Cincinnati/Covington visit

Earlier in August I traveled - in between focus groups - to a meeting with a Cincinnati Presbytery Transformation Team meeting. Having done some work for them when I first started at my job four years ago, we're going to do another survey for them. Some of what the Presbytery is trying to do seems exciting, and so it's nice to be part of that. The only time before I had driven by the Presbytery office was in October 2004 when I volunteered for a Saturday in Cincinnati for a presidential campaign (whose Cincinnati HQ was nearby).

You'll recall that Stephanie, Vincent, and I twice took day trips to Cincinnati back when we all lived in Columbus. The second trip was for Stephanie and my secret wedding in Covington, across the Ohio River in KY (where it was easy to get married). Our friend accompanied us, partly to entertain Vincent during the actual wedding, so he wouldn't know. We got our license in the Kenton County Courthouse and then got married to Jimmy Buffet music by Kenton County Justice of the Peace Stephen Hoffman (with two paid witnesses looking on).

Accelerating the timetable for a wedding - you'll recall - was the importance of getting Stephanie Florida State University in-state tuition as a result of being married to a card-carrying (voter registration card and driver's license) Florida resident. We got married secretly because at that point - because of our legal troubles - we didn't want Vincent's father to know and because we wanted to wait and have a "real" more public wedding at which time we'd tell people. Of course, as we went through the process it seemed more real.

After the wedding, Courtney, Vincent, and I went out to lunch on the Mike Fink steamboat, moored on the KY side of the Ohio, and then went on a whirlwind tour of Cincinnati and Covington: including two lovely Catholic churches modeled after French counterparts, the Harriett Beecher Stowe house in Cincinnati, the history and natural history museums in the old Cincinnati train station, walking across the old suspension bridge between Covington and Cincinnati that was a model for the Brooklyn Bridge, IMAX movie back in the science center, and dinner at a funky place near the University of Cincinnati campus (then drive back to Columbus for work/school the next day).

We took wedding day pictures but later discovered the camera had no film in it.

After leaving the Presbytery office, I passed some of the wedding day sites. I drove past the Underground Railroad museum (which wasn't there then but now sits at the other side of the bridge) and drove over the bridge towards downtown Covington.

I stopped by Justice of the Peace Hoffman's office where Stephanie and I got married.

I drove past one of the Catholic churches and on to Main Strasse, an old Covington German-American area chi chi-e d up a little with restaurants, gift shops, and bars. We met Melissa and her family there for lunch one day after visiting the Newport Aquarium.

And then on to the clock tower between Main Strasse and Interstate 71/75. For several years this clock tower was broken. But around the time that we visited Covington for our wedding and then very recently - after we moved to KY - it's worked. Every hour on the hour the clock strikes the hour and out jumps a panorama with the story of Pipe Pipers, complete with the rats he lures away by playing his magic flute and the one child, disabled, who doesn't get to follow him during this dreadful revenge.

We still stop in Covington - for gas and sometimes for food - on our way in between Louisville and particularly Columbus. Although we had no Skyline Chili on our wedding day (instead opting for a local resturant, Dionysus), a favorite regional chain of ours in Columbus and Louisville (Stephanie and I ate at the Mid-City Mall (Louisville)-Highlands Skyline Chili after church just 10 days ago) is Cincinnati-based Skyline Chili. There's actually three Skyline Chilis in the mile in between Main Strasse and downtown Covingon (inclusive). I tried to go to one after my meeting and driving through town, but discovered I had not retrieved my work notes and so went back to the Presbytery office (two weeks ago - today - Tuesday). I'll stop in Covington/Cincinnati to eat some other time.

-- Perry