Thank goodness the world didn't end yesterday, as I feared. The clothes came out fine, the dishes were clean (except for one that had peanut butter on it before being washed, but that's an ongoing problem), and life was good.
A couple of years ago Lisa was out of town for the weekend and I took the girls on what I called at the time Vacation in Cincinnati. We went to Coney Island, the Cincinnati Zoo, the Beach Waterpark, and to Eden Park in Cincinnati.
We just got back from a big vacation a couple of weeks ago, though, so I decided to be decidely less extravagant this weekend. I dubbed yesterday "A Vacation in Erlanger." If you're from this area you're probably thinking, "What can you possibly do in Erlanger?" I know; it's a challenge. Don't get me wrong. I lived in Erlanger for years and have worked there for almost two decades, so I love the place, but entertainment capital of the world it is not. Still, at the end of the day I realized we had spent most of our time there.
We started at a yard sale. U.S. 127 runs right through Erlanger, and apparently this was the weekend of the big 127 Corridor yard sale as we passed several yard sales before finally stopping at one. It had been probably 10 years since I'd been to a yard sale, and I need to go to one every 10 years or so to remind me of why I don't go the other nine. After looking at various pieces of junk all labeled between 25 cents and 5 dollars, I realized that a low price does not in any way mean that you're not still getting ripped off. We were at the yard sale, which was really about 10 different families in this one location, for all of about six minutes.
After that we went to the Erlanger Putt Putt, where we played a mean course of 18 carpeted holes. Everyone got at least one hole in one, which was nice. Meredith's was a complete freak shot. Frustrated that she had not gotten a hole in one yet and was way behind everyone else, she smacked her ball hard. It ricocheted around and went right into the hole. Very cool!
We had lunch at the Colonial Cottage Inn, an Erlanger tradition for nigh on 450 years or more (I'm actually not exactly sure when it opened). In 18 years of living in Northern Kentucky I've only eaten there a handful of times, as I've always thought of it as not much more than a lower grade Frisch's, but I have to say I was impressed yesterday. The restaurant went completely non-smoking a few months ago, and that has really changed the atmosphere. The restaurant used to seem dingy and heavy with the smell of cigarettes, but yesterday it was light and pleasant. Sadly, however, it was also almost empty.
After lunch we ran by the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County library, where the girls returned some books and checked out some new ones. And that pretty much exhausted all of the entertainment options in Erlanger, so we went home. Last night we went up to the neighborhood pool to swim, but we didn't stay long as the water was pretty cold. When kids are shouting that the water is too cold, you know it really is.
And that concluded our exciting day of Vacation in Erlanger. Not a bad day, and maybe we'll do it again in a couple of years.
But not the yard sale part.
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