To kick off the holiday weekend, my family and I joined my brother and his girlfriend for my first Reds game of this year. The Cardinals were in town, which always brings excitement to the park. And it was a Fireworks Friday game with an impressive post-game fireworks show.

Craft Beer Bar

You may have read about the new 85 foot long bar at the  Reds Brewery District inside  Great American Ball Park this year. The massive bar with five  draft towers is located along the third  base line and offers 60 taps. Nearly half of the space is dedicated to local brews, which is pretty awesome!

Hot Stacks

The game was fairly crowded, but we still managed to find a bit of room to spread out. Our seats were in the sun/moon deck with a great view of the field, scoreboard, and the downtown skyline. We were also just a section from the stadiums iconic smokestacks, which erupt with flames  after any Reds pitcher throws a strikeout. We were so close we could really feel the heat from these fireballs.

Beautiful Night

It’s hard to get the kids to sit in the seats for the entire game, but they made it through almost half of it before running off to find the play set, which was so crowded. My wife later found a somewhat hidden sandbox area, which was much quieter for our little ones.  It was a beautiful night for a baseball game and was made even sweeter thanks to a thrilling 5-3 victory for the Reds!

After work this past Friday we met up with Kim’s dad and her brother Nick at Kings Island to get our season passes processed and ride a few rides. Even with our 7 PM arrival, we were able to squeeze in quite a few rides in just over a couple of hours time.

The new ride this year is called Banshee and it is a record breaking inverted coaster that reaches 68 miles per hour on nearly a mile of track. It also features seven inversions  and a 150 foot drop. We were shocked to find just a fifteen minute wait! Nick and I took advantage of the situation and rode it twice, the second time from the front row. It is an amazing roller coaster and I will definitely ride it again this year.

WindSeeker

After Banshee we took a quick ride on the Racer before heading over to WindSeeker for my first ever ride on the 300 foot tall swing ride. The view from the top is pretty impressive and the ride was actually a little more scary that I had anticipated, despite only moving at 30 miles per hour.

Character Carousel

From there we headed straight for The Beast to make sure we got a ride in before the park closed. There really is nothing like riding The Beast at night. The way the track follows the contour of the wooden terrain and speeds through the tunnels is truly breathtaking.

Kim took the kids to Planet Snoopy while the rest of the were riding The Beast. We met up with them afterward and I was even able to squeeze in a last second ride with the kids on Trey’s favorite, the  Woodstock Whirlybirds. He had already ridden it twice before, but he wanted a third ride with his dad. We may likely never see Kings Island as empty as it was on another Friday night this summer, so we had to do as much as we could before the fireworks capped off the night.

There is such an abundance of Thai restaurants near our house that there are a few that I’ve never tried. After this weekend I can finally scratch off Blue Elephant  from that list. My wife called in a delivery order and about an hour later a variety of Thai dishes were on our table. Blue Elephant also specializes in sushi and Italian food, which I find very odd, though from looking at the menu again it appears that there are only a few Italian style dishes offered.

Our Buffet

We dined on the  Thai style basil chicken, Thai spicy chicken, and Pra Ram, stir fry  with a  Thai peanut sauce ($12.95 each). The basil chicken was served with ground chicken, which  I have never seen before. However it was a really tasty  mix of flavors with green bean, onion, and bell peppers added to the mildly spicy sauce. The Thai spicy was indeed a spicy dish of red curry sauce with stir-fried chicken and mixed vegetables. This was my favorite of the night. The Pra Ram came dry with the peanut sauce on the side. The chicken was thin sliced and served over a bed of steamed veggies. I thought this one was a little on the bland side and was my least favorite.

My Plate

So, how does Blue Elephant stack up to Lemon Grass, Ruthai’s, Bangkok Bistro, etc? Overall I don’t think the food was quite as good as some of the  other nearby restaurants, but it is still above average. However bonus points are awarded for being the only one that delivers to your door. For that reason alone, we will likely order from Blue Elephant again in the future.

My latest homebrew batch is now ready to enjoy. After the big brew day a few weeks back, the beer sat in the fermentation bucket for about two weeks before I added my dry hoping dose of simcoe hops and let that sit for another ten days or so. I then used a spare chest freezer with a temperature regulator to cold crash the beer down to roughly 37 degrees.  I was hoping this would help filter the beer a bit since I didn’t have the right equipment for a secondary fermentation, but as you can see from the photo  below, the beer is still really cloudy.

Hiss Hiss

I force carbonated the keg of beer for a few days and have enjoyed a couple of glasses recently. Despite the less than stellar look of the beer, the taste is easily  my best homebrew yet. I’m attributing the pleasing results to my growing collection of brewing equipment as well as my increased experience with brewing techniques. Stop over for a pint sometime soon or else I’ll have to drink it all myself.

This past Wednesday we went down to Yeatman’s Cove for the first Party in the Park of this summer. I remember going down to the riverside park for this part in my younger years, but we had yet to check out the event with our kids in tow.

Naked Karate Girls

Happy hour with discounted drinks is held from 5 until 6:30 and saves you about $2 per beer. There is plenty of space to spread out a blanket and have a picnic. However food options on site are extremely limited, just one food truck and the park’s concession stand, both of which were slammed with long lines. The ATM also had a lengthy line as all booths are cash only.

Party in the Park runs from 5-10 every Wednesday through the third week of August.

Even though Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby were a couple of days apart this year, that didn’t stop my entire family  from celebrating both events on Saturday.

Mint Julep

I enjoyed a tasty Mint Julep with lunch at the Yard House at The Banks. After that we met up with some friends at Buck’s Badass Bash outside of Bakersfield.

Buck’s Badass Bash

We ended up watching the Derby on my phone at the bash before moving the party over to Neons to enjoy the beautiful day outside as well as grab some food  from Taste 513, who was manning the grills on the patio.

Family Trip to Neons

It was a busy and fun-filled Saturday!

Last night was the final night of this years Tunes & Blooms at the Cincinnati Zoo. We made it to three of the four weekly events and experienced the record-breaking crowd last week with over 5000 people in attendance. I wish the crowds were as large as they have become, but it is nice to see so many families getting out and enjoying themselves.

Green Light Morning

Originally Tunes & Blooms was supposed to end last week, but they had to postpone the first week due to severe weather. Normally the event is every Thursday in April but with the delay it spread into May this year and helped kick off this year’s Zoo Babies.

Tulips

Last night also kicked off the annual flower sale and I was able to get a couple of bags of tulips for $5 each. Each bag has at least two dozen bulbs in it, so they are a definitely a steal. If interested in getting your own, call  the Tulip Hotline, 487-3399 ext. 2015 for more information. See you next year, Tunes & Blooms.