Keeping it Local: Kings Island

Ok, this one is kind of a cop-out. We were supposed to go to the Essex Studio Walk, but a friend asked if we wanted to join her for a late run to Kings Island. And since we are pass-holders, we decided it was a good idea.

We didn't do much but get our first look at the 2011 edition of the park... it's a lot like the 2010 edition, but with a very large tower of a ride that isn't operating yet, and an animatronic dinosaur to greet you just inside the front gate.

Immediately, we headed to Boo Blasters so that Jerry could school us in the art of shooting a laser at a target. First round scores: Jerry - 1410, Gina - 510, Marilee - 420. Jerry made sure to point out that at least he didn't triple my score.

We then made our way through Kiddie Land to Rivertown, just taking in the sights. A quick dinner of Potato Works Fries (did you know that "Rivertown" spelled backwards is "Potato Works Fries"?), and we were off to the Beast. I made sure that we didn't ride over a wheel, but the ride still beat us up pretty well. I swear it's been sped up! And riding in the dark but with the lights in the tunnels on is not awesome!

We made our way through Coney to the Racers - which still both go forward :(

A quick walk through Action Zone made us (me and Marilee) realize that we only really like Drop Tower any more. We're getting so old.

We stopped to ride Der Viking Fury. Jerry chose the seats, and unfortunately, he selected seats directly in front of 3 screaming girls who basically told us once we were seated that we would be annoyed because they were cheerleaders and were gonna scream the entire ride. Also annoying: nobody does the "Tastes Great!"-"Less Filling" shouting match anymore. What is the world coming to?

After exiting the Viking Fury, we strolled through the Emporium, checked out the lighted area behind the Eiffel Tower and decided to end the night with Jerry beating us once more on Boo Blasters.

Except he didn't!

Final Scores of the night:
Jerry - 420
Marilee - 589 (something was wrong with her last digit)
Gina - 710

Take that, husband!!!!!

Next week, we will watch the Reds (hopefully) dominate the Cardinals, and collect Sparky Anderson bronze statues!

Keeping it Local: Demolition Derby

Jerry and I have always said that we want to find ways to incorporate more local activities into our lives. We try to find restaurants that are small local favorites (El Pueblo, anyone?) and participate in activities that are uniquely Cincinnati. It is my hope that I can add a local weekly feature to the blog. I need to get better about actually updating it more often though!

Actually, a few months ago, I applied for a new job (shocking, I know) with the Cincinnati USA Regional Tourism Network. I was even in the process of creating a blog to highlight all of the local things that we do and show my love of this city. That didn't work out so well. Before I had even chosen the design of the blog, I was informed that my resume was not moving forward. No biggie... it was a little bit bigger job than I was probably ready for anyway.

However, as Jerry and I try to invest locally, I thought that it would be a nice addition here as a small segment rather than a dedicated blog.

Keeping it Local Adventure #1: Demolition Derby at the Hamilton County Fairgrounds.

For a friend's birthday, she invited us to dress up in our hillbilly best - we went for fresh-off-the-farm chic (wish I had taken a pic because Jerry and I were cute!) - and join her to celebrate her birthday by watching automobiles slam into each other. The admission fee was only $10 per person and I think that it was $10 well spent!

The Derby consisted of 3 rounds: Tractors, Mini-Derby, and Full Derby.

The Tractor Competition featured 11 or 12 tractors customized for the event. One was driven by a little guy who appeared to be no more than 10 years old. He lasted a pretty long time, but ultimately came in somewhere around 4th or 5th. The entire Tractor portion might have lasted 10 minutes. The roars from the crowd as tractors flipped over and lost wheels were great! (I don't know why these photos are importing all funky, but here are some photos...)

 

After the tractor competition, came the Mini-Derby - 3 smaller cars and a quick competition. Again, the crowd roared as engines smoked and cars were crumpled. I can't remember who won, but I wanna say it was 701.

 

Final round was the full derby. I think the entire field included 8-10 cars and it looked a little something like this...

The field as the derby begins.

It would appear this guy is missing a tire 

But if you look closely, his axle snapped (It's now sitting on the hood of the car)

Post-derby, we headed to Quaker Steak & Lube in Colerain for some wings. I tried the boneless wings with Buffalo Blue Dry Rub. I have to be honest, I didn't really enjoy them. But I did enjoy my mini mason jar full of alcohol. Apparently, I am making a mason jar collection. Jerry opted to use my Joe's Crab Shack jar for his beer yesterday. And he liked it!

Next local adventure possibility..
- Essex Studio Walk (and visit to American Sign Museum)

Primer aniversario

(Be forewarned... brevity is not my specialty)

On April 8, Jerry and I celebrated a very happy first anniversary of marriage. On April 9, we continued the celebration by watching nephew Jacob's soccer game, running by the Taj Ma Hoell to complete our 2010 taxes, and heading up to Dayton International Airport to catch a flight to San Juan, PR (Via Washington Dulles).

