Cincinnati Day 3.0

On my first day here (Saturday) I spent quite a while searching for a small, reasonably priced place to grab some carry-out. I could not find anything open which I attributed to the German festival. I ended up ordering room service which was fine - but really expensive. The next day (being Sunday) was worse. I suppose that I could have eaten at the Aquarium Cafeteria - but it really freaks me out when FISH seems to be the main ingredient in most of their entrees. On the way back to the hotel I looked to see if the Jimmy John's was open but it honestly looked like it had closed in 2005 and has been abandoned ever since. The bagel place: Closed. Subway: Closed. There was nothing else in site that would not require a long walk or a big tip.

Needless to say: I was looking forward to the conference providing all of my daily meals like they did when it was held in Montreal in 2005. I was so disappointed when I found out that the only meal provided was a daily continental breakfast.

Here we are Day 3 and I am not sure what I will do for dinner tonight...I heard that there is an Italian place that is pretty good - but I don't know if I want to walk there by myself after dark. This is not like Chicago where the streets in the city are filled with people all the time. It is more Like Detroit after dark. Looking from my window there does not appear to be anyone on the streets.

Having said all of this - of course I can skip a few meals, in fact I did already. I just get a headache when I do that... I could also ask some of the participants if they would like to tag along but for some reason I am struggling to be social on this trip.

I know I am complaining a lot...Sorry!

Cincinnati Day 2.0

I really need to be at the conference for big chunks of the day for the next three days so I decided that I needed to venture out into the city today. The first thing that I noticed was that (In addition to Oktoberfest) there was a Cincinnati Bengals home game today. The city was engulfed in a sea of orange!

I decided to brave the 1.25 mile walk to the aquarium. Since I was literally walking from Ohio to Kentucky I needed to cross some bridges. There are quite a few in the city. I can count five major ones - and then there are some on the KY side that extend over the tributaries. I really love photographing the bridges because of all of the lines.

Finally I made it to the Newport Aquarium. I really loved it and I highly recommend it. I think that because of the game and Oktoberfest there were not many people there so I got really lucky. I took over 1000 pictures - but as with the ones from Shedd in Chicago I will be lucky if 10% of those are good. From what I can see so far - the new lens has really added to the potential for aquarium photography. Now I need to get a polarizer for it!

Newport Aquarium

Newport Aquarium is located on the Ohio river in Newport, KY. It features 7000 species of aquatic life in a million gallons of water. The aquarium features seamless tunnels and see-through floors. I was slightly disappointed with the small number of seahorses (Only one tank) but I was impressed with all of the other animals!

Cincinnati Day 1.0

I made it here OK. I was having some trouble with the Internet in my room so this will be brief. It is also Oktoberfest here and the Lobby is swarming with drunk smelly people and I am exceedingly uncomfortable...

Yes, Oktoberfest. What is it with the "Americanized - German" festivals, towns, and restaurants and the CHICKEN? Elisabeth, Amanda...are Germans really so obsessed with the chicken? There are people walking around selling "Chicken Hats" of which you see a photo above.

My hotel was build in 1929 and opened in 1930. I love it and I hope to get some more pictures later.

Some sleep for now, although, the hallway smells like barf and since my hotel room is street side it sounds like 1936 Berlin out there. Oh, I bet that I will have some historical dreams tonight.

Cincinnati Day 0.5

Well, it is 8:30 AM and I am still here at the house...not even close to being ready to leave. I am casually sipping coffee and browsing the map seeing if there are any interesting stops that I should make on my way to Cincinnati. The thing is - I had a rather unexpected set-back yesterday.

At about 8:45 AM yesterday morning I sliced into the ring finger on my right hand while cleaning a can for the recycling bin. I don't remember it hurting that much but I remember at the time thinking: "Wow - that seemed like it went really deep..." I could not get it to stop bleeding and after 15 minutes I went to the urgent care just up the road from my house. I was right - it was really deep and would require stitches...two of them. Not a big deal - but there was a lot of pain initially and then my finger was numb for the rest of the day. In a way, it could not have happened at a better time because I will not need to do any lab work for the next week.

I am not too worried about the drive because it is only 4 hours. I am not even that worried about the conference. I already have everything I need in the car in terms of my notes and trip information and my poster. As for the rest of my packing - having gone to Morocco which is still considered a Third World country (Which it does not seem...) I just feel like packing is so much easier when traveling state-side. If I forget anything I can purchase it...I forgot a toothbrush when I went to Chicago earlier this year and I was able to buy one on the way back from a museum one day.

I guess that it feels unnatural to me not to worry so not worrying makes me worry. (Nice.) In the next couple of hours I will pack, pay some bills and then set out. I will be using OnStar to get me there, and depending on the time - I may make some stops along the way. Either way - I hope to keep the blog updated and maybe even post some pictures on my shutterfly account!

Toledo Excursion

Today I went to the botanical gardens in Toledo. At first I thought that those gardens were a sad attempt to compete with the ones in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. This was largely because the parking was bad and it was pretty hard to find the visitor center and once I found it it was locked and there was no one inside to spite the sign that said the hours were 9 - 5. I am pretty happy to say that I was totally wrong about my assumption.

These gardens do not offer state of the art conservatories or cafeteria facilities like the other two. They offer an expansive and diversified grouping of gardens. It only took me about 50 minutes to get there and it was really easy to find. (Pretty close to 23!) If you are able to take some time to see these gardens while the weather is still nice.

Here are five of the over 1000 pictures that I took. They are not the best - but they were the ones that I thought about the whole way home. The one with the berries is a really weird plant that I came across. I think that I like it for my "November" picture for the colors.

The New Lens Phase II

So I went back to MBG This morning and I tested my new lens again. I am much happier with these results. These pictures remind me of the very first set of pictures that I took. All I had then was a 4 mega pixel Olympus camera that was quite expensive in its day but is very outdated now! Well, that and an "eye". I have come a long way but I am not an expert yet. I am planning to go to Grand Rapids next week and hopefully the weather will hold up. The other thing I realized today is that I can not go out in the field again without bug spray!