More Park Shenanigans

We're finally back from our Texas trip!  We survived, though I'm so ready for my pajamas and a nap.  It was an exhausting trip, so frankly the last thing on my mind right now is editing pictures.  Instead of jumping into a Texas recap, I've got one more batch of park photos (from when Amanda and Aaron were in town) to share. 

On the last day of Midpoint, before we headed down to the festival, we took the dogs to a couple parks for a walk and some sight-seeing.  Although Amanda used to live in Cincinnati she, like myself, had never been to Alms Park so we started off there.

Then we headed over to Ault Park to take a walk through the woods.

And, naturally, we made the dogs jump over logs.  For fun.  Poor dogs!

Aaron trying to tell Cheese to hold so I could get a picture.  Of course this one ended up being far cuter!

The leaves are starting to change and I love it!

I'm sorry, more bumble bees.  I can't help it!  But now that its Autumn, be prepared for moss, mushrooms and pumpkins!  This is your warning.

What a weirdo!

Any clue what this is?  It was growing from one of the trees in Ault Park and I don't think I've ever noticed it before.

Happy Friday everyone!  Any exciting plans this weekend?  On Saturday we're picking up a free tree we received from the Re-Leaf program and planting it.  Then on Sunday we're going pumpkin picking!  And hopefully somewhere in there we'll be resting and I'll be editing some Texas photos.

For the Dogs

When my best friend, Amanda, and her boyfriend, Aaron, came into town for the Midpoint Music Festival they brought their dog Gatsby with them.  They just recently rescued Gatsby a couple months ago and this was only his second trip to Cincinnati, so we wanted to make sure we kept the dogs stimulated and exercised during the day, so they'd sleep like babies while we were at Midpoint every night.  On Friday when they came in we all headed over to French Park for a little hike through the woods.  Seriously, it my favorite Cincinnati park we've been to to take Cheese, he loves all the smells and the cool, flowing water in the creek.  Cheese and Gatsby both had a blast! 

And apparently he also loves chewing on flowers...what a weirdo!

I think Gatsby had a really great time.  Here, he is anxious to jump off this rock and play in the creek.

Gatsby, Aaron and Amanda

After we came out of the woods the dogs still seemed to have a bunch of energy left, so Aaron decided to run around and frolick with them a bit...

Look at them go!

I like how Cheese starts out in the front and then quickly gets passed up by Gatsby!  Story of Cheese's life, the dogs with the longer legs are always beating him in races!  Poor guy.

Here's some post-running shots of them.  They're still running on some adrenal, but after our little hike back up-hill to our cars they were pretty worn out!

Stay tuned tomorrow and next week for more dog and park goodness!

Weekend in Instagram

What a weekend! Midpoint was fantastic, I finally got over my stomach bug, we ate some amazing food, had friends in from out of town and went to the park several times.  It was a great time!

Thursday was the first night of the Midpoint Music Festival and I was still feeling a little rough, so Antoine and I took it easy.

We started off the night with some dinner at Quan Hapa.  I got the ramen in order to appease my still upset stomach and it did the trick!  Mighty tasty, I can't wait to go back!  We took it easy the rest of the night and only went to a couple of shows.  But we still had a great time.

On Friday I had the day off and I was finally starting to feel better so I spent the morning cleaning, in anticipation for the arrival of Amanda and Aaron.

It must have been very tiring for Cheese, watching me clean, because he slept most of the morning.  Then Amanda and Aaron arrived and we all (4 humans and two dogs) headed over to French Park for a little hike through the woods.  After the dogs were properly worn out, we got ready and headed downtown.

After some tasty sushi at Fusian, we all made our way to Washington Park to check out Youth Lagoon and The Head and the Heart, which both put on great shows.

On our way out of Washington Park.  We headed over to Street Pops for some tasty popsicles, then listened to Warpaint for a bit before heading to Japp's.

Good Graeff put on a great show at Japp's (they are so cute!) and I totally fell in love with their pumpkin they carved!  Antoine and I finished off the night with the Kishi Bashi show at CAC (awesome!), while Amanda and Aaron went to see Murder by Death at the Taft Theatre.

Saturday morning started with Cheese jumping into our bed, being adorable and staring out the window.

