Richland Carrousel Park

Back in August when we went to the Mansfield Reformatory, Antoine and I decided to check out the Richland Carrousel Park after lunch (at Doc's Soup Herb Deli) since we were in the area.  The Carrousel Park is another one of the spots, like the Reformatory, that I had never been to even though I grew up just 40 minutes away.  I had heard about the carousel before but had kind of forgotten about it until I was recently reading up on the Cincinnati carousel, named Carol Ann's Carousel, that is planned to go into the Smale Riverfront Park in the Spring of 2015.  The Carol Ann's carousel and it's creatures are all being created by the Carousel Works in Mansfield, OH, which created the Richland carousel in 1990!  (I highly suggest you check out the video on the parks website and those on the Carousel Works website...the whole process of hand carving and painting the characters is really cool!)  Anyway, Antoine and I had fun checking out the carousel and taking a ride (it went much faster that I expected) and we fully intend to return someday [hopefully] soon...

Look at that adorable token to ride the carousel!  One eyed pirate cat, which is the one I happened to ride right next to, on the Siamese cat!

Hand-carved/painted pirate cat!  How is that not the coolest thing ever?!  Also, not obvious from the photo, he had a parrot and a peg-leg!  Best. Carousel. Creature. EVER!

While the pirate cat might be my favorite of the creatures...the sea-horse is definitely my favorite of all the carousel horses!  And it also happens to be the one that Antoine rode.

If you're ever in the area I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you have kids (though we weren't the only kidless-couple enjoying the carousel that day)!  I'm really looking forward to seeing the Carol Ann's Carousel once it's completed!  There are supposed to be a lot of Cincinnati-specific characters...so there will have to big a couple pigs and at least one will have to be flying, right?!  Anyway, that's it for this week!  I'll be back next week with more camping weekend photos to share.  Have a great weekend everyone!