Cincinnati:
Things to See & Places to Stay
By
Jim Day
To obtain what I believe are the best driving
directions I’m recommending that readers go to www.randmcnally.com (Rand McNally’s
– the Atlas/Map company’s website) type in your home address and the address
of the Museum, which is 2800 Bullittsburg Church
Road, Petersburg, KY 41080, and you should get maps and detailed driving directions.
Places to Stay
AiG’s website
(www.answersingenesis.org) listed several hotels near the Museum where folks
can stay. This of course is by no means a complete list of hotels and motels to
stay at in and round Cincinnati but the ones listed below are supportive of the
Museum.
|
Marriott Cincinnati Airport 2395
Progress Drive Hebron,
KY 41048 Reservations:
(859) 586-0166 Distance
from Museum: 8.6 miles |
Comfort Suites 775
Petersburg Road Hebron,
KY 41048 Reservations:
(859) 980-0555 Distance
from Museum: 8.6 miles |
Sheraton Cincinnati Airport Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky International Airport Erlanger,
KY 41018 Reservations:
(859) 371-6166 Distance
from Museum: 8.9 miles |
|
Courtyard Marriott Cincinnati Airport 3990
Olympic Boulevard Erlanger,
KY 41018 Reservations:
(859) 647-9900 Distance
from Museum: 10.3 miles |
Holiday Inn – Cincinnati Airport 1717
Airport Exchange Boulevard Erlanger,
KY 41018 Reservations:
(859) 371-2233 Distance
from Museum: 10.3 miles |
Residence Inn Marriott Cincinnati Airport 7811
Circleport Drive Erlanger,
KY 41018 Reservations:
(859) 282-7400 Distance
from Museum: 10.6 miles |
|
Drawbridge Inn 2477
Royal Drive Fort
Mitchell, KY 41017 Reservations:
1-800-426-3841 Distance
from Museum: 14.3 miles |
Hyatt Place 300
Meijer Drive Florence,
KY 41042 Reservations:
(859) 637-1170 Distance
from Museum: 14.8 miles |
Courtyard Marriott Florence Greater Cincinnati
Area 46
Cavalier Boulevard Florence,
KY 41042 Reservations:
(859) 371-6464 Distance
from Museum: 15 miles |
|
Microtel Inn & Suites 7490
Woodspoint Drive Florence,
KY 41042 Reservations:
(859) 746-8100 Distance
from Museum: 16.1 miles |
The following are some of many interesting
places to visit and family friendly things to do in and around Cincinnati. A
very helpful site to visit regarding these and other interesting places (as
well as accommodations and restaurants) is www.cincinnatiusa.com.
1
Levee Way
Newport, Ky. 41071
(866) 538-3359
Newport on the Levee offers 350,000
square feet of fun, open spaces, unique shopping, international dining, an
AMC 20-stadium-style seating movie theater, live street entertainers, a video
game center, an art gallery featuring the original work of Michael Godard and other internationally-renowned artists, a world
under-the-sea at the Newport Aquarium and dramatic Cincinnati downtown skyline
views.
1301
Western Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45203
(513) 287-7000
Cincinnati Museum Center at Union
Terminal is home to the Cincinnati History Museum, Cinergy
Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, the Robert
D. Lindner Family OMNIMAX Theater, and the Cincinnati Historical Society Library.
It is a nationally recognized educational
and research resource and one of the top cultural attractions in the Midwest.
Cincinnati Museum Center serves more than 1.47 million visitors annually,
reaching out to almost 200,000 young people through hands-on exhibits and
programs. As a center for the entire
community, over 700 events are held in the building each year.
Originally built in 1933 as the Union Terminal train station, the building
is a national historic landmark and was renovated and reopened as Cincinnati
Museum enter in 1990.
Newport Aquarium
1
Aquarium Way
Newport, Ky. 41071
(859) 491-3467
Newport Aquarium showcases over 7,000 aquatic
creatures from around the world in a million gallons of water. It’s a state-of-the art facility on the banks
of the Ohio River with some of the world's most advanced, creative technology
designed to take you around the globe, visiting each continent, every ocean and
hundreds of waterways in between. The underwater tunnels, totaling 200 feet,
are among the very few in the world that are completely seamless. Designed and
manufactured in Colorado, each is one solid piece of acrylic, resulting in a 100
percent unobstructed view of the watery world that surrounds you. You'll walk
on the wet side in a kelp forest; a moray eel hideaway; a flooded Amazon
rainforest; a colorful coral reef; and a shark feeding ground.
101
Riverboat Row
Newport, Ky. 41071
(859) 261-8500
Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame & Museum
100
Main Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
(513) 765-7576
With the formation of the Cincinnati Red
Stockings of 1869, professional baseball and America's passion for the sport
were born, and grew, in Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum
offers fans of the Reds, and of baseball, the first comprehensive look into the
sport's heralded past. Nowhere else are fans able to
see as complete of a collection of artifacts from the first professional
baseball team and its rich history in the major leagues. And nowhere outside of
the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., are baseball fans
treated to such an amazing visual history of the World Series and Opening Day.
The Reds Hall of Fame, which opened to the public Sept. 25, 2004, is just west
of Great American Ball Park, the home of the Cincinnati Reds, along
Cincinnati's riverfront. The facility features more than 16,000 square feet of
exhibit space on two floors.
3400
Vine St.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
(800) 944-4776
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is
rated one of the top zoos in the nation and been recognized by Child Magazine as one of "The 10
Best Zoos for Kids." The zoo is an accredited member of the American Zoo
& Aquarium Association, is internationally known for its success in the
protection and propagation of endangered animals and plants, and engages in research
and conservation projects worldwide.
National Underground Railroad Freedom
Center
50 E. Freedom Way
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513)
333-7500
The National Underground Railroad
Freedom Center located in Cincinnati stands as the nation's newest monument
to freedom. It brings to life the importance - and relevance - of struggles
for freedom around the world and throughout history, including today.
Purple People Bridge
One Levee Way,
Suite 1120
Newport, KY 41071
(859) 261-6837
The Purple People Bridge Climb is
an adventure for the young, old and everyone in between. Climbers will embark
upon a unique journey that will take them up among the upper trestles of the
bridge’s five spans, providing them with a bird’s eye view of Northern Kentucky
and Downtown Cincinnati. At the apex of the bridge, climbers walk out onto
a 35 foot long glass floor suspended directly over the Ohio River. During
the trip, experienced Climb Leaders will share stories about the bridge’s
history and structure, while sprinkling in anecdotes of the region’s distinct
role in Ohio River history.
1301 Western Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45203
(513) 287-7000
The Cincinnati History Museum opened
in 1990 and is one of the largest and most significant urban history museums in
the country. The Cincinnati History Museum displays materials and related
aspects of the history of Cincinnati and the surrounding region. Permanent
exhibits include a re-creation of the Cincinnati Public Landing of the late
1850s, where you can step aboard a 94-foot side-wheel steamboat.
The museum also has a large home-front
exhibit on World War II and an actual 1940s streetcar. Visitors can also see a
model of the city of Cincinnati from 1900s to 1940s with working trains and
inclines, as well as interactive computer stations.
Costumed interpreters throughout
the museum allow visitors the unique opportunity make a personal connection
with the past. Speak with a settler new to the river valley in 1792, or help
a flatboat man unload his boat. Visitors can book passage on the recreated
Queen of the West steamboat, or help the printer set type in the Public Landing
area. Folks can then travel through time and speak with a housewife during
WWII making do with rationing, or step on board the WWII era streetcar to
find out about Cincinnati during the 1940s from the conductor.
Harriet Beecher Stowe House
2950
Gilbert Ave.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
(513) 751-0651
The Harriet Beecher Stowe House is
operated as a historical and cultural site, focusing on Harriet Beecher Stowe,
author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The
site also includes a look into the family, friends, and colleagues of the
Beecher-Stowe family, Lane Seminary, and the abolitionist, women’s rights
and Underground Railroad movements in which these historical figures participated
in the 1830's to 1860's, as well as African-American history related to these
movements.
315 W. Court St.
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
(513) 621-5553
Located in a 1907 National Register
firehouse, the museum preserves and exhibits Greater Cincinnati's firefighting
artifacts while honoring all the heroic firefighters, past and present.
Over 200 years of firefighting history
is on display in the museum. Visit exhibits of early leather fire buckets, an
1808 fire drum and the oldest surviving fire engine in Cincinnati, an Hunneman hand pumper, or jump
into a modern Emergency-One fire engine cab and wail the siren, ring the bell
and flash the lights!
The museum is open to the public from 10
a.m.-4 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The
museum is closed Mondays and Holidays. The museum is open for tours by advance
reservation on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
National
Museum of the U.S. Air Force
1100 Spaatz Street
Wright-Patterson AFB
Dayton,
OH 45433
(937) 255-3286
The world's largest and
oldest military aviation museum with free guided tours of the museum.
Tours are offered Sunday through Friday at 1:30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 10:30
a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Advance registration is not necessary with tours beginning
at the entrance to the Early Years Gallery. Parking and admission are free.
953 Eden Park
Drive
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
(513) 639-2984
Explore the Cincinnati Art Museum’s rich, encyclopedic
collection of more than 60,000 objects, spanning 6,000 years of world art.
Ranked 'Top Art Museum for Families' by Parenting Magazine, the museum offers public tours and educational
activities for all ages.
In addition to the art of ancient
Egypt, Greece and Rome, there are extensive galleries of Near and Far Eastern
art, Native American and African
art and extensive galleries of furniture, glass, ceramics, silver, costumes
and folk art.
The painting collection includes
works by European old masters such as Titian, Van Dyck,
Hals, Rubens and Gainsborough, as well as 19th- and 20th-century
works by Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Miró and Chagall. The American collection holds works by Copley,
Cole, Harnett, Wyeth, Wood, Hopper, Diebenkorn and Rothko, as well as major artists from the 1970s
and 1980s.
Areas of special strength include
the only collection of ancient Nabataean art outside
of Jordan, the renowned Herbert Greer French collection of old master prints,
and a fine collection of European and American portrait miniatures. The museum
holds and displays many paintings from Cincinnati's "Golden Age"
(1830-1900) as well as Cincinnati's own Rookwood
pottery and over 40 pieces of Cincinnati carved furniture.
Verdin
Bell and Clock Museum
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
(513) 852-2787
The sound of Verdin
bells rings from more than 30,000 churches and cathedrals while our clocks,
street clocks and towers beautify and enhance thousands of communities, colleges,
shopping malls, and public spaces throughout the world.
The Verdin
Company was started in 1842 in Cincinnati, and has been guided by five generations
of Verdins. During these years the company collected
a trove of historic items associated with the bell and clock business. A museum,
located in the recently restored Old St. Paul's Church, was a natural way
to present the collections to the public.
As I mentioned earlier, these are just a few
of many family friendly attractions to seen in and around Cincinnati and I
highly recommend a visit to www.cincinnatiusa.com for more information regarding
these and other interesting places (as well as accommodations and restaurants)
in the Cincinnati area. Of course, you’ll want to carve out several days during
your visit to thoroughly explore AiG’s Creation
Museum because there’s a lot to see and experience.
