Terracotta Army Invades Cincinnati

My birthday gift this year was a visit to the Cincinnati Art Museum with the entire family.  The special reason for the visit here was an exhibit on China's terracotta army.  The exhibit included over 120 period artworks as well as 10 of the life sized terracotta warriors.  

 We had seen a similar exhibit at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis in September 2014.  Since this was in Cincinnati we had to go, especially since we will be at the site in China later this year. 
We are fascinated with the find of clay warriors, horses and chariots that were found in a farmer's field in the mid 1970s where they were hidden since they were made around 210 BC.  It is believed that there are over 8,000 soldiers and many hundreds of horses buried in the pits in China's Lintong District.  We loved looking at the differences in the features and faces of each warrior that are said to be unique from one to another and may have even resembled the appearance of one of the craftsman making the figure.  It is believed that nearly three quarters of a million people worked on making the soldiers, horses and chariots.  When the figures were placed in the pits it is believed that they were painted with bright colors that were typical of a human army of the time.  However, in the 2000 years of burial most of the paint has washed away from the figures.
All of this were done to honor the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang who founded the Qin Dynasty (pronounced "Chin") in 201 BC.  He ascended to the throne at the age of 13 and saw the size of his Chinese state expand greatly under his reign.  He ordered the fragments of wall structures found throughout much of China to be unified into what we now know as the Great Wall of China.  He also oversaw the construction of a network of roads that became a national transportation system. To assure the continued unification of China, he abolished feudalism and arranged the country into administrative units. He standardized units of measurements for the nation to assist trade and commerce within the country. Shortly after becoming emperor, he ordered the construction of a giant mausoleum that included the terracotta army.   There is speculation whether the 700,000 workers who built the tomb and warriors were paid workers or slaves but there is some agreement that everyone who worked on the tomb or knew where is is located was killed to preserve the secret.
We had a great day at the museum.  After walking through the terracotta army exhibit, we were entertained by Peter in the children's play area of the museum.  I can't think of a better birthday than to spend the day with my family and to visit an exhibit on the fascinating aspect of ancient Chinese history.
We stopped by Jungle Jim's on the way home to get a bag of our favorite tea then on to Georgetown to drop off Ian and Emily.

Spring in Cincinnati

The girls wanted to give Gran a day in Cincinnati for her birthday this year so we thought it would be a good idea for us all to make a day outing of it.

We picked Gran up at 7 am and started down the AA Highway to the Queen City of Cincinnati. Driving was difficult for me since I was still sore from the previous day's work. On Friday morning, I installed oak flooring on about half of the guest bedroom. In the afternoon, I helped build raised beds for the high tunnel greenhouse at Hometown Elementary near Red House, WV. It was a fun and productive day but my muscles were paying for it on Saturday.

We arrived at Sarah & Greg's house a little after 10 am finding that Emily had arrived shortly before us. We visited with the family briefly then left Gran to enjoy the day with the younger generation. They had a great day by visiting the Krohn Conservatory then went to lunch at the Cincinnati Art Museum. After lunch they did some shopping at some of the area's many stores.

After leaving Gran at Sarah's, we drove up to Jungle Jim's to restock the Marie Sharps Fiery Hot Sauce, goetta and Assam Tea as well as few other items. We got Cincinnati Chili at Skyline Chili which was tasty but not as good as our home made. 
We drove down to the Cincinnati Zoo to check in on some of the recent renovations at the zoo and to see some of our favorite animals. I took a brief power nap before joining Mary in the zoo. Although I only slept about 10 minutes, I felt refreshed after that. I met up with Mary in the gorilla area, one of my favorites. The weather was beautiful and many of the animals were enjoying the sunshine and seasonal warmth of the day. 

We didn't stay at the zoo long and drove over to Newport, Kentucky to The Party Source to pick up some gifts and to see how the additions there were progressing. I picked up a bottle of John J. Bowman for Steve Minor, some Buffalo Trace Bourbon Creame for Gran and some W. L. Weller 107 Antique Bourbon for me. We did a tasting of Pappy Van Winkle at the tasting area while we were there. The Pappy was good but certainly not up to the hype the currently surrounds it. After leaving The Party Source, we drove over to Findley Market and walked through the vendors. We noticed that Krause's Butcher Shop was closed. It is a shame since it was been in Cincinnati for many years. We walked by Kroeger and Son's Meats and counted 43 different kinds of sausages for sale today. We didn't buy anything since the market was preparing to close and it was nearly 5 pm so we headed for the car. When we got to the car, the gang called to say that they were exhausted and ready for dinner.

We picked Greg up at home and drove over to Walt's Barbecue on Colerain Avenue. We always enjoy Walt's since we can buy meats and sides by the pound and share a little of everything. We got two pounds of brisket, a pound of pulled pork, a quart each of baked beans and sweet potatoes and a pint of cole slaw. We each had a corn muffin as well. The amount was about right for the six of us since we all had our fill and there was a little left over to Greg's lunch.

We left Walt's and headed for home. We were very tired but had a great day of visiting with family and enjoying the beautiful spring day in Cincinnati.

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Cincinnati Zoo & Krohn Conservatory

Rex, Natalie & Mary near the gorilla exhibit

We picked up our friends, Rex & Natalie Dillinger at 7 am to make the short drive to Cincinnati for a day trip. We arrived at the Cincinnati Zoo at 10 am for their opening for the day. There had been some mists of rain on the trip down but nothing to cause us to change our plans. 

Three toed sloth

The zoo was excellent as always. Since the weather was much cooler than it had been previously, many of the animals were more active. Each of us had our favorite animal exhibits whether the gorillas, tigers, manatees or Mary's red pandas. Neither of us had seen the new Africa exhibit which was very impressive.  When there was a popup shower we visited exhibits in one of the buildings.

Orangutan

We were fortunate to have cooperative weather until we were hit with a cloudburst around 2:30 as we were leaving the zoo and walking to the car.

Steve & Mary at the waterfall near the gorillas

We had a snack in the car as we drove to the Krohn Conservatory. By the time we arrived the rain had passed. In additional to the permanent displays of tropical plants, bonsai, orchids, cacti and succulents, there was an exhibit of aquaponics, aeroponics and hydroponics. Plants were raised in vertical gardens and in tower gardens where growing conditions were optimized in minimal space. It was an interesting and informative exhibit.  
We stopped in the Krohn's gift shop where we purchased some small houseplants and unique gifts for friends and family.
By the time we left the conservatory we were all hungry so we called Greg to drop off some items that Sarah wanted to use for an upcoming social engagement at her house.  Since Greg was available he joined us for dinner.  Since we all love barbecue, Walt's Barbecue seemed like a good choice.  Dillingers treated us to smoked turkey, pulled pork and, best of all, sliced brisket.  For sides, we had fried okra and some of the best beans you will ever taste.  The meal was excellent but we all ate far too much.
To walk off our dinner, we drove north to Jungle Jim's International Market where we picked up a few things from the German, Chinese and British sections.  Jungle Jim's is always an adventure.  We started home on I-71 and made a quick stop by the Party Source in Newport, Kentucky.  The quick stop turned out to take much longer than we anticipated since road construction closed the exit of I-471 at Newport so we had to take a longer route than we planned.
Once back on the road, we picked up the AA Highway and made our way home.  There was steady rain the whole trip back that was heavy at times but traffic was light and we entertained ourselves with conversation from the day's sights.
We will look forward to coming back to Cincinnati for Oktoberfest Zinzinnati on the third weekend in September.


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