Ah, Puerto Rico: where gas is sold in liters, speed is displayed in mph, and distance is measured in kilometers...

 

And you have to remember to watch out for the iguanas:

We had an action packed trip to Puerto Rico, but we made sure to allow plenty of time for relaxation by the pool. We headed first to pick up our car. On advice from a former Puerto Rican resident and a host of PR travel sites, I requested a compact car. PR drivers are crazy and a compact car would allow me to easily maneuver the craziness. After a ridiculously long wait, we were told that they didn't have any compact cars (it was late, they barely had any stock left), and that they were going to give us an SUV for the same price. This had me slightly worried - you're going to give me a huge car when I ordered a small one? Then this rolled up:

That's right: the 2010 version of the car that I drive everyday!  We headed off to el Walmarto to pick up a few snacks and drinks since we heard the resort was a wee bit on the expensive side. And finally around 11:00, we checked into the Wyndham Rio Mar. After begging for a room change so as not to have to watch/hear the pool-goers everyday, it was pajama city.

Sunday, April 10

I was, of course, up very early the next morning to see the view from room:

Sunday was a mostly quiet day around the hotel - touring the grounds, relaxing near the pool for a bit, and enjoying lunch and island drinks at the Tiki Bar. Once it was dark, we headed toward Fajardo to check out the biobay. Because the bioluminescent plankton can only be seen when the moon provides the least light, this was the only day that we could go during our trip as the moon was headed toward full. We kayaked out to a lagoon and back. Because we had to walk through water and were wet the entire time, we couldn't take cameras and therefore have no pictures :( 

Monday, April 11

We were supposed to sit through a sales pitch first thing in the morning, but thanks to a whole bunch f confusion, we got out of the sales pitch and still got our free gift: a cabana by the adult pool with chips, drinks, and fruit! After a sitting by the pool for a bit, we headed to the Luquillo Kiosks for lunch at La Parilla where we enjoyed the local specialty: Mofongo (fried plantains mashed with garlic and butter).

Plain Mofongo

After lunch, we explored the rest of the kiosks and headed back to the hotel in time to hit happy hour at the Tiki Bar: 2 for 1 rum punch - my mom would be in heaven here! We had a simple dinner a few more drinks at the lobby bar before hitting the resort casino and quickly losing $20 (but getting free drinks). 

Tuesday, April 12

We headed to Old San Juan. Our plan was to first stop at El Churry - a food truck featured on Man vs. Food - to try a local specialty. Unfortunately, El Churry is no more - or possibly it has moved, but it wasn't where we were told. As we entered Old San Juan, we were starving, so we dined at Cafe PR.

Lunch: Chicken Stuffed Eggplant with rice and fried plantains 

We then stopped by the Puerto Rico Tourism Center to try a local drink (free rum drinks in the lobby), Casa DonQ to try to local's favorite rum, and the Old Harbor Brewery to try a San Juan microbrew. Time to walk off all those drinks, so we headed to La Princessa and walked the 3/4 mile walk outside the city wall - only to learn that the back entrance of the El Morro fort is closed from this side. We walked about a 1/2 mile back to the gate, up a large hill to the cathedral, and finally made our way to the front entrance to the fort, where we took a quick tour before heading back out to the streets of Old San Juan.

Walking up to El Morro

We stopped at DonQ again to make a few purchases and headed back to the hotel for light bites and drinks at the lobby bar.

Wednesday, April 13

Based on advice from various websites, we drove to El Yunque early in the morning. It was a long an arduous drive since the entrance to the rainforest was across the street from the resort entrance. We drove the main road of the rainforest and decided that we would hike one of the medium size trails: La Mina. We hiked way down to La Mina falls and intersected another medium size trail: Big Tree. We hiked back up the very steep trail thinking that it ended somewhere near La Mina. We ended about 1.5 km from where we started and were forced to hike back up the main road to find our car. Did I mention that it was the RAINforest? It was constantly misting and we hit one heavy downpour, otherwise, the weather was great.

La Mina Falls

As we made our way back to the hotel, we noticed one or two (thousand) signs for a restaurant called Richie's Cafe. It was slightly past the resort entrance so we decided to try it out since it was lunch time. The food was good, the drinks were expensive, and the view was amazing!

Overlooking the resort from Richie's

We ended the afternoon lounging by the pool and finding out that Tiki Bar happy hour was cancelled. We decided to try the Iguana's Pub at the country club inside the resort where I had a delicious veggie burger, before settling in for a night of relaxation.

Thursday, April 14

Jerry really wanted to see Arecibo - a large radio-telescope which I had never heard of until he mentioned it shortly before heading to PR. After a 2 hour drive, mostly along crazy winding roads, we explored the giant dish in the ground and learned why PR is such an amazing location for the research coming from this facility. They have a neat display of the planets throughout the property, located to show the relative distance from the sun. Our drive back through the winding country roads was interesting, particularly when we stopped for goats who had gotten away from their owner. Our trip back included stops for souvenir shopping and drinks at the Luquillo Kiosks. At the hotel, happy hour was back on, and dinner consisted of light bites at the lobby bar.

