Last week I mentioned going to the grand opening of the Microsoft Store at Kenwood Towne Centre. Well the real reason for attending was to get a bunch of wristbands for the O.A.R. concert this past Saturday for the opening weekend celebration. In the end I was able to get extra wristbands for some friends and family to get in, even though eventually they let anyone in to the concert without wristbands.

Parking Lot Stage

We arrived to find the opening act, Andy Grammer, already on stage. He is most famous for his song “Keep Your Head Up,” which closed his set of over an hour. He mixed in a few covers to keep the unfamiliar entertained, but I was surprised by how many in audience seemed to know so much of his material. Knowing just one of his songs definitely put me in the minority.

Since we brought Trey along for his second O.A.R. show, we spent the afternoon in the back of the crowd, where he was free to run around and have fun. Though I did catch him dancing along a few times, I think he was most entertained by the temporary tattoos that some workers were passing out. He even figured out who was giving them out and would go back to them (repeatedly) for more. I think by the end of the show he was pretty well covered from head to toe.

Tattooed Trey

Though I knew that O.A.R’s set wouldn’t be more than an hour and a half, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a few tracks in their set. “Light Switch Sky” and “On Top The Cage” are at the top of my list, since I hadn’t heard either of those in some time. The rest of the set was pretty predictable, but still the crowd really enjoyed it. For starters we couldn’t have asked for a better day, but to get to hear nearly three hours of live music for free was just the icing on the cake. Plus I was able to get a few meet and great passes for after the show so I could take Trey to meet the band.

My mom took a ton of photos from the event. Here are some of my favorites.

Yesterday I took Trey to the Rowe Woods branch of the Cincinnati Nature Center. A friend of mine had mentioned it to me numerous times as a good place for hiking and mentioned that his nephews loved it as well. Though we didn’t really get to hike on this visit, we still had a great time.

PlayScape

Most of our time was spent in the PlayScape, basically a children’s play area that is built to look and feel like a natural environment. Though the water features were already turned off for the year, Trey still enjoyed climbing up and down the rocks where waterfalls normally would be. We also spent a considerable amount of time in the digging pit. I would hide a stick in the gravel for Trey to dig up. We must have played this game well over a dozen times.

Trey Ready To Dig

Once he started to get tired we took a short walk along the new Discovery Trail to see the fish in Matt’s Pond as well as the Abner Hollow Cabin. The cabin doors were open so Trey was able to run around inside with a couple of other kids, though there really wasn’t much to see inside.

Abner Hollow Cabin

A couple of rocking chairs on the porch of the cabin provided a good resting spot. Trey was so excited to climb on each of the chairs, and by the time he made it in the last one I could tell he was ready for a nap. Thankfully we weren’t too far from the car, so I picked him up and carried him through the woods and back to the car.

Rocking and Roaring

I hope to return to the nature center on a future warm day or sometime next spring to see more of the over a dozen miles of hiking trails.

This afternoon I headed out to the Kenwood Towne Centre over an early lunch break to check out the grand opening of the new Microsoft Store. Truthfully I was really going to get free concert tickets, but I figured I might as well take a couple of quick photos while there. It was so crowded though that I had a hard time getting much other than pictures of the crowd. From what I quickly gathered though, it looks very similar to an Apple Store, but obviously selling Microsoft hardware and software.

Crowd Outside the Store

Crowd Inside the Store

Inside Microsoft Store

The time change on Sunday had my family ready for lunch by 10 AM. We made a trip through the grocery hoping to kill some time before most restaurants would open at 11. Once the clocks struck the magic hour we popped into J. Alexander’s in Rookwood Commons. I had visited this location many years ago, but hadn’t dined at any J. Alexander’s since.

We arrived to find the restaurant mostly deserted except for a couple of other early riser tables. We were immediately seated in a comfortable booth near the other parties. After a few minutes another employee came by to take our drink order and quickly dropped those off. Then again within a few more minutes our server was at our table ready to take our order. Since we were very hungry and with our soon to be two-year old son we knew exactly what we wanted.

Veggie Burger

I went with the Veggie Burger and fries ($11). This was a thick made in-house patty filled with rice and even a touch of spice. Even though I typically enjoy black bean based burgers better, this one was still very good and worthy of ordering again. Plus the fries are the very thin shoestring variety that cook up so well and taste great.

Thai Kai Salad

My wife ordered the Thai Kai salad ($15). The way the salad was piled high at first made it actually appear much smaller than it really was. Once she started digging into the dish it was obvious that this was more than she could eat in one sitting. I stole a few bites and have to say that this was a great salad, even though the price still seemed a little high.

Kids Fingers And Fries

Though the menu made no mention to having kids selections, we asked our server anyway. She happily listed three of four items from the top of her head. We were torn between the grilled cheese or the chicken fingers, but ending up going with fingers and fries ($6). Our son really loved the fries and even took down nearly an entire piece of chicken. I stole a couple of bites and have to admit that the chicken fingers were right up there with some of my favorites. They could have used some dipping sauce, but I guess most kids wouldn’t use that anyway.

We had a very nice lunch at J. Alexander’s despite it costing quite a bit more than we traditionally spend on lunch. The dinner menu looks even more expensive, so this restaurant may be best saved for special occasions.

You still have a few more hours left to go vote (for Barack Obama). I walked over to my polling location around 10 AM this morning to find absolutely no line whatsoever. I wasn’t sure what to expect with all the long lines I’ve heard about at early voting locations. Plus this was my first time voting in a presidential election year while a Cincinnati resident. Fortunately it really couldn’t have gone any smoother. There were a couple of issues on my ballot that were missing from my research, but I was able to make a decision rather quickly and be on my way. From all indications, tonight is going to be an interesting night to follow along as the results come in.

Friday night I had my first experience with indoor high-speed go karting at Competition Racing in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Kim’s family has always loved racing go karts and this track was on their list to try so I headed out there with them to enjoy the fun.

Suit Up

These high-speed karts really fly down the track, reaching speeds of up to 40 mph! The track isn’t very long but there are enough hairpin turns to keep it interesting. Eventually we were able to cover the 900 foot track in just over 20 seconds per lap. Each race was 8 minutes long, so there was plenty of time for a little bumping and passing.

On the Track

Kim’s brother Jason won each of our 3 races. I had a bad first race, which I blamed mostly on my car, and steadily improved in the second and third races. When it was all said and done I posted the third fastest lap in our group (20:466). Not too bad for an old guy.

Winners Stand

Champs

Runner Ups

We all had a great time and I know that I would love to race these karts again in the future.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to travel up to Miami University’s Millett Hall to see O.A.R. play. Though I have seen the band many times over the years I hadn’t seen them perform since the summer of 2011. That stretch of well over a year is definitely the longest time between shows since I started following them in 2000. Various things prevented me from attending one of their concerts this past summer, but I’m hoping it doesn’t happen again.

O.A.R. on Stage

Truthfully I wasn’t sure if I was going to go up to this show until a few days before. Liam, one of my roommates from college, and I had talked about it briefly, but when he offered an extra spot in his car for a ride to the show I knew I had to make it happen. We all had a great time at the show despite it being in a dry venue. The band was all dressed in costumes as characters from Revenge of the Nerds and some of those in the audience were dressed up as well.

NERDS!

One of my favorite things from the night was dusting off my old concert taping gear and putting it to good use. I think the tape sounds great. You can take a listen below.