4th of July in the 'Burg: Days 4 & 5

I'm combining the last two days of our vacation because day 5 was a travel day and trust me, ya'll really don't want to read an entire blog post on how FRUSTRATING our travel experience was this time around!! 

Day 4: 

Saturday turned out to be a pretty overcast day, but the rain held off for the most part, so we ventured out to explore Cincinnati! 

Our first stop was Fountain Square, where, of course, we had to get a few pictures! If you haven't noticed, the Schoeff family never misses a photo opportunity! 

There happened to be a Graeters Ice Cream shop right in Fountain Square, and given our love for their ice cream, we had to stop in! Since we had dinner plans a couple hours away, I only got one scoop of their black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream and Ryan went for the  toffee chocolate chip, both delicious! 

After everyone enjoyed their treat, we explored the city a bit more before the rain started to come down a little heavier. We headed back to our cars and drove to dinner a little early! 

Our dinner spot for the evening was HofbrauHaus, an authentic German restaurant just outside of Cincinnati! If you like German food, beer, and dancing on tables, I highly suggest you try this place next time you happen to be near Newport, KY! We've come a few times and it's ALWAYS a blast! 

Waiting for the rest of our group to join us

Almost immediately after we were seated, the musicians asked everyone to stand up on their tables for a unique version of the chicken dance! After we shook our tail feathers for a bit, we ate, drank, and were very merry. 

The Menu 

Ryan went with the big boy drink while I sipped on some wine. How lady-like of me. 

After dinner, we decided to work some of that food off and go bowling! We bowled 3 games   before calling it a night. 

Day 5: 

Unfortunately, we reached the end of our vacation on Sunday. Mid-morning everyone that had a long drive ahead of them decided to head out, so we gave them a good old-fashioned "foot wave" to send them on their way.

Ryan and I were flying back to Boston out of Dayton, OH so Uncle Andy dropped us off at Uncle Dave and Aunt Carolyn's house a couple hours later. We went to lunch at their golf club before Uncle Dave drove us to the airport. 

My Godfather and I! 

 Shortly after we got to our gate, Ryan received an email that our flight had been delayed a couple hours (very similar to our flight into Dayton) and we were going to miss our connecting flight to Boston. Even more unfortunate for us, there were no more flights into Boston for the night.

After a lot of back and forth, we finally booked a flight with American Airlines that flew to Chicago and connected to Boston, getting us into the city around 2 in the morning.

Waiting in a VERY long line to talk to a United Ticket Agent. Chaos, I tell you. 

 Although we were behind schedule by almost