Day Trip

Kara and I are officially done with another semester of school! Kara is definitely beginning to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as she only has one more collegiate semester remaining. I still have another three semesters of school left, but everything is beginning to take shape as far as what we will be doing/where we will be next summer when we begin our lives together.

Kara accepted a job in Batesville with Hill-Rom, which will begin soon after we get married next summer. While she is in Batesville, I will be working for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, which is likely where we will be living next summer as well. We are both really excited, but we haven't had much time to explore the area, so we decided to take a small day trip last weekend to look around and also celebrate finals being over.

RomWeber

First stop - RomWeber. I am not exactly sure what this place is, but it was in Batesville on the way to Cincinnati and they had something online saying that there would be Christmas vendors there. There were only about 8 cars in the parking lot (including us), so Kara made me go in first. I wouldn't say it lived up to expectations (because we hadn't really set any), but it was definitely a good break and we walked around checking everything out. Some art vendor there tried to price-discriminate me into buying a few paintings, but I didn't see anything there that was really my style (if I have one).

Our second stop was actually at the Batesville Wendy's. In a crazy coincidence, we actually ran into the man who hired Kara to work for Hill-Rom next year. He and his family seemed like really great people, and I can see why she is looking forward to starting her job next year.

Cincinnati Art Museum

 By the way, Kara and I both realized that we have been spelling Cincinnati wrong since about middle school. Whoever taught us how to spell this must have said it was "Cincinatti", because both of us had always written it that way....

Anyways, we stopped at the art museum next, which was officially our first visit together to such a place. They had some really awesome paintings there, but my favorite part was an old armor section that they had that included spears, knives, swords, and bows. Somehow, it brought me back to the Lord of the Rings world. (I always watch a trilogy during finals week). Kara's favorite part was probably the exhibit that had about 50 wedding dresses, which covered a time period from about 1850-present. Even though she liked it, I can't imagine her wearing almost any of the dresses in there....but maybe I will be surprised.

The Two Towers - yet another LoTR reference

In the background of this picture is the corporate headquarters for Procter & Gamble, which includes the two towers and the long building to the left. Taking this picture was quite the experience. The top of this structure, whatever it is, was by far the slickest surface I had ever put my feet on. I was ice skating all over the place, while Kara was taking it all in and laughing her head off. Thankfully, no injuries...

Corny, I know

Duke Energy Center Miniature Trains

Our last downtown Cincinnati stop was at the Duke Energy Building, which is where they have one of the largest miniature train tracks set up for the holidays. It seemed like all the kids within 30 miles of Cincinnati were there, and we waited about 30 minutes for 1-minute of viewing in the front row, but it was still worthwhile and helped warm us up from walking outside.

"Thomas"

We finished up our journey with a shopping trip to a suburb, which was largely unsuccessful. However, a finishing touch at P.F. Chang's made the shopping experience worthwhile!

Overall, we enjoyed our trip and are looking forward to experiencing everything else the area has to offer in the future....hopefully we will have plenty of time for that in a few years...

Merry Christmas!