I know, you are probably just as sick of politics these days as I am, but I’m trying something new this year. With the help of my Facebook friends I’m trying to predict the results of the election. Since I have lived in two of the so-called battleground states, I feel that my friend distribution in these states gives an interesting insight into the election.

Since I announced what I am trying to do nearly two weeks ago, I have seen over one friend per day cast their Facebook vote for one candidate or the other. Votes are cast by “liking” either the Facebook page of Barack Obama or the one for Mitt Romney. Though the number of votes has increased nearly 15%, I was still hoping for even more votes being cast. Of my 669 Facebook friends only 141 have endorsed a candidate, just over 20%. If you are afraid that your Facebook feed will be taken over by the candidate of your choice, you can easily remove all of their posts from your timeline, so there is no reason not to.

Currently Barack Obama leads the popular vote 71 to 70. However things get quite a bit more decisive when you look at electoral college votes, as a few of my friends have suggested. Taking those into account Obama is up big with 241 votes versus Romney’s 60 with 237 still undecided. With that said, my Facebook poll still says it is anyone’s game. What are you waiting for? Cast your vote today!

Sunday afternoon we headed down to Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. Go ahead and laugh at the name if you’d like, I’m guilty of doing so on  occasion. With that out-of-the-way understand that the area was named  after the big bones, including  mammoths  and  mastodons, found in the  swamps  around the nearby  salt lick.

The Birthplace of American Paleontology

This was actually my first visit to the park, despite it being just over a half hour drive from Cincinnati. The attraction that drew us in was the annual Salt Festival, which celebrates American pioneer life. It was sort of life a small Renaissance festival but geared much more toward explorers like  Lewis and Clark. I saw demonstrations on fire building, musket shooting, and even a shotgun wedding.

Festival Site

Fire Building

The Critters in the Classroom group were also present with a variety of birds on display.

Critters in the Classroom

We finished off our day at the festival by eating kettle corn, drinking root beer fresh from a keg, and listening to some traditional Kentucky bluegrass music.

Bluegrass Band

After our time at the Salt Festival, we drove further back into the park to see the bison herd. I’ve seen plenty of bison before, but these were very close to the fence line and didn’t seem bothered by us at all.

Bison Herd

I think this was the 27th annual Salt Festival, so be on the lookout for it next October.

This past Friday a large group of Kim’s family members headed to Creepy Ridge, a haunted house experience near our lake house in Williamstown, Kentucky. After a couple of beers around a campfire at the lake, we all piled into a few cars and made the quick trip down route 22.

Creepy Ridge

Upon our arrival we immediately saw a magic show in progress in the barn pictured above. Most of us found seats inside to see the entertaining but overall poor quality magic show. This attraction didn’t cost, but the magicians (which there were 2 separate acts) solicited tip money after each of their performances.

Titanic

After the first magic show we all decided who was going to head into the haunted house. Since we had a few kids with us, I opted to stay behind along with a couple of other adults. We did see a couple of other families taking smaller children into the haunted house, but afterward our group said they were glad that we left our’s behind.

The haunted house starts with a trip on the haunted Titanic, which is constructed on top of a flatbed trailer. Once full the Titanic is pulled by a  semi-truck  a quarter of a mile down a trail to the haunted barn. I’m told the both the inside of the Titanic and the barn were very dark and full of narrow hallways. Overall it didn’t seem to scary to the more experienced in our group, but was frightening enough for our junior high school aged crowd.

Creepy Ridge is open  7 pm  – midnight  every Friday & Saturday night in October. Adults are $15 and children (12 & Under) cost $6. Print the coupon below for $4 off each adult admission, if you do decide to go.

Coupon

As I already mentioned, the primary reason for our trip to northern California was for the wedding of my friend Joe. Their ceremony and reception took place at the Thomas Fogarty Winery  in Woodside, California. It was a lovely spot for a wedding and the weather was fantastic. The winery and vineyards sit high in the Santa Cruz Mountains, providing picture perfect views of the San Francisco Bay area. My photos from the evening can be viewed below.

In case you’ve been wondering where we have been hiding, we have been bouncing around Northern California for the last week. We just got back to Cincinnati late last night, so I haven’t had much time to get through many photos yet. However here are a couple of photos from the wedding of my friend Joe and his wife Lindsey.

You may kiss the bride.

Family Shot at Thomas Fogarty Winery.

We met on the Internet.

This past weekend was the second annual Paddle Williamstown. Between the hours of 7am and 1pm on Saturday motorized traffic on Williamstown Lake was restricted. We spent the night down at the lake so that we could get up early Saturday and join in the festivities. Trey woke us up a little before 8, and we were out in kayaks before 9. Kim’s uncle Joe has a few kayaks that we all enjoyed throughout the day, including a two-seater that we rode with Trey.

