Soccer Weekend in Cincinnati

Earlier this year we went to an Atlanta United away game in Seattle - and this year we decided to go to another away game, the last Atlanta United game of the season, in Cincinnati. Our friends and fellow season ticket holders snagged some great seats for the game, and we made plans to drive up.

On a Thursday after work we drove part way, stopping for some fried chicken for dinner at Champy's in Cleveland Tennessee. We've been to the original Champy's in Chattanooga, and we're fans! We drove a couple more hours from there, stopping for the night at Cumberland Falls State Park in Kentucky, where we stayed at the historic Dupont Lodge. The lodge itself is fine (the rooms were last updated in the early 2000s) but it was cool to stay in the state park quite a ways off the interstate. We couldn't see much while driving in since it was nighttime, but the next morning we were treated to excellent views from the hotel's back patio. After breakfast we drove the short distance to Cumberland Falls, the main attraction in the state park. We walked to a few different viewpoints before getting back in the car to head up to Cincinnati.

Champy's is... a bit much. But the food is good!

David with his chicken sandwich.

Paul's dark meat fried chicken plate.

David with the Harvest tree in the Dupont Lodge.

The back patio.

Walking towards the overlook. So much color!

Paul enjoying a harvest/fall scene.

Kentucky is really pretty.

Cumberland Falls.

From the falls, it was a little less than a three hour drive to Cincinnati. The fall leaves in Kentucky this time of year were very colorful and it was a nice drive overall. When we arrived in Cincinnati, we went straight to lunch at Gatherall, a new food hall (still in the processing of opening, with about half the stalls under construction) in a former playing card factory northwest of downtown. It's a cool addition to the city, even though it's a ways from downtown.

Gatherall Food Hall. Nice architecture!

Inside was industrial chic. 

David with his Korean fried chicken tenders and bulgogi egg rolls.

From there, we made a somber trip to bring flowers to David's Yiaya's resting place. The cemetery itself (Spring Grove) is really lovely, especially with all the fall colors and some of the elaborate mausoleums. We've visited a few cemeteries over the years as city parks or touristic attractions and this one didn't disappoint with it's attention to detail and restoration works.

How bucolic.

Flying buttresses on the Dexter mausoleum, built in 1869.

Salmon Chase (a senator, governor, and chief supreme court justice) is buried in the cemetery.

David's a fan of fall foliage.

Little stone bridge to a small island. Too cute.

The leaves were popping!

From there we drove to Paul's step-brother's house and hung out and visited for the evening. We hadn't seen him for a while so it was great to catch up with him and his family, especially his two adorable kids. We stayed at their house while visiting Cincinnati. 

The next day, Saturday, we drove downtown and met our Atlanta friends for breakfast at Maplewood Kitchen in downtown. It was pretty good, and definitely a worthwhile breakfast stop if in downtown. We visited their hotel next, the 21c museum hotel. It was really interesting, as the first two floors of the hotel are an art gallery. Really cool concept! Next we saw more art at the Cincinnati Art Museum. This is a very large, impressive art museum with free entry. It's probably the top attraction in the city, with its commanding architecture and wide-ranging collections of art and artifacts. Paul particularly liked the 18th century Damascus room.

Fountain square in downtown.

David's chilaquiles at Maplewood Kitchen.

We don't what this is, but we hate it. Part of the art exhibit at the 21c hotel!

Downtown Cincinnati has great urban form.

Pinocchio welcoming us to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

The Damascus room. It's actually cobbled together from a few different sites.

David and Arvo enjoy more impressive rooms and arts.

Just some demons chilling.

After visiting the museum, we drove up to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood to be closer to the stadium and grab some food at Findlay Market. I think we've visited Findlay Market every time we've come to Cincinnati, it's in a quickly improving urban neighborhood just north of downtown. Plus there's good food options. From the market, we strolled around the neighborhood, did some window shopping, looked at cute streets and made our way over to Washington Park, where the game day fan zone was being held. There were lots of people out enjoying the nice weather in the pretty park. We sat at a café for a bit before heading over to the stadium.

The Cincinnati Music Hall.

The streetcar runs frequently and connects downtown to some of the urban neighborhoods just north.

We come to Findlay Market every time we visit Cincinnati.

Inside the market, this area is mostly grocers.

Lunch arepa!

Hanging out with our lunch outside Findlay Market.

Lots of cute shops around the market, this area is redeveloping quickly.

There are quite a few nice dining and shopping streets in Over the Rhine.

Paul's here for the fun!

The game was a lot of fun. Cincinnati was the number one team, so we expected to lose, but we pulled out a 2-2 tie even after getting a red card. And the seats that our friends got were primo - front row of the top level, just a section over from the Atlanta United away fans supporters groups. The stadium itself is pretty impressive as well. Worth the trip for any soccer fan.

The line to behold/take a picture of the Supporter's Shield.

The soccer gang at the stadium!

I mean, it's a pretty great pitch/view.

The stadium also had a cool light show around its front when it's dark.

The next morning we had a yummy home-cooked pancake breakfast with Paul's step-brother and family, grabbed some iced coffee for the road at Wyoming Community Coffee, and then headed out to pick up David's Aunt Diane, who we were shuttling down to Georgia to visit with David's parents for a few weeks. We made great time back to Atlanta, and enjoyed the fall colors in Kentucky, a stop at Buc-ee's outside of Lexington, and saw some odd random brush fires near the freeway in Dalton, GA. All in all, a great long weekend in Cincinnati and we hope to visit again soon!

