I think I’ve mentioned how amazing my wife is…but she earned BIG points this weekend! On Thursday afternoon I was at the office preparing for what was supposed to be a very long meeting with my boss! Just as I’m heading for the meeting, Katie shows up and says “Let’s Go! Our bags are packed!” Then my boss says, “Yeah, get outta here!” Katie had everyone make sure I had a clear schedule on Thursday so she could steal me away and take me to Cincinnati for the weekend! It was such a great surprise! I am so loved, and so thankful for it!

Here are some highlights from the trip:

First stop was a restaurant called the Montgomery Inn Boathouse which was right on the Ohio River in downtown Cinci. They are famous for ribs, so I wasn’t leaving without some. The bib really completed the experience.

It was a beautiful night on the riverfront. Cinci has a great riverwalk with parks and playgrounds. A great place to enjoy a date night…hours away from the kids!

Ah…the Greenup Cafe in Covington, KY. This place deserves a separate blog post this week! A really cool breakfast spot in a really cool part of town. Covington is on the KY side of the Ohio River, just across from downtown Cinci. I found this gem by googling “best breakfast in cincinatti”! We enjoyed b’fast on Friday morning…had such a great experience that we went back for brunch on Saturday!

Made my first visit to an IKEA store. It was my birthday trip, but Katie ended up hitting the jackpot here.

Friday night we hit a Reds game in the Great American Ballpark. This was the headliner for the trip. Katie wanted to assist me in my quest to make it to every MLB ballpark in my lifetime! So check off the new Reds stadium. (This summer I was also able to check off Camden Yards!) It’s hard to tell from this shot, but Katie got us third row seats behind the dugout. We were able to heckle the Marlins third base coach and tried to get someone to throw me a ball but the kid with the broken arm got it instead.

NORM! Yeah, George Wendt from Cheers was at the game. Didn’t know he was a Reds fan.

Gotta have peanuts at the ballpark! It’s becoming a tradition to snap a picture of my shell stash at each park I visit.

A few things that didn’t make the pictures above…skyline chili, GAP clearance center (guys: never go there), 9 holes of disc golf near University of Cincinatti campus (Katie walked with me…what a wife!) and a crazy loud air conditioner that forced us to move hotel rooms the first night!

This was a birthday I will always remember!