After a quick breakfast at Panera, we took the dogs to Alms Park and then Ault Park for another walk through the woods to tire them out!  

I think it might have work...

Then the humans got cleaned up and headed over to Barrio in Northside for some tacos and margaritas.  And that's when things got really interesting.  The first pitcher of margaritas tasted so good that we decided to get another...

And the tacos were delicious too.  But those margaritas...so good!  And we left Northside feeling all kinds of good.

We headed downtown for the final night of Midpoint and continued to drink and just got happier and happier.

 And then Aaron rode a pig!  (I'm pretty sure he was a rodeo cowboy in a previous life!)

And then Amanda decided to straddle two pigs, because why not!

All in all, it was a pretty fantastic weekend with some outstanding music, great times with friends and amazing food!  How was your weekend?

Park Love (on film)

This will likely be my last post for the week, what with me having a bug the last couple days (bleh!), tonight being the first night of the Midpoint Music Festival, Amanda and Aaron coming in to stay with us for Midpoint, and then Antoine and I gearing up for our trip to Texas.  I don't think I've mentioned our Texas trip on here yet, but we'll be leaving shortly for our multi-city, seven day road trip around Texas.  Antoine is from Texas, but I've never been...even though I have some family there.  We're starting off in Austin for the Austin City Limits Festival, then heading down to San Antonio for a day just to relax, and then finishing up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area before we head back home.  Since we've got so many people to see and so much good music to listen to and good food to eat, it should be equal parts exhausting and fun!  Here's my Texas Pinterest board, in case you want to check it out and recommend something that I definitely need to check out that isn't on there.  I always love some travel tips and must-see recommendations!

In the mean time I'll leave you with my other roll of film that I recently got back.  This one is from about three and a half weeks ago when Antoine and I decided to get some take out and head to the park for a picnic, but instead we ended up going to three different parks!  While we were waiting for our Indian food, we headed up to Bellevue Park to check out the view... 

It was a little humid and hazy that day, but still beautiful.

With our delicious Indian food in hand we made our way to Alms Park to have our picnic and snap some pictures.  I've already expressed my new-found love for Alms park and my digital photos here, but here are some film ones I took.  [Again, I'm so lucky to have Antoine who's willing to lug around my extra camera for me and wait for me to take all these silly pictures I take!]

 Then we headed of to Ault Park for a leisure walk (and so I could geek out over all the flowers still in bloom and the beautiful light making its way out of the park).

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!  I'll be enjoying a bunch of awesome music with some of my most favorite people, what could be better than that?!

Anticipation

These days you can almost feel the anticipation for Spring (and Summer) in the air.  Everyone is so done with the cold and snow, including this lady.  We're on the precipice of Spring, taunting us, but then Winter comes back with its icy bite.  But while Winter continues to chill our bones I am hopeful and ever looking at the forecast towards warmer days in the future.  So, in a hope to stay hopeful and will Spring and Summer to get here soon here's a list of the top 5 things I am most looking forward to in the coming months.

1.)  Our trip to Olympic National Park and Seattle at the end of May.  I love traveling and I've loved everywhere we've gone, but I've been looking forward to this trip more than any other.  I can't wait!

[photo source]

 [photo source]

2.) Flowers.  It's no secret that I love taking pictures of pretty flowers.  I can't wait for the magnolias and cherry blossoms to start blooming in Spring Grove.  And the tulips and daffodils that are scattered around the city.  And, hopefully, the peonies I planted last year in my garden!

[my photo, from Woodland Mound]

 

[the tulips in our flower-box and the peonies I planted last year]

 3.)  Weekend trips to Findlay Market to get produce, brats for grilling and tasty gelato.

 

[my photos]

4.) Midpoint Music Festival.  I went for the first time last year and had such a wonderful time.  This year Antoine is going with me and my best friend and her boyfriend are coming down from Cleveland to join in on the fun...for the entire weekend!  It's going to be a blast!

 [my photos from Instagram]

5.) Being outside!  Going for walks, riding our bikes, grilling out, camping, going to a Red's game or two...all those fun things that come with Spring/Summer that just relax you and make you feel happy inside.

[my photos from Instagram]

Have you been dreaming of Spring and Summer too?  What things are you looking forward to the most?