Tuesday Cincinnati

(No time to include pictures on this blog. Sorry, I know they add to the story)

It is Tuesday, August 26, 2008 and it is sad that this might be our last time aboard the Delta Queen when she is an overnight cruise ship. Her fate is still undecided as it was in 1970 under these same circumstances – one powerful senator decides that the boat is unsafe because it is made of wood and might catch fire therefore blocks all attempts at exempting the boat from a law that was meant for wooden boats on the high seas.

As happened 38 years ago, a grassroots effort to keep the boat running as a cruise ship on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers was started. Last time it was successful and Congress has voted for an exemption quite a few times since then. This time the outcome is in doubt. If you are reading this and you want the Delta Queen to continue to run then you need to send a FAX to your local Representative in Congress and let them know that you support the Delta Queen. Details on how to do this can be found at www.save-the-delta-queen.org

I contacted Budget Car Rental after breakfast and they came and picked Doug and me up at the landing and we rented a Dodge Grand Caravan that I had previously reserved. Back to the landing we went to pick up the ladies and all of our luggage. We drove about 100 yards and parked and walked Cincinnati’s Serpentine Wall, Sawyer Park, the Purple People Bridge, and the relief map of the Ohio River.

Driving into downtown our first destination was the Carew Tower which offered us a spectacular sunny-day, 49 stories-up view for 50 miles in all directions. On top we met 2 other couples that had Delta Queen shirts on and they were just getting ready to head down to the boat for their 7 day cruise. We talked for about 20 minutes about our experiences, the staff that was still on board, and what they could expect in the week ahead. That was fun.

We found lunch in the Food Court in the base of the tower but had we known about the party going on in Fountain Square across the street we probably would have eaten there. There was a Farmers Market set up there and it was lunch time and everyone was eating and talking and listening to music. It was a very vibrant atmosphere. We decided to have an ice cream and sit and talk and take in the ambiance for awhile.

Union Station is this huge old train station that now houses the Children’s Museum, the History Museum, the Nature and Science Museum, an IMAX Theater and an Amtrak Station. It is shaped like a half dome and is cavernous. When in Cincy this is a must-see.

We decided to do just the History Museum after walking around and gawking at everything. They have a scale model of the city with trains and trolley cars moving around. It is spectacular. Day is 5 minutes long and then the city changes to night for 2 minutes.

They had a miniature amusement park in another exhibit. There was a scaled-down riverboat that you could walk through and it had a cut-away of how the boiler and steam power plant worked.

This is one of the best museums we’ve ever been to. The setting and the exhibits are just the best.

The DQ would be leaving Cincy tonight at 6pm so we headed on down to the landing to wave goodbye, take some pictures (oh really?) and “move on” to the next phase of our vacation. We were no longer “boat people”. We were “those steamboat chasers on shore”.

We checked into our Extended Stay in Florence, KY where we will be for a couple of nights.