I have been working long hours. For 3 weeks now I have been working very hard on the new Rice-A-Roni website. It has been a very good learning experience and I have learned more CSS tricks and tips than ever before. I would have been done in a week if it wasn’t for Internet Explorer 6. DOWN WITH IE6!
Anyway, I wanted to make it up to Sarah and the kids for not being here so much and decided that we should go on a trip. While we are here I want to visit as many states and places as possible. We have been to Illinois so I thought that today we could visit the magical state of Ohio and go to Cincinnati. I don’t know much about Cincinnati other than it has a Zoo, an Ikea and an Amrican football team called the Cincinnati Bengals.
I find it is always good to go out with a game plan. You get up early, you make sure that the kids have got something to do in the back of the car while you are driving, you have an overnight bag and a change of clothes just in case… and you bring food with you for the journey.
It took around 2hours 45 minutes to get to the Zoo from our house and was quite a nice journey. The roads were smooth and clear while the sunshine shone the whole day.
Central Indiana if flat… very flat! In fact I can’t remember the last time I saw a hill. Imagine East Anglia, but patted down with a huge spade followed by a lawn roller. It comes to something when you get vertigo from going over speed bumps, but that is how I am starting to feel.
The first obvious different is that in Ohio, it is about 10 miles an hour slower on the roads. The second is that they have a hill.
The zoo is on the west side of the city so it didn’t take long to get to. To get to the Zoo you go through a neighborhood that has quite unique looking houses where no two are the same. I really liked them. It kind of reminded me of the buildings you get in San Francisco going up the hills.
The zoo was modern and the kids really loved it. When I asked what Zacks highlight was, he replied watching that penguin squirt its poo where that other penguin was swimming. “My Boy Everyone!” I’m so proud.
After we were done with the zoo (and by that I mean “done in by the zoo”… It was on a hill… I forgot what they were like!) we went to the Ikea. It was only 10 minutes away.
Back in the UK we used to take our kids to Ikea for a treat. (Go with me here because it’s true). There is an indoor kids area called “small land”, where you can dump the kids off and you pick them up after you have been shopping. From the kid’s point of view, this is an extra special treat they get for being good. From our point of view, it is an hour off, while basically sit on the furniture and get our breath back.
The main difference between Ikea in the USA and Ikea in the UK is…. Bugger all. In fact, (dare I say) it reminded me of home and was very comforting. The best bit was that they do the mini dime bars covered in milk chocolate. You need to understand that chocolate here is, well, crap! It says milk, but it tastes bitter but not like dark chocolate. It’s horrible in my opinion. This was the first time that I had descent chocolate since I have been here.
On the way back Sarah and I took it in turns to drive back. I am so glad we could do it in shifts, as I could really feel my eyes getting heavy.
A good day was had by all. I’m gonna stuff my face with “milk” chocolate now!
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