Beautiful Morning

Trey Kayaking

Joe On The Water

Paddle Williamstown

Though our miles of kayaking were quite a bit of work, it was a beautiful morning out on the lake and we had a great time. We spent the rest of the weekend down at the lake with trips on the pontoon boat, swimming in a relatively secluded cove, and even a little tubing.

Trey Boating

Uncle Mike’s 70’s Glastron Boat

Happy Birthday Chris

Power Nap

Ready To Go

Tubing Time

I took my turn on a tube for the first time in nearly ten years. I forgot how much fun that can be. Only downside to the weekend was losing my wedding band while flying on the tube.

Last night we walked up to Ault Park for the last Summer Dance Series night. Soul Pocket was supplying the music, and they appeared to be a huge crowd favorite with tons of people up and dancing the night away.

The highlight of the night for me was finally getting to sample more food from Bones’ Burger truck. Bones used to park his truck in a parking lot close to my work, but decided to move on from that location after poor sales. It’s been over a year since I’ve had any food from Bones, and I was glad to finally see the truck again.

Since I last saw the truck, veggie and turkey burgers have added in addition to the beef and grilled cheese sandwiches. I decided to try one of the veggie burgers, which come directly from the Veg Head in Loveland, OH. I ordered it topped with cheddar and all the fixings. This was definitely in the top five veggie burgers I’ve had. The primarily black bean based burger was fairly firm and full of flavor.

Veg Head Veggie Burger

My wife had the turkey burger and she ranked it as one of the top turkey burgers she’s had. So the quality of food from Bones is definitely still high. It seems that business has been good since moving on from the first location. Bones is a super friendly guy and I wish him continued success. I hope it doesn’t take me as long to find him and the truck again.

For the first time in its short history, the World Choir Games are taking place in the U.S. The games started in downtown Cincinnati on July 4 and will conclude just four days from now on July 14. Awhile ago Kim and I bought 1 day  Competition Flex Passes for this past Saturday. Later my mom and dad decided to join us for the day and to help with Trey.

Mixed Youth Choirs at Cincinnati Masonic Center

We beat my parents downtown, but we decided to head inside the Cincinnati Masonic Center  without them to see the mixed youth choir competition that was taking place in the large auditorium. The inside of the building is very ornate and the  acoustics  of the auditorium were outstanding. We found our seats just before the gold medal winning SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School from Hong Kong began their performance. I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect from this competition, but I actually really enjoyed it. Unfortunately Trey could only sit quietly for a few songs before we had to leave the venue.

Mixed youth choirs were also competing at the Duke Energy Center and we were told that the acoustics there weren’t as good (meaning our young son’s noises would be  drowned  out easily). So we met up with my parents and headed that direction to watch some of the open competition that was taking place.

Friendship Concert At St. Francis Seraph

Once that competition was over we rushed up to St. Francis Seraph church for the free friendship concert that was taking place. The weather outside was above 100 degrees, which means that the church was super hot without any  air-conditioning. We watched a few songs from another Chinese choir before moving on to dinner and the end of our World Choir Games adventure.

If you are still debating taking in any of the events, I’d encourage you to at least make it out to one of the many free friendship concerts. There is also the Celebration of Nations taking place at 6pm tonight with a parade from the Duke Energy Center to Fountain Square. We are heading down for that, so look for us there if you are attending.

Before I turn my attention to the happenings of this past weekend and this week, I wanted to provide a few pictures from the recently ended Homearama. Kim and I decided last-minute to go check out the Homearama on the last day it was open. This years event took place just off my parents exit on I-275 (Wards Corner) so I drove by it fairly regularly during the two-week opening. Though it never looked overly crowded, it was a relatively cheap ticket to get in ($11 if you bought them at Kroger ahead of time).

Exterior of My Favorite Home

Basically the Homearama is a new home showcase that features some of the latest trends and styles, although it is done at a much higher cost than the average homeowner can afford. Regardless it is still pretty cool to see these lavish homes and dream the day away. Take a look at some of the crazy things that were in these $675,000 – $1,000,000 homes.

007 Bar with 3 TV’s

Basement Wine Cellar

Massive Wraparound Screen

Huge Swimmable Hot Tub

Golf Simulator

Saturday night I attended the St. Columban Festival, my first Catholic summer festival in quite some time. I spent many days at St. Columban from fourth grade through eighth, and though much of the school and church has changed since then, the festival continues to be a good time. The Rusty Griswolds were on hand to provide music throughout the night, which is always a bonus in my book.

Since Trey was along for the ride, we spent the majority of the night playing kids games and watching him take a turn on some of the carnival rides.

Fishing with Mom

Back for more

Digging for Dinosaurs

Riding the Train

Driving Cars

Eating Corn

Imitating Hendrix