I love my annual baseball trip. Last summer, with eleven stadiums and cities left for me to visit to have seen a major league game everywhere baseball is played, I decided to head to Cincinnati. It was to have been my baseball trip in 2020 on account of a ridiculously cheap plane ticket I had found. I had done just enough looking at the city before the world shut down to know that there would be plenty to keep me interested for a few days there. Cincinnati may not strike you as a “must go” destination, but as a baseball fan, there was plenty to like. A downtown stadium I could walk to, six games in five days on account of one double-header, and some fan apathy due to a number of down years for their team that made my tickets pretty inexpensive.

The first night a violent thunderstorm delayed the start of the game by half an hour and left a gorgeous storm front retreating into Kentucky over the river for a few innings as the backdrop to the game between the Reds and A’s. I spent about half the game in my assigned seat in the upper deck enjoying the solitude, then moved around to seats on the third base side for the rest of the game to get a different viewpoint. As was the case for each of the games, this one was back and forth and exciting. I got really lucky with entertaining baseball every game.

I’ll come back to some of the fun experiences across all of the baseball games. But first, something that made Cincinnati really attractive for me was that just across the river in Covington, KY, there was so much great bourbon to sample. I made a very easy day trip and can now say I’ve spent some time in Kentucky. As I walked to where my day was going to start, I went past a lot of interesting art including this mural of dogs which was a great sign of a fun day ahead!

I got my day kicked off in style and with the necessary food base in my stomach for the bourbon tastings ahead at Libby’s Southern Comfort. Southern dishes including a fried oyster po’boy, fried green tomatoes (best I have ever had) and a black bean salad were all exceptional. My first bourbon of the day, by Pinhook, was a wonderful sipper.

My second stop on my bourbon exploring was at Revival Vintage Bottle Shop and Bar. They sell vintage bottles of liquor with a particular emphasis on bourbons. Their tasting bar lets you sample from a spectrum of bottles and really shows how the aging process, which can be somewhat unpredictable, affects bourbon. One I tried, a Nashville Barrel Company one, tasted similar to a funky sour beer (in a good way!). I enjoyed an hour long conversation about bourbon, its history, the backstories behind a lot of bourbon labels and some of the stories of Covington. This was a great stop and one of my favourite non-baseball things I did.

Up next was a tour of New Riff Distillery in Newport, KY. There was a lot I loved about this place – learning how important the water in this exact location was and how that drove them to open the distillery here and how they like to be a bit out of the box when it comes to their bourbons. As the tour progressed I tried many of their bourbons and I enjoyed them all so much that I chose one of their bottles to take home with me.

I capped off my day in Kentucky with a stop at Braxton Brewing. To keep with the theme of bourbon and the taste profiles of my favourite whisky style, I chose a tasting flight of amber, dark and barrel aged beers. These all were outstanding and warranted a return trip here on my way back to the airport for another flight of their beers.

Cincinnati and its surrounding area was quickly becoming an unexpected delight. Friendly people with a mix of southern hospitality and midwestern charm and a lot of great food, great drink and interesting art. On one afternoon, I dropped into the Contemporary Arts Center on my way to a baseball game. With only a limited amount of time, the installation to pick was an easy one – I saw something about a foul mouthed puppet and was sold. “His History of Art” by Jayson Musson was part video installation and part set creation and artifacts from a faux PBS style show involving him and the aforementioned potty mouthed and stoner puppet that is centred on teaching people about art. The video installation and the “episodes” of this series were laugh out loud funny. Another in the series of unexpected fun I had on this trip.

From art to baseball, I was back to Great American Ballpark for another Reds game, this time against the Brewers. A seat in the second level was the perfect vantage point for a close game and a Brewers comeback for a 5-4 win.

On the recommendation of someone who informed me my trip to Cincinnati couldn’t be complete without trying the city’s staple hotdog, I gave this a go at the ballpark. Covered in a loose chili that tasted of cinnamon and chocolate, covered in chopped raw onions and mustard and an unholy amount of shredded cheddar – something that logically shouldn’t have tasted good was amazing. More quirky fun in Cincinnati!

Speaking of fun, at one of the afternoon ballgames I attended, I said hi to this gentleman on account of his Expos hat. He was selling 50/50 tickets at the game and I came to learn that Kevin had lived for thirty years in Montreal, won the national college football championship while he attended Concordia and had a lot of family in Halifax. We chatted for close to an hour and this was an absolute highlight of my trip. Expos fans are a family.

What baseball trip is complete without saying hi to a mascot? Me and Gapper, one of four mascots the Reds have.

I’ll always remember Cincinnati and the ticket I bought for this afternoon game as the first time I ever received a seniors discount. When you’re over 50, you get a discount on afternoon tickets in the shady part of the stadium and I was happy to take advantage of this perk on a day the temperature soared past 40C with the humidity factored in.

Even in this trip of six baseball games, one in particular stood out. I started my journey to the ballpark on the other side of the river and enjoyed a beer with a view of the Taylor Southgate Bridge and the Cincinnati skyline. After making my way to the game on nothing short of a perfect summer evening, I stopped to take this picture and you can tell by the smile on my face that the night was already off to a good start.

It quickly got better – I ran into this group of guys down for their own baseball trip from Montreal. We traded stories and some laughs.

And then, perfection. I had sprung for a prime seat eleven rows off the field. A gorgeous evening. The beer tasted amazing. It made me think happy memories of games I attended with my dad. The game itself was another edge of your seat match. Two pitches after I took this picture, there was a monster home run hit by Willy Adames and the crack of the bat was unlike any I have heard before. That sound, from so close, was epic. The Brewers scored a run in the 9th that won them the game 5-4. It was everything I love about an evening at the ballpark

Of course, no trip of mine would be complete without a circuit of a city’s best craft breweries. I sampled a lot of great beer over the five days and of all I tried, Streetside Brewery came out in a tie with Braxton I mentioned earlier. Cincinnati’s brewing history was on fine display in just about every brewery taproom I visited.

My last day in Cincinnati, much like my other days…. there was baseball. A Sunday afternoon where I tucked myself up high in the upper deck for the breeze and shade, stretched out, and enjoyed another great game. The Reds actually pulled off the win, 4-3, to send everyone home happy. A perfect finish to what was an unexpectedly fun visit to a city I wish I had visited much earlier.