Right before I left for sabbatical, I received a great book about what to do around Cincinnati. I was beyond excited to get it and got right to planning and entire summer worth of field trips!
Last week we had our first field trip and it was to the American Sign Museum (4 out of 5 stars). It was a LOT better than I expected and I found myself enjoying it too! We booked the tour and tickets online and learned a lot about signs – from those hand carved to neon/argon signs!
The tour was informative, interesting and kept Lucas’s interested (although Alan was really distracted, but how much attention can one expect from a 4-year-old boy?).
At the end of the tour, they take you to a working neon/argon sign maker store (the only one in Cincinnati). There we saw a live demonstration of how signs are made, from bending the glass, to extracting the existing air and impurities and the introduction of the noble gas. It was really cool (but I’m also a nerd, so not surprising).
Our second field trip was to Lake Isabella (4 out of 5 stars)–a fully stocked fishing lake with rowboats and a great park. Although we didn’t fish, on account of my desire to avoid inflicting pain on other creatures for fun, we did take out a rowboat (and for $5 too! a bargain). We went around the lake, most of the time in a circle, since the boys insisted on rowing themselves. There was a considerable amount of people fishing there, which is baffling since it was a Wednesday in the middle of the day. After the boys got tired, we returned the row-boat and walked over to the park. The park, like the entire lake, was very well-kept and beautifully done. While there, the boys played on the playground and even got some nature study in. We identified the song of a Robin, thanks to my handy-dandy new BirdSongId App and positively identified a Sycamore tree thanks to my “Trees of Ohio” book.
Our last stop was Chateau La Roche or the Loveland Castle (2 out of 5 stars). The castle, which is now maintained by the Knights of the Golden Trail (KOGT), was built over 50 years by Harry D. Andrews. The castle is actually pretty small and to be honest, smells (which presumably is normal in a castle?). It is furnished here and there with knight armor and medieval decorations. The castle doesn’t have a lot for little kids to do and so it was a short trip for us. In one of the rooms, a TV showed Andrews describing the experiences he had while building the castle – including one time when local riff raft tried to set fire to part of it and left after breaking his leg. Of course, when Dennis asked the boys what they remembered about the castle, that’s what they recounted.
When we got back, Lucas insisted that he wanted more nature study and went to our backyard. He came back after drawing a picture of himself and a tree. I guess something is sticking!
Te amo!