From Fishes to Eagles...

We took a little trip yesterday and today. Several months ago I got an eMail alert that the Eagles were coming to Cincinnati for a concert. If you are tooooooo young to remember the Eagles, well, my counsel would be to find some of their music and get hooked. It's still just as great as it was when Claude and I were young marrieds. Claude told me to get the cell phone alert and get the ticket no matter the cost. I got the cell phone alert and immediately headed to my computer to secure tickets. We decided that we would take a couple of days and use this opportunity to see some of the sites in the northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area. I did our Internet research and made a hotel reservation. Yesterday, Tuesday, November 18th, we headed to Newport, Kentucky. We arrived about 11:30am. We first drove to the US Bank Arena to get our bearing in the daylight for where we would be that evening. This is in Cincinnati, Ohio right across the river from Newport, Kentucky. There were 5 or 6 enormous tour busses for the bands and that many tractor/trailer rigs for all their equipment behind the arena. Once we were sure of our potential parking spots and roads to drive we headed back across the river to Newport On The Levee. This is a great shopping and dining area right on the Ohio River looking across to the Cincinnati skyline. We had not eaten breakfast so we were ready for a really good lunch. we found a restaurant named Mitchell's Fish Market. We had a great seat by the windows overlooking the river and skyline. I tried their crab cakes. They were really good, not as good as Pelican Pete's but really good in their own right. Claude had some steak meal that he totally enjoyed. Then we headed to the Newport Aquarium which was right next door. This was our first visit there and it a delightful afternoon. We watched a huge sea turtle named Denver swimming in an enormous tank. Turtle is my favorite work and I have quite a collection of the little creatures in my home. We watched them feed sharks, sea otters and penquins. We even petted sharks. They had Dippin' Dots ice cream which is one of my favorites. Then we headed to our hotel room for a rest before the main event. We left the hotel at 7pm to get to US Bank Arena. There were already lots of people there. We had great seats and settled in for a wonderful evening of music with the Eagles.

We were entertained while waiting with watching the guys get up to the cat walks to work lights and stuff. They entered the floor level with harnesses on their backs. A rope was lowered to them with a clasp on it. It was attached to their harness and then they climbed a little rope ladder to the top of the arena to the catwalk. The first picture has a man climbing the rope ladder right to the right of the bottom blue light. The second picture has a man that had climbed the rope ladder, walked across the first catwalk and then stepped across to the catwalk that goes down at an angle. He is standing on the end edge of the angled catwalk. Claude and I are both agreed they could not pay us enough to do this.

The concert really got started about 8:11pm. We were told to turn off cell phones, no photography, etc., etc., etc. We are usually very law abiding people. But I really wanted a picture of the Eagles singing. No recording, no videoing, just a snapshot. Claude tried with his cell phone and, well, you can tell we were all having a rockin' good time...

Sorry about that kids. We try to set a better example but this was my once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we tried to take this picture. All our favorites were played and sung and many new ones as well. It was just great to have this entire arena singing along to some of the old favorites. Claude got Hotel California during the concert and Desperado during the encore. I got Love Will Keep Us Alive and Dirty Laundry both during the concert. Someone sitting a few rows up from us spilled their drink. It flowed down under the ladies chair behind me and stopped under my feet. I didn't realize there was a puddle until we stood during the intermission. After assuring myself I wasn't leaking anything pink onto the floor, I spoke with the lady behind me and she told me she was in a similar situation. During the second half of the concert she and I both tried to move our shoes only to find them stuck in the red goo that was firming up. Fortunately we neither carried a purse so we had nothing on the floor absorbing this mess. During the concert Glenn's guitar string broke. You could see it hanging down. A young man in black came to the side of the stage with another guitar exactly like the one he was playing just in case he needed to make a change. Between each song these guys always had someone bringing them a different guitar for the song they were going to perform next. I wish we had a count of how many guitars they used. Each of them had at least 3 and some more than that. Amazing!! After the Eagles finished their concert, we all stood and applauded so they would come back for an encore. Soon all the cellphones were out, including Claude and mine, and we were waving them back and forth like they used to do with cigarette lighters years ago. I was very amused at the guy in front of us. He had loaded a picture of a candle to his cell phone and that was what he was waving back and forth. We didn't buy t-shirts. But we had a great time and can't believe we were fortunate enough to get to go. We made it back to our hotel room by 12:30am, put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and headed to bed. Check-out time was noon, we left at 11:30am. We headed to MainStrausse which is the German community in Covington, Kentucky. We found a fun restaurant for lunch. Claude had the Covington Hero and I had a quesadilla with 3 kinds of cheese and bacon. We split a crab-cake appetizer. It was a great meal. Then we walked to the monument of a little girl holding ducks. Then we walked to Goebel Park to see the clock tower. This tower is based on the story The Pied Piper of Hamblin. Every hour the story is told from a recording in the tower. There is a porch on the tower with doors and they are supposed to open and 21 different figures are supposed to come out as the story is told. Claude and waiting in the freezing cold and heard the story but never saw the figures. Maybe in the summer. They probably didn't want to come out in the cold either. We then headed for home. It was a great couple of days and we totally enjoyed seeing things we haven't experienced before and eating great food.