It seems like we’ve been dodging the raindrops for the past few weeks now. And tonight was no exception. No raindrops when we were out on our walk this evening but the skies looked like they could have opened up at any second…




I thought we were living in Cincinnati not Seattle.

We stopped by Fountain Square to watch most of the Bengals game…

The played the Carolina Panthers to a thrilling 37-37 tie after overtime. It’s not very often
that you see a game end in a tie in the NFL. Leave it to the Bengals.

On this cloudy Saturday afternoon, we walked down to Sawyer Point and Yeatman’s Cove
along the Ohio Riverfront to check out the River Grill before the Big Chill. It was a 2-day
food and music festival celebrating barbecue, local brews, home cooking and hometown
music that ran Friday night and all-day Saturday. Officially sanctioned by the Kansas City
Barbeque Society, Cincinnati Parks’ River Grill before the Big Chill, welcomed 50 pro BBQ
teams and 29 amateur teams for a chance to win over twenty thousand dollars in prizes. It
was the marquee KCBS event of the region for the fall of 2014. And winning contestants
of the “River Grill” could be eligible for state and national competitive placements. Sounds
pretty interesting. We’ve never been to a competitive bbq before. And we’ve been waiting
for weeks to check this thing out…









They had all the food vendors circled around Lucius Cincinnatus…






The lines for BBQ were kinda silly. It was downright impossible to tell where one line for
BBQ ended and where another line began…

But we found a line that wasn’t unbearable. Luckily, it was for Moerlein Lager House…

We got a couple of pulled pork sliders and a beer brat. You can’t beat that Lager House.

We wandered over through Yeatman’s Cove to check out the Pro-Division Grilling Area.
Apparently, Professional BBQ Teams competed in four categories: Chicken, Ribs, Pork
Butt, and Brisket. KCBS Certified Judges evaluated each meat on appearance, texture
and flavor; looking for “absolute excellence in Barbeque.” And somehow, we managed to
miss all the competitive grilling action. But we still got to see their set-ups. They really
weren’t joking around…




Wanna get in the professional BBQ game? You can for just $4000…










A BBQ sauce fountain?

And then back to Sawyer Point for the River Grill before the Big Chill awards presentation…


They were about to reveal the Grand Champion….


The Grand Champion also was going to take home a golden ticket to the KCBS National
Championship in Las Vegas…

And the Grand Champion of the 2014 River Grill before the Big Chill is…

Bubba Grills!




And with that everyone left to raid the Bogey’s Sizzlin’ BBQ Bubba Grill trailer…



But then we found out they were out of ribs. And chicken. Oh, and brisket. Oh well.





What a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon! We can’t wait for next year’s River Grill
before the Big Chill! 🙂

We’ve been wanting to try the burger at Jimmy G’s for a while now. But whenever we’d
wander into Jimmy’s, we’d always end up going with steaks especially while they were
still doing their Steak :30 Wednesdays. Sadly, those days have passed. Tonight, we
finally got to try Jimmy’s Barge Bash Burger: dry-aged grind, smoked bacon-tomato jam,
bleu and house pickle…

And it was delicious. I’m usually not a huge fan of bleu cheese on my burger but this was
the exception. It may not be the best burger I’ve ever had (Estelle’s). I mean, how could
you possibly definitively award that designation? I don’t know. But Jimmy’s burger is
definitely right there in that conversation for the best burger I’ve ever eaten…

Whenever you’re at Jimmy’s, you definitely have to get his creme brulee.

Have. To. It’s just inhumane not to treat yourself. Some amazingly delicious flavors that
Jimmy has going on. Great stuff. 🙂

The Dunnhumby Center continues it’s progress…




🙂

Tonight was the debut of the #Yeson8 Action Center on Fountain Square…


It’s a really cool space that will be used to raise awareness and generate support for
getting people out to vote YES on Issue 8. There are a bunch of cool photos on display
from the behind the scenes tours of Union Terminal…

There’s one of my photos…

And another…


And a photo I took of Genifer in front of Union Terminal…






















Next time you’re near Fountain Square, make sure you stop into the Action Center, say hi,
take a look around, grab some buttons, stickers and a yard sign. And please remember to
#VoteYESon8 & #VoteYesUT!

Click to see all the photos I took during our behind-the-scenes tour of Union Terminal.

It looks like James Garfield is getting some attention too…

Just like Abe Lincoln over at Lytle Park. Everyone needs a little attention now and again. 🙂

This evening a thunderstorm blew through downtown Cincinnati that looked like something
straight out of Ghostbusters…



And as soon as we got home from our dog walk, it started with the hail…


We must prepare for the coming of Gozer. Gozer? The Destructor.

O.O

The Cincinnati Bearcats are playing all their home games this season at the Bengals’
Paul Brown Stadium while Nippert Stadium up on Cincinnati’s campus is undergoing a
massive $86m in estimated renovations. So this evening we decided to walk over to Paul
Brown to see the Bearcats take on the Memphis Tigers. A titanic struggle between two
heavyweights in the football powerhouse that is the American Athletic Conference. This
was the second time we’ve been to a Bearcats football game at PBS. The other was a
couple seasons ago when #23 Bearcats took on the #24 West Virginia Mountaineers.
















It was all Memphis at halftime, 27-7. There were 400 cheerleaders on the field at halftime…

And then the Cincinnati Bearcats Marching Band had a halftime tribute to Billy Joel…

At least that’s what they said, I didn’t recognize either of the Billy Joel songs they played.





Touchdown Bearcats!


At the beginning of the fourth quarter, it was 41-14 Memphis…


Oktoberfest weekend, we heard fireworks but couldn’t tell where they were coming from.
They must have been after another UC football game down at Paul Brown Stadium.




Still win or lose, it’s always fun to try something different. I’d never been to a night game
at Paul Brown Stadium before. And now, I have. 🙂

Our photos from our behind the scenes tour of Union Terminal are up in a sizable post…

Be sure you check out our photos, as well as… @savingplaces & @cincymuseum
And don’t forget to use the hashtag… #VoteYesUT

Together we can save Union Terminal. Vote YES on 8! 🙂