Kings Island Haunt, Dinner Out, Cincinnati Zoo

Kings Island Haunt Visit

We visited KI as a family for our annual Haunt Visit. We arrived and went to dinner first because it was a Friday night and we needed to eat dinner. I chose the barbecue restaurant on the Coney Island Mall. We enjoyed our meal and then we split paths, half of us going to Peanuts Land and the other half to a Haunted House. To be honest, we both ended up disappointed this evening. I would say the park is wonderfully decorated and it seemed many people were having fun. However, the line for the one haunted house we visited was an hour long, and I needed to get stern with a group of teens line jumping, which I nor they enjoyed. Peanuts Land was closed and my wife and youngest son did not ride anything, although they went to a show which they said was a lot of fun.

Dinner Out – Bar Le Bouef, I Love Noods

We started a monthly dining out plan starting with our anniversary. Our first restaurant was Le Bar a Bouef, a bistro originally owned by Cincinnati’s most beloved chef – Jean Robert. It’s been on our most wanted to visit list for some time. It is a French restaurant in the Edgewood neighborhood in a building I passed a million times while I worked in Eden Park. We also visited I Love Noods, an Asian noodle restaurant near Jungle Jim’s in Eastgate. I am not going to talk more about it here because I am going to start a dining page on this blog talking about the places we visit. I’ll admit that food writing always held an interest for me. I do have much to learn in order to be good at it. For example, I am not great at getting photos any more of the food that I am eating. I do remember what I eat though, how it tasted, what was new or novel about it, and if I would recommend it to others. I will say that one of these two restaurants blew our mind and the other disappointed us. It is probably the opposite of what you think.

Cincinnati Zoo Visit

We visited during the day. There is a pumpkin glow at night but I passed on it as I didn’t want to pay for a separate event, especially when I realized they were all foam, simply out of principal. A season pass should mean full access to anything available to the public. We did see the new elephant exhibit which was terrific. There is plenty of “room to roam” there and the new gardens, walking path, and buildings are incredibly nice. We also sampled one of the new elephant ear donuts which were tasty. Afterwards we went to Jungle Jim’s to search for some good ingredients to spice up our home cooking.