USA Trip: Cincinnati part 6 - Mon 24 Sept

Monday 24 September - got up late. Went to the outlet shops with Amanda & Renee to do some shopping. Bought a couple of things for Madison. Picked up Larry on the way home then went to Walgreens to get a couple of things, visited Jaicelyn for a couple of minutes & went to thrift store to get a jacket for Amanda. And while there I found a long black winter wool coat with a hood, which I bought. Then it was home for chicken & dumplings for dinner.

Tuesday 25th September - after Amanda got home from work we headed off on a day of missions. First was a visit to Chuck E Cheese. OMG!! What a wonderland for kids that is!! We played a few games & got some tickets and then had lunch. When we checked the time we found we had been there nearly 2 hours!! Then it was off to the post office to get me a box so I could send stuff back to G for safe-keeping and then to Jungle Jim's to get some lamb so I could cook an authentic Kiwi meal, which ended up being lamb rissoles, nothing fancy but everyone liked it. Larry & Vickie were taking Renee & Violet to Renee sisters so I hitched a ride to Walmart to get a couple of things. They dropped me off at a Walmart and there I experienced the worst customer service since arriving in the USA. I wanted to try on a couple of tops but the fitting rooms were closed & they refused to open them up or let me try them on in the restroom and the only help/advice they gave me was that I could take them home & return them the next day. EXCUSE ME!!! Why do I have to go thru all that hassle to spend my money at your store!! Suffice it to say I left the dozen or so items of clothing at the checkout for them to put back and left the store to wait for Vickie & Larry to pick me up. We then headed to a Walmart closer to them where I experienced some of the best customer service ever. I completed my shopping about midnight & we headed home.

CHUCK E CHEESE!!!

Inside Chuck E Cheese - games galore!!

A couple of the games we played.

More games.

And more games.

Amanda & Pip as drawn by Chuck E Cheese.

Me in the Nascar game - didn't win any tickets, came 22nd out of 26. Had so much fun tho!!

This must have been just after I smashed into one of the other cars. LOL

Amanda playing Mouse & Cheese - a whack-a-mole type game.

Found more interesting stuff my 2nd time at Jungle Jim's. A 776lb (353kg) cheese.

Halloween cheese!!

Animal & flower cheese!! NB: it's just the wax shell that is decorated.

Singing & swinging can of soup.

Extremely cute fruit!!!

And yes, that sign means 2 feijoa's for $5 - ie. $2.50 each!!!

Wednesday 26th September - Vickie & I headed off to Union Terminal which now houses a couple of museums as well as the Amtrak train. We arrived about 12.30pm so had a bite for lunch first then headed to the Museum of Natural History and Science. It was much as I had expected - fossils, stuffed animals, etc - but with a focus on the Ohio state area, which was quite interesting, and there was a Nature Trail which was a full size recreation of the landscape & animals. I then visited the Cincinnati History Museum myself while Vickie waited in the main lobby. They had diorama's of downtown Cincinnati & surrounding areas circa 1940, and the lighting was constantly changing to imitate a whole day every 8 minutes. Which was good, but annoying when trying to take photos. The museum took you through WWII and then back further to when Cincinnati was first settled. I was in the middle of watching a short video about the flatboatmen when a lady interrupted it & told me it was 5pm and the museum was closing so I was rushed through the rest of the museum and didn't get to see much. We then headed home and had a turkey dinner from Bob Evans for dinner and then watched Snow White & The Huntsman, and then headed to bed.