Weekend friend visit in NYC

Earlier in October we took a weekend trip up to New York City to visit our friends Thomas and Alexis. Thomas recently moved back to the US from London, so we were excited to visit him in his new home. We flew up after work on a Thursday, and took a Lyft to Thomas's apartment at 8 Spruce Street, a skyscraper designed by Frank Gehry.

On Friday Thomas and Alexis both had to work, so we set out with Thomas's partner Petros and dog Pepper. We started with coffee at Voyager Espresso then took the subway to the High Line. We had a nice walk on a sunny, chilly morning, and travelled the length of the High Line up to Hudson Yards. We saw a lot of people in costumes because Comic Con was happening at the nearby convention center. We stopped for lunch at Gotham West food hall.

Sunrise from the apartment.

Cool architecture in Thomas's neighborhood.

Coffee in an Erlenmeyer flask down in the subway? Why not!

Pepper just hanging out.

An art installation near hell's kitchen.

The High Line trees have really filled out since the last time we visited!

Lots of interesting buildings around the High Line.

David and Petros walking on the High Line.

Approaching Hudson Yards.

The view up through "The Vessel."

Building reflection.

Pozole and pizza for lunch.

After lunch, we walked east, passing near Times Square and through Bryant Park. Our destination was the Morgan Library Museum, housed mainly in a 1906 building that is a national historic landmark. It's a small but impressive space, with a few small exhibits and the breathtaking library that holds J.P. Morgan Chase's collection (yes, the banking family).

Bryant Park was busy on a gorgeous fall Friday.

Ceiling of a hallway in the museum.

A really old book that was part of a botanicals exhibit.

Pierpont Morgan's office.

The main library room.

Some old sheet music that was on display.

Extremely old carved stamps that were used to make repeated patterns.

After finishing up at the library museum, we walked through Grand Central Station on the way to meet up with Thomas after work. We had a chilly but nice sunset stroll checking out New York's architecture and ending with views from Central Park, before taking the subway back to Thomas's apartment.

Grand Central Station.

Old and new architecture in Midtown.

NYC has such cool buildings.

Reflection of a synagogue dome.

Peering into the Apple Store.

We sat for a while in Central Park.

The supertall skyscrapers lining the south end of Central Park.

Thomas's building from City Hall Park.

After relaxing for a bit, we met up with Alexis and all of us went for cocktails at Paper Planes. New York has a lot of good cocktail bars, and this was just the first one we'd visit over the weekend. We had planned on having dinner at a place nearby but it turned out it was permanently closed. Without reservations on a Friday night we were in trouble - after wandering around and having no luck at a few packed places, we eventually found room at Horus Cafe on A. It was an Egyptian restaurant and hookah bar, but luckily they had a small completely separate dining room with no hookah. The food was hit or miss - the cold appetizers were great, but the koshari was actively bad. We still had a good time and enjoyed the company and the Lebanese beer. We went back and hung out at Thomas's place to close out the night.

Brooklyn skyline at sunset.

Creative cocktails at Paper Planes.

Round two!

The wild over-the-top theming in Horus Cafe.

The appetizers were great!

The forecast on Saturday called for rain, and it was indeed rainy pretty much all day. We didn't let that stop our touristy plans! After getting caffeinated at Variety Coffee the five of us walked to the Skyscraper Museum. It's a small but interesting museum, mostly focusing on NYC's skyscraper history. We had brunch at Broadstone, then went to the nearby National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is a Smithsonian museum, and has some excellent exhibits as well as being in a really cool building. Highly recommended.

Iced coffee and chai to get us going. Oh boy, which is which?!

The skyscraper museum.

The weather was a bit miserable.

Brunch time!

The grand central hall of the Museum of the American Indian.

One of the displays.

A cool contemporary piece.

The museum is in the impressive Alexander Hamilton US Custom House. 

After the museum, we took the subway to Alexis's neighborhood, SoHo, grabbing some coffee at Drip Drop Cafe on the way. We hung out and had some wine at Alexis's new apartment before heading to dinner at Old Tbilisi Garden, which is a Georgian restaurant. We particularly enjoyed the dumplings and some of the spreads. After dinner we had some excellent cocktails at Donna.

A nice stop on a rainy day.

The delicious appetizer platter at Old Tbilisi.

Georgian dumplings.

A big-ass cheesy bread bowl.

Donna had creative and delicious cocktails.

Shot from New Year's Eve 2010.

Faithfully recreated 13 years later!

Also we were there 😉

On Sunday morning David had arranged a meet-up with a couple of his Final Fantasy XIV friends (Shaina and Mike) that live in the area for brunch at an Instagram-worthy spot called Haven Rooftop. David has known and played games with Shaina for 20 years but this is the first time they met in person! 😁 Super exciting!

After brunch we strolled over to Bibble and Sip with Mike and Shaina for some super cute desserts to take to go.  After saying goodbyes, we headed back to lower Manhattan to hang out with Thomas, Alexis and Petros for about an hour before jetting off to the airport. Overall, this was a great weekend in NYC! It was great to see old friends again, or for the first time in person. Looking forward to more catch-up trips in the future.

Paul's brunch at Haven.

Brunch rooftop views were really nice!

Final Fantasy brunch crew! And Paul. But we're rocking with Paul b/c Paul's rocking with us!

Really adorable snacks from Bibble and Sip.

David, Alexis and Thomas! Aging like fine wine...?

Hey maybe next time we'll take the bus! 😅