mine, Robert Valention. He was kind
enough to let us crash at his place.
We also checked out Church Hill Downs, where the Kentucky
Derby is held, we were a week late for the Derby however.
They even have former Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird
stabled there.
Then it was on to Richmond KY, for graduation ceremonies. This was the first time I had ever set foot
on the campus of my school.
They offered a tour to all the on-line students so we took
it.
Here is the Johnson
building, the main reception area for the university.
Students rub the foot of Daniel Boone for good luck when
they walk by it.
When we got home and told Lucy all that we had done, she
told us it sounded like a boring trip.
For us it was exciting to be able to listen to a tour guide, read all
the plaques in a museum and sit through a baseball game and graduation without
the kids bothering us because they were bored.
We’ll have to take them to Disneyland or Sea World some time to make it
up to them.
