Summer In The City

With sum­mer­time approach­ing, one blog­ger from HighStreet is will­ing to spill the beans on what makes the sea­son of sum­mer truly spe­cial for him. Now, some of the fol­low­ing sug­ges­tions are obvi­ous and oth­ers, sacred secrets. But for the sake of you, the reader,  full dis­clo­sure is pro­vided. You might think fun comes only by get­ting away dur­ing the sum­mer, but don’t let that limit you. There is plenty in Cincinnati for you if you know the terrain.

If your sum­mer isn’t sum­mer with­out water activ­i­ties, then we have two places for you:  There is a beach nearby, even if it is made of fine gravel and not pure sand. Head to East Fork State Park off of State Route 125, south of Batavia. Follow the signs in the park to the beach area.  Though many fam­i­lies use the beach, it is large enough that it is never seems over­crowded. The water is decent and you can soak up the sun for as long as you want. I sug­gest you take your i-pod and ear­phones to muf­fle the sound of motor­ized water toys buzzing across the lake and chil­dren squeal­ing, lis­ten to your most tran­scen­dent tunes and trans­port your­self to a mini-vacation of the mind. With the sun above, the breeze from the water It’s a bit of a hike from down­town, forty min­utes or so…To make up for the gas you use get­ting there, you’ll be happy to find there is no cost to use the beach.

For some­thing closer to home, the Mount Adams Pool is a sub­lime long-time secret of the sophis­ti­cated down­towner.  Located behind Playhouse In The Park, the fee for the entire sum­mer remains ridicu­lously low (10 bucks for the entire Summer Season…). It is not a par­tic­u­larly large pool so swim­ming laps is not some­thing you could eas­ily do, but it is neatly kept and usu­ally low-key. For work­ing on your tan, dip­ping in the water to cool off, chat­ting, read­ing or relax­ing a bit after the work-day, it can­not be beat. Do us a favor though and keep this close to your vest, as the pool is bliss­fully uncrowded and we would like to keep it that way.

After a day of play head to the Pirate’s Cove Bar and Grill at the “Four Seasons Marina” on Kellogg Avenue. Eat, drink, dance, or what­ever floats your boat (pun intended) while look­ing out on the marina. We are always tempted to feed the ducks but haven’t yet. Maybe you will, though.

If you want exer­cise, try the International Friendship Park by the “Montgomery Inn Boathouse” on the river. You can walk or run laps through the park and there is a water foun­tain at the halfway point. It is coolest at dusk but you will have to duck swarms of insects then. But hey, bugs are just another com­po­nent of sum­mer, right?

Of course to get calo­ries for all of these activ­i­ties you need lots and lots of ice cream. If you ever grow tired of Graeter’s (I know, blas­phe­mous as that sounds), there are three out­stand­ing places to get soft serve that do not involve the name “Dairy Queen.” The first is the Mount Healthy Dairy Bar on Hamilton Avenue, just north of the “down­town” area in Mt. Healthy. Get the banana split. It comes in a cup just like we used to get down south when I was in college.

Putz’s Dairy Whip off of Interstate 74 at Montana Avenue uses ice cream machines from the 1930’s. This is sig­nif­i­cant because these con­trap­tions trap less air in the ice cream and result in thick good­ness. Just a plain ice cream cone is all that is needed to be ordered here.

Newtown Farmer’s Market has frozen cus­tard that is pretty good. The only trou­ble with going here for your sweet tooth is the deci­sion between the cus­tard and one of the Amish fruit pies which are the best you can get in the 275 loop.

Now I know that we’ve jumped around a bit but one last item that really makes sum­mer for this blog­ger is base­ball. While the Reds have 81 home games at Great American Ballpark, I try to get to as many of them as I can. I have learned how to do this as cheaply and pleas­antly as pos­si­ble. It involves a small amount of plan­ning and stand­ing around but games can be seen for only $5. Time your arrival to the down­town area at 6 pm. Park your car on the street around the Taft Theatre area. Several spots should be open at 6 pm and park­ing is pro­hib­ited until then due to rush hour. The meters do not require money after 6 also so the park­ing is now free. It’s a 5 minute walk to the sta­dium from this area. Buy a $5 cor­ner upper-deck ticket and go grab a snack or hang out under the smoke stacks in cen­ter field. You must stand but you can lean on the rail­ings and your friendly usher Joe will keep you com­pany. It’s that sim­ple and the view of the game is great.In later innings you can pretty much sit any­where in the park in an empty seat.  If you want a com­par­i­son, lux­ury tick­ets for New York Yankees games this year are $2500 per game. $5, free parking, and some stand­ing does not sound so bad now does it?

There you have it. Summer in a nut­shell for me. Use what you will and of course, don’t for­get to spend at least one after­noon loung­ing in the book sec­tion at HighStreet this summer.

Michael Spurrier. HighStreet. Cincinnati