Happy Birthday to Me...

What does one do to celebrate turning 62????

I'm a pretty low-key person. I'm happy if my birthday is done quietly. This year I turned 62. I'm officially old enough for my Social Security check. This is a milestone.

Claude received a postcard in the mail a month or so ago with an AARP discount offer he thought I might be interested in. I taped it to my calendar on the month of July. I flipped to July and noticed this postcard but did nothing with it. As my birthday approached it occurred to me this would be a great outing for my birthday. I shared the idea with Claude and he too felt great about it.

We blocked Monday afternoon for this little trip. We drove to Cincinnati to the Cincinnati Museum. We see this building from I-75 every time we go to Michigan. The structure has fascinated both of us but we've never managed to get there. We were even more taken with this structure when we got up close and personal.

It was and still is a train station. Now it only houses the Amtrak train. But you have to look really close when inside to find the train portion. Inside in a Museum about Cincinnati History, the Museum of Natural History and the Children's Museum. There is also an OmniMax Theater and several other smaller exhibits. There are gift shops and and place to get something to eat. There is just lots of space being put to a very good use.

Our goal was to view the special exhibit about Pompeii. There are artifacts from Pompeii that don't usually make their way to this area of the country. So it was a treat. Our discount gave us a little off the cost to view the exhibit and free audio tour gear. We purchased tickets for the Pompeii exhibit and two IMAX movies.

Here are some pictures from the Pompeii exhibit. You are not allowed to use your flash on your camera but you can take all the pictures you like without a flash. I took a picture of everything. My experience in photographing in odd lighting situations with no flash is poor, fuzzy pictures. I didn't know if I would get one but I took 174 just in case I could get one. Love that digital photography.


Cremation Jars

 

Wine Amphoras

Gladiator Helmet

Statue of a Woman

Hand God Based on Indian Belief

Fresco

Marble Table with Lion Legs

Mosaic Floor Tile

Furniture & Candelabras

Cooking Pots

Red Clay Bowls

Eagle Fountain Spout

Herma

Garden Wall

Body Cast of Man & Woman

That is a morbid picture with which to finish my photo sharing but the end of the exhibit was the body cast portion.

The Pompeii exhibit was very interesting. I left the exhibit knowing these people lived well, even by our 'standards'. There were about 20,000 people living in Pompeii. It was a great trade route located on the Bay of Naples with a river running beside it. Food was plentiful. House decorations were spare. But they lived very comfortably.

We hurried back upstairs to the OmniMax Theater. The remainder of our afternoon would be spent there. We watched two IMAX movies back to back. The first was about Hawaiian volcanoes. The second was about the Arctic. They were both excellent. My memory of other IMAX experiences were of a really, really tall screen that was curved in front of you. This screen was dome shaped and you really had to lay back to enjoy the view. So much so that for the second movie we moved up another row in the seating.

As we drove home I asked Claude if he found, as I did, that most IMAX movies we have seen tend to be 'Save the....' When we went to an IMAX theater in Hawaii it was about saving the Coral Reefs around the world. Nonetheless, the movies are spectacular and well worth the price of admission.

On the way home we stopped for dinner at The Olive Garden. However, they had a wait and, quite frankly, I had not eaten anything but my bagel in the morning and therefore was not up for a wait. We walked to the next restaurant, Smoky Bones, for dinner. Salmon was my choice, not the barbecue. Excellent meal.

It was a very nice birthday celebration. Now...how shall I fill my 62nd year?