Cincinnati Date Night

I had a bad attitude at 2:00 PM today, and it was nobody's fault but mine.

 

Today was a gorgeous day outside: crisp fall temperatures that didn't bite, bright leaves everywhere and a cloudless, sunny sky. And we... spent the entire day inside, doing nothing. Like I said, it was my fault for not forcing us out of the house, but for some reason we ceded to lounging around. Most days, I wouldn't have complained much, but largely in part due to the fact that Rob is just visiting these days, our time together is limited and I felt like we'd wasted it somehow. I was being dramatic, sure... but I suppose the rest was probably a good thing for the city tour we were about to randomly take.

Halfway into the afternoon, we pried ourselves off the couch and did what we each needed to transform back into functioning human beings worthy of public exposure. I had scratched my head for a few hours on somewhere to go; we both agreed we're burnt out on the OTR routine, so I was super excited when it hit me to take him up to Mt. Adams.

city view tavern | mount adams, oh

We had dinner at the City View Tavern. I .. love that place, mainly for its simplicity, but also because it both is and isn't a part of the Mt. Adams landscape. It's up there, overlooking the entire downtown area, but without the overwhelming amount of people straining to fashionably one-up each other.

this is my kinda view (: | mount adams, oh
boyfriend + night lights of the city

my love.

Once we finished dinner, I decided to show him around to some more places he's not been. I had far less trouble this time thinking of the next stop for us: Rhinegeist Brewery.

hello, rhinegeist!

This place is special because 1 - you'd never guess that it exists if you are simply strolling by, and 2 - when you can incorporate live acoustic music, cornhole, ping pong and hula hoops in one open arena space, then you've pretty much won over my little soul for an evening out (:

his & hers.. & some live jams!

Definitely a fun little spot!
And.... moving on! We decided we were okay with having a pretty tame night, and we didn't want to travel too much further in between stops, so we caved and headed over to the regular digs to see who we could find.

We found Keith at Neon's within the first five minutes we were there.

pretty lights & happy people @ neon's!

The three of us drank up some good old OTR people watching from the Eli's corner of Neon's before heading over to the Drinkery to meet up with Nader & Co. We found them in the front row of a mini crowd, jamming out to Magnolia Sons, a 10 (or 11?)-person operation that was rocking out on the stage. They were pretty good!

Here's a clip that sadly sounded way better in person than it does on the clip :( .. but hey, they're pretty good and I have to say I'd go see them again the next time they're here!

& thennn... we found the fun little photo booth they had set up...
That's all of us in the back and sort of in the middle, along with some of the band members. These guys were a BLAST.

fun fun fun (:

After all that excitement, the night for us pretty much ended - we want to be up early for church tomorrow without feeling sluggish, so Rob and I bowed out after everyone trodded next door to Japp's [no, thanks, not tonight] and are now back. Looking at the evening, I'm glad we took it easy today. (:

There's always a reason... haha.

xo | cmd