Comments on Vacation Spots

A few years ago the city of Cincinnati built a stadium for what at the time was one of the worst teams in professional football. This is probably what they needed to turn the franchise around. Playing in a beautiful stadium must have been the magic since the Bengals are typically a very competitive team now and often discussed as a playoff contender.

The stadium is one of the nicest football venues that you will find. It holds over 65,000 screaming fans, it has fantastic scoreboards that show live video, and has plenty of restrooms. It is the only football stadium to make the “Americans’ Favorite Buildings” coming in at 101. Only 10 sporting structures made that list.

Kings Island is located just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. It has had a variety of owners over the years and is currently owned by Cedar Fair - the same company that owns Cedar Point. This change is recent and the remnants of former owner, Paramount, are still very obvious with ride names like Face/Off, Days of Thunder, Tomb Raider, and Italian Job

For thrill seekers, Kings Island doesn’t compete with Cedar Point or Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure but it does offer a few gems of excitement. The biggest attraction in the park is The Beast which still holds the record as the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. This ride regularly tops any list of wooden roller coasters and it is a treat for coaster fans. KI tried to build on this draw by building Son of Beast which allowed the rider to go upside down on a wooden coaster but numerous technical challenges have put this ride at risk and it may eventually get shut down.

The new owner of the park appears to understand that thrill rides drive attendance and they have introduced new attractions to pull thrill seekers into the park. The Firehawk that was introduced in the summer of 2007 is a testimony to this.

Kings Island has one of the best kids parks and water parks attached to the thrill park. These additional venues are included with the main ticket admission and make the park almost impossible to enjoy in only one day. You would be wise to spend 2-3 days in Cincinnati and make it a mini-vacation (perhaps time it with a Reds game).

The Cincinnati Reds are the first professional baseball team having been formed as the Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869. Their current stadium holds just shy of 43,000, is a pure baseball facility that tries to deliver the theme of the riverboat heritage of the city, and sits next to the Ohio River. In the stands in the outfield is a mockup of a riverboat with two smokestacks. These smokestacks shoot out small fireworks at the beginning of game upon the completion of the National Anthem.