The Newport Aquarium
On our trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, we actually stayed in Kentucky. The first night of our weekend excursion we found ourselves at Newport on the Levee. And the second day, after the Zoo, we explored the Newport Aquarium.
The trip from Birmingham to Newport took us about 9 hours. It’s a hike with a church bus and caravan of parent cars. We stopped a few times for potty breaks and once for lunch. After checking into our hotel, we drove a tad further north to the state line and found a fantastic pizza joint in Newport, Kentucky.
Strong’s Brick Oven Pizzeria was delicious. Really. And the restaurant was incredible kind and accommodating to our large group. We essentially took over the entire inside of the pizzeria. We kept it simple for the staff, just pepperoni pizzas all around. I picked off the pepperonis for Remy, and he devoured his 2 slices.
When dinner was over, our group walked down to Newport on the Levee. We were (accidentally) there for opening weekend. If you live in the area, or are visiting, this is a MUST. The adults took advantage of the chairs, while the kids ran off a lot of their bottled up energy.
The view of Cincinnati is pretty awesome. There was live music, plenty of places to chill, and no shortage of grub and libations.
Visiting the Newport Aquarium
After our morning at the Cincinnati Zoo, we grabbed a quick bite at Wendy’s and made our way to the Aquarium. It’s actually at the Newport on the Levee. Tickets were purchased ahead of time. The Aquarium tickets are for a specific day and time. When it’s your time, you get in line – think Disney FastPass. The line moved quickly, and we made it inside.
I don’t have an abundance of pictures because I was mostly videoing. And I had to keep one eye on Remy. He was in heaven. He was running around from exhibit to exhibit, with assistance from a few of the big kids. At one point, Remy came over to me and snatched my phone. He would open the camera and aim it at the tank he liked. He did not figure out the button to actually take a photo or start a video, but I thought this was the cutest thing ever.
The Newport Aquarium is surprisingly big. It doesn’t appear so from the outside. But it took about 2 hours to walk through. We weren’t sprinting or dawdling. The gift shop took a while (shocker). We walked out to find the heavens opened; it was simply pouring. And my poncho was in the car.
To kill time and wait out the rain, we crossed over to the AMC building. It’s a large shopping center across from the Aquarium (still at the Levee). It houses the movie theater, several shops, coffee bars, and an arcade. Most of us ordered coffee and just hung out for an hour or so.
The plan for dinner was to eat at the burger place next door to Strong’s Pizzeria. Mad Mike’s Burgers and Fries was great too. Again, our large group took over most of the restaurant. The burgers were great, but the corn fritters were the stuff of dreams. I’ve never had a corn fritter before this trip… Now I will have dreams about them. Crunchy fried on the outside, gooey sweet corn on the inside. Yum.