Friday, April 15

It was our last day in PR, so we cashed in on that free cabana rental, and lounged by the pool all day (minus a short break to hit the beach a few steps away).

Free Cabana!

We ended the day with happy hour at the Tiki Bar where our favorite bartender, Warren, might have slipped us an extra rum punch on the house. We called it an early night in light of our early wake-up call for our flight home.

While there was the occasional rain shower, the weather couldn't have been better! We had an amazing time and cannot give enough thanks to everyone who helped us make it happen...

Jerry's parents who let us use their Wyndham points

Gina's parents who entertained Corby on Saturday evening

Eric Faber who provided house- and Corby-sitting services throughout the week

Thank you all for making our first anniversary special!

My Anniversary was Last Week

I said that at the one year mark I would blog about the past year and take up blogging more often.

But...

I have been in Puerto Rico since the anniversary date on a VERY much needed anniversary-moon vacation. We returned last night and I have so many things to talk about that I haven't been able to properly organize my thoughts.

This week, I will catch you all (both?) up on the lives of the McWhorters. After Tuesday, I am either gonna have good news or a bad mood.

Come back to find out why...

Holy Relaxing Weekend, Batman

Not too relaxing, but kinda just what we needed.

It was a rough week at work for me. If it could go wrong, it most likely did. I bust my...er, hump... everyday with very little reward. I tell Jerry everyday that I'm not going to take it anymore - not going to come in early, stay late, or take anything personally. And yet there I was on Friday: in the office by 7:30 and stuck there until 5:15 while others "worked" from home since the boss took off early for a family trip.

But I digress.

After a particularly frustrating day, I came home Friday night to relax on the couch with my husband while enjoying some basketball. I think that I was asleep by 10:30 at the latest!

Sleep was decent since the boy stayed relatively quiet until early in the morning, so I wasn't fighting him for blankets. I was up early and contemplated hitting up Zumba but decided to work around the house instead. Husband and I did some extensive cleaning up and cleaning out. For the first time in a VERY long time, the office is just shy of immaculate. Laundry is done and put away. Ugly peel-n-stick tile is mostly removed from the storage area in the basement. Husband bottled one batch f beer and brewed a second. I would go so far as to say this house is clean... enough for the cleaners that are coming next Saturday! The highlight of our day was heading to Chicken on the Run for dinner and bumping into friends who recently moved into the neighborhood.

Sunday started with breakfast at my parents and then home to finish a few cleaning items. I only popped into my work email once, and that was simply to get the link to my NCAA bracket. As I write this, UNC tied up the game that will determine whether I win the office bracket challenge (everyone has had their final four selections knocked out except for me, but I still trail by 30 points). Failure update: UNC lost :( Other than a few cleaning issues, it has been a pretty lazy day.

Best Weekend Ever... until next weekend when we go to the April 2 Reds game and April 3 Reds Un-Cut show at the Aronoff... and then until the following weekend when we leave for Puerto Rico.

An then the next best weekend ever will occur on whatever weekend falls between the last week that I work at my current job and the week that I take up a new one (working on it!). Wish I could predict when that will occur...

No good excuses

It's been a tough week. I have been mentally, emotionally, and physically challenged this week. I am drained, and in desperate need of some change!

Fortunately, this week has been flying! I have to prepare my work time sheets a day in advance so that I will even know what day it is.

Reds opening day is one week away and Jerry and I took the day off work. I think I am going to attempt to sprinkle in a few personal projects in addition to meeting with a landscaper and (of course) watching the game.

 Then it's only 6 more days of work and we are off to enjoy our delayed honeymoon in sunny Puerto Rico. Maybe some down time will bring with it new perspective. Maybe all of my work projects will perish in my absence. You never know what to expect.

Here Chickie, Chickie... and ugly eggs

Today, I made cake pops! As I mentioned before I want to make them so badly! I decided that I am making them for Easter, so I needed to practice today. The chicks looked adorable, but the eggs just didn't look as good as I would have hoped considering the effort involved. In any case, here are some pictures...

Yellow cake batter, ready to go into the oven

Cooled cake (after husband had a piece)

Crumbled cake (spread out to dry a little more)

Balls of cake and vanilla icing

Everything it took to decorate - candy melts, lollipop sticks, star decors, spring mix, rainbow chips, corn syrup, spring colored sugars, and edible black markers.

Man down! This one was too warm when I dropped it in the warm candy melts. It was properly disposed of - tasted delicious, too!

Chickies! 

"Egg," getting ready to decorate

Finished chickies and eggs!

The eggs took a ridiculously long time. I gave up trying to paint on the corn syrup to add the colored "ribbons" because it was falling off in clumps. Adding the individual decorations took a REALLY long time because you have to add a drop of coating to get them to stick. And since you need so little, it dries very quickly.

In any case, they are finished and I am about 90% sure I will not do the eggs again. Unless I come up with a better method...