Here is the list of cities I visited in 2011 with at least one night spent in each place. The list is a little lighter than years past but we did had a baby and a big cross-country move this year. I hope the list for this coming year will be longer, and maybe I will finally visit Oregon, my last remaining state to visit.

• Denver, CO *
• Lone Tree, CO
• Estes Park, CO
• Loveland, OH *
• Cincinnati, OH *
• Hays, KS
• Kansas City, MO
• Terre Haute, IN
• Chicago, IL
• Hagerstown, MD
• Seaford, DE
• Virginia Beach, VA
• Charleston, WV
• Independence, OH
• Westlake, OH
• Mount Sterling, OH

Those cities marked with an * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days.

See also: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006

My attempt to complete the Jenny Challenge this year is over and I did not finish the 100 miles before Christmas. I’ve continued to log my miles and I should break the century mark tomorrow, as long as the weather is good. My biggest challenge for this year was getting miles in on the weekends. Now that we are back in Cincinnati there is always something going on during the weekends, and any free time we have we like to spend with Trey, doing things that he likes.

Most of my fantasy football games are now over as well. I ended up winning one league, taking home $180! I finished in 4th place in another league, but still won $70.  In my other two leagues I finished 7th and 11th. My total entry fees were $125, which I was able to double with my $250 combined winnings. There is still one week left in the pick’em game (currently 1st) and the salary cap game (currently 4th) but no money is on the line in either.

With the holiday weekend being so busy, my wife and I didn’t find much time for dining out. We did manage to get out of the house on Monday, and found our first choice for dinner was apparently closed that evening, likely in observance of Christmas. With that plan ruined I drove toward downtown with no destination in mind. I was hoping to find someplace new to try, and eventually we ended up crossing the river into Newport and stumbling upon Mokka and the Sunset Bar & Grill. It was recommended as a good breakfast spot during the Newport Gangster tour, but as it turns out they serve pretty good dinner options as well.

Since it was Monday, we were able to take advantage of their half price appetizer selections and agreed on the pesto dip - goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto sauce served warm with soft and crispy pita chips. This was a really good start to our meal and at only $4.50 it was a steal! I thought I had a photo, but my phone is acting like it doesn’t exist. Bummer.

The Islander

For dinner I ordered the islander sandwich - sliced hot ham, Swiss cheese, pineapple, lettuce, tomato and jerk mayo served on grilled wheat bread – with onion rings on the side ($8). My wife ordered the goetta grinder - grilled red onions, green peppers and goetta topped with Pepper Jack cheese and mayo served on a seasoned hoagie bun – with waffle fries ($8). We tried these since they were some of the more unique items on the menu and it really paid off. We split both sandwiches and I was happy with both.

Goetta Grinder

The goetta grinder was definitely unique and I would easily order it again. The mix of peppers and onions with goetta was something I’ve never had before but I think it really worked well. The islander had pretty thick sliced ham and the pineapple was a nice touch. One thing that I would change would be the amount of butter used. It seemed that both meals were overly greasy. The grinder definitely didn’t need the butter and seasoning on top, which is visible in the photo. Other than that, we had a good meal for an affordable price. Beer prices were also fair and there were a few good craft choices on tap too.

A week ago Microsoft announced that it would start automatically upgrading its Internet Explorer browser next year. For anyone who has tried to design and support even a basic website across the plethora of available browsers, this should come as great news. Internet Explorer version 6, which is still widely used, is the hardest browser to support and it often has to have code designed specifically for it. This browser is ten years old and desperately needs to be retired. The current version released earlier this year is version 9, so it’s easy to see why the upgrades are necessary. If you are still using IE6, do yourself (and web developers everywhere) a favor and download the latest version. Or better yet, switch over to Chrome, my preferred browser.

I had a surprise work lunch outing today since one of the leads on the project that I work on was in town. The last time he was in town we ate at Bravo! and I was expecting a similar lunch. To my surprise again, we were whisked away to the Great Wolf Lodge. Not exactly where I thought we would be going when he invited me to lunch earlier this morning. However, there are a couple of dining options inside this mega hotel/water park, and the Camp Critter Bar & Grille was our destination on this visit.

Great Wolf Lodge

The inside of the spacious lobby area is festively decorated for the holiday season. I’m told that at various times in the day that they actually have fake snow that falls from the inside rafters. We did not experience this during our visit, but it is something to look out for if visiting the lodge during the holidays.

