Taking off on the next day of deciding a random city to visit with absolutely nothing planned out is actually quite interesting. Why not take a trip where you literally don’t plan anything out?
The Friday before leaving on a Saturday, my boyfriend and I wanted to go somewhere and see some place new. We looked up major cities in Ohio and found that Cincinnati was going to be our final destination. On Saturday, waking up at no particular time, we took off with only $40 in our wallets. With a full tank of gas and coffee to go, we drove straight to Cincinnati in the mid-afternoon sun.
Getting there around 5 p.m. maybe wasn’t the best idea on our parts, but we still made it an incredible time. Our first stop was the Cincinnati public library. It was absolutely huge and had art set up in a side room off of their lobby area. It looked to be local artists from the city. We didn’t have much time to explore the library since it was getting ready to close, but we sat outside on the steps across from it to find our next place to explore.
Leaving the library and being the extreme lame person that I am, I saw a pigeon on the sidewalk. I wanted to stop and take a picture of it. Now this is what happens when you take me to a big city: There’s a million and one things to see around me, and here I am wanting to stop and take a picture of a pigeon on the sidewalk that can probably be found in any big city. (I didn’t get the picture of the pigeon, by the way. I walked away. Sadly.)
Finding Lytle Park only being a 20-minute walk from the library, we decided to go there. It was just a small walk around the park, but it offered some great views of the city. In the dead center of the walkway, there stood an Abraham Lincoln statue. It really confused me for a second, but I ended up letting it go and not questioning it.
From the park, we walked to a coffee shop. It was called The Coffee Emporium, and let me tell you, it was some really amazing coffee. In my opinion, we need one in every city. It was way better than Starbucks. It was all freshly brewed in their shop, and they had imported coffee from different countries available to buy. It was also a nice little cafe with local art on the wall as well.
We headed back to the car and drove 10 minutes out of the city to Mount Airy Forest. It is well known for their treehouse and gardens.
It almost brings out the kid in you again to see a treehouse in the middle of the woods.
My boyfriend and I then walked around under the treehouse for some type of souvenir to take back. It’s the little findings that mean more than buying an actual souvenir. We both found something as it was getting late and dark in the woods.
We decided to call it a day and get a little food in our stomachs before making the journey back. We stopped at Salem Gardens, a little restaurant that looked to be family owned. It had some of the best food and was extremely cheap. We then stopped for gas and drove back to settle off to sleep at 2:30 a.m.
See? You don’t really have to have a ton of money or even a plan to do something. We made it a great time and it was probably one of the most simple trips ever. Probably one of our most memorable, too.
