More cincy

 We went the Basilica in Kentucky right across the river from Cincy.  Tripadvisor mentioned it and again, this was a time when I was totally shocked by a cathedral in the US.  This was not as impressive as the one in St. Louis, but they had some beautiful mosaic work as well.  There were some great looking little niches as small chapels throughout the basilica and it had a gothic façade out front that looked like you were standing in front of a little Notre Dame.

   We took pictures in front of it even though it was raining.  Then we went over to the little version on the Brooklyn Bridge that crosses the Ohio into downtown Cincy and it has two roundabouts on either side of it, so we were able to go across and back across several times to look at different things as we went over.  It was interesting to see the ballpark getting ready for the opening day with testing lights, their 

 employees, the big outfield board and the sound system while we’re buying tickets for a hockey game.  This just isn’t right I’m thinking.  I don’t know which season is lasting too long (both actually) or starting too early (baseball is).  We had a plan to go the museum in Cincy and we’re heading out to a main shopping strip first and got horrendously lost.  I mean, John and I have gone the wrong way before, then had to turn around, but

 this was like we had left Cincy and ended up in Deliverance country while we were still in the center of a very large city.  I’m not sure how we did that, but we were in the middle of nowhere with battlefields, huge estate mansions, and we were only a mile as the crow flies from a ridiculously overcrowded mall area.  All the streets had the same names and we would look at the map and couldn’t figure out how we were going wrong because we were on the right 

  street.  Needless to say, we actually stopped and asked for directions before being told that we were a couple of miles from it, just going in circles apparently.  It really felt like an episode from the twilight zone or something.

We finally got to the art museum and it had a lot of great works in it.  Again, one of the those cities sitting around America with a world class museum.  They had their set up very interesting too, their main events were staged together with 

fringe niches around them in order to highlight them.  I know that this description does not make sense, but it was very nice to walk down the corridor and see the ones that you would spend hours looking for in the labyrinth of halls, but didn’t want to miss.  Also, they have a very long back room where they put out all of their artworks that are not on display.  Again, this sentence doesn’t make sense, but instead of having things in storage that you might not get to see 

 (talking to you Toledo), they hang all of their works of art out in this back room, but there are no plaques telling you what the piece is and who the artist was.  It was fun to try to guess though and I was fairly certain that we got a good amount correct.  It was a like a puzzle and fun.  John and I are always very aware of the camera etiquette in the museums (he makes a point of asking every time we walk in) because students taking the

 foreign study a couple of years ago made him mad by taking pictures in the catacombs were it was forbidden.  Now, forbidden was forgotten about when he wanted to take a picture of Michelangelo’s David in Florence, but he does have respect for the dead I guess.  I’m off topic now, but anyway, John only wants to get yelled at by Italian docents apparently, because he always asks now.  They told us that borrowed paintings could not be photographed, but 

there were no other restrictions on camera use, until we came to the attic vases in the back that I wanted a picture of by the Berlin painter.  Suddenly, one of the docents told us that we couldn’t take the picture and when John apologized and explained that we thought only borrowed things were off limits, she confirmed this, but then did not make it clear why we couldn’t take it of the vase that was part of the permanent collection just because it was in a room with some borrowed works.  After a seriously confusing discussion with no outcome besides don’t take pictures and some concern for this woman’s IQ, we moved on and I have included some of my favorites from this museum. 

We made it to the game in time, but had no gas in the car and have to wonder if we will make it back to the hotel or across the bridge into Kentucky in order to fill up since there are no gas stations in downtown Cincy.  We had a great game to watch and everyone else got to watch it (and us) on actual TV.  Ferris should have won that game with all the shots, the great way that they played, and a goalie that was on fire, but we were saved a trip to Philadelphia in two weeks.