Inside Great Wolf Lodge

The rustic restaurant itself was relatively small for such a large lodge complex, but I guess there are a few other dining options inside. The lunch menu was pretty simple, a small variety of burgers and sandwiches for the most part. Everyone at our table either got the chicken sandwich or either the buffalo or regular hamburger. I ordered the chicken sandwich, which came topped with bacon, mushrooms, cheddar, and BBQ sauce along with the traditional lettuce, tomato, and onion.

Chicken Sandwich

This sandwich was much better than I was expecting from a restaurant inside of a hotel or resort. While the size of the chicken breast was a tad on the small side, the flavors of the sandwich were great and I enjoyed the addition of mushrooms to a relatively standard BBQ chicken sandwich. The sweet potato fries on the side were also good, as was the mayonnaise based dipping sauce. I don’t think the restaurant is worthy of special visit but if you find yourself in the Kings Island area, it is worth a stop over the nearby chain restaurants. The resort itself looked like a lot of fun too.

I am desperately trying to finish this year’s Jenny Challenge. After today’s 7 mile run, I am still 21.6 miles short. That means some busy days ahead as I try to finish the miles before Christmas. Fortunately the weather forecast looks decent enough that I might be able to finish. Without access to a treadmill, keeping my fingers crossed for good weather has been my only option.

I know most of you probably find this boring, but this should be one of the last fantasy football updates for a long while. My fantasy teams went 3-1 this past week. Unfortunately one of the losses came in the championship semifinals. I will be playing for 3rd place this week. In another league I have advanced to the championship and have guaranteed myself $90, but could win $180! In another league I’m playing for 7th place and in the last league I wound up in 11th place (ouch). I remain in 1st place in pro pick’em and 4th in salary cap.

This past Saturday was Christmas in Loveland. Kim, Trey, and I headed out to visit with my parents and take in the sights of this annual festive event. We spent most of the time on the patio of Paxton’s enjoying drinks and a fire pit. From there we had a perfect view across Loveland Ave toward the live nativity, various choir performances, and the horse-drawn carriage rides that were frequently going past. The weather outside was far from frightful, so the crowds were large, and it was overall a fun night out in the burbs.

Santa Band

After waiting over an hour for a table, we eventually settled in to The Works Brick Oven Restaurantfor dinner. The nice thing was that we were able to put our name in, along with a cell phone number, and they called us when the had a table available. That meant that we were able to enjoy the festivities rather than waiting inside the restaurant for a table. Later, during dinner at The Works, we were treated to a surprise visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus, along with the thirty piece Santa Band.

Santa And Mrs. Claus

Tickets for the 5th annual Cincy Winter Beerfest are now on sale. If you purchase them before Christmas, you can get VIP tickets for the same price as regular tickets, just $35 each. VIP includes early entry, 25 samples, and an 8oz souvenir glass. The festival takes place over two nights and includes 300+ beers. We are planning to go VIP style for the Friday evening session if anyone would like to join us.

Also Hoperatives is putting on the 5B: Believers in Better Beer, Bites and Blogging Conference to be held Saturday, February 11, 2012. “5B is a one-day blogging conference featuring sessions on beer blogging, food blogging and blogging in general.” Registration is just $50 and includes a general admission ticket for Friday night and a Connoisseur ticket for Saturday night. You can also upgrade to a Connoisseur ticket for Friday night as well for just $25 extra. This is definitely the way to go, and I just submitted my registration. The only catch is you have to be affiliated with an active blog, which means at least eight posts in the last two months.

Slowly but surely we are finally decorating parts of our new home. After long days of working, cleaning, let alone decorating, is the last things we want to do. We would much rather sit down for a nice meal and spend the evening playing with Trey. That has left us with weekends and those rare moments during the week when Trey isn’t around for our decorating needs.

World Travels

We also just recently finished moving all of Trey’s bedroom stuff into a bigger room, as he was quickly outgrowing the smallest room in the house. Now the office is in the smallest room and I have already grown to like the layout and have started hanging decorations on the wall. The first thing to go up was our cool world travel map that we got for Christmas a few years back. Next up will be my gold record along with a selection of my coolest O.A.R. posters, all of which can be viewed in pictures from the last time I decorated our Denver office. I’ll try to get more pictures of this office online once the transformation is complete. Plus I probably owe some photos of Trey’s new digs too.