Saturday morning after breakfast we took another walk along the North Shore riverfront (just a block from our hotel). We saw boats. Lots of boats. These were the boats of Kenny Chesney fans who had been arriving for the big show that night at the nearby Steelers' stadium. I never knew it was a possibility in life to wake up one day, get in your boat, drive it up the river, dock it a few hundred feet from a football stadium, and camp out for a few days waiting for a Kenny Chesney concert. Oddly, it made me really happy to learn this. It sounds like it could be fun! (If it seems like something that would be fun to you...which it does not to me...)(Tangent: So, when we lived in Turkey, I used to watch "60 Minutes" on Monday morning, when it aired there, and one time there was a story about what a superstar Kenny Chesney is and how he can pack a stadium. I was mildly suspicious of the report. We'd had this Kenny Chesney CD around our house, which Greg brought into the marriage, and I found it hard to believe that the guy on the cover of that mediocre pop-country album was filling stadiums. Turns out the "60 Minutes" reporting was accurate. Wow. Sometimes I feel really out of it. And sometimes I feel just plain confused. But most of the time I don't care. I have dang cute kids, so why bother about anything else? Oh, and I am sorry if I have offended any Kenny Chesney fans--I realize I used the word "mediocre." But not sorry enough to delete this paragraph--I'm leaving it because this is what I babbled to Greg about as we observed the onslaught of some very seriously fun-loving tailgaters.)
Not all the Kenny Chesney fans were afloat. A lot of them were in our hotel (with its perfect location). I think we were the only people at breakfast not going to the concert that night, and how we got a room at all is a miracle indeed. The concert also meant the Carnegie Science Center, which is next to the football stadium, was closed for the day. Because we are members of the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, we can get in free at the Carnegie Science Center. Lucky for Kenny Chesney, we had already decided to go to the Children's Museum instead.
We were pleased to discover that we also get into the Children's Museum for free with our Boonshoft membership. (That membership is the bargain of the century! It gets us free or discounted admissions at zoos and museums all over the country. And it was only $57! In comparison, it's $95 to join the Children's Museum Pittsburgh and $130 to join the Carnegie Science Center. Coming to Dayton? Become a Boonshoft member!) Here is what our Boonshoft membership got us last Saturday morning:
a free fill-up...
a drive in a real Mini Cooper...
a visit to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (where the trolley was the favorite)...
a play area just Mary's size...
a visit to Mr. Roger's Neighborhood (where the trolley was the favorite)...
a play area just Mary's size...
lots and lots of ways of experimenting with water (one of Greg's favorites--after all, he is a registered civil engineer with a speciality in hydraulics)...
and a nap for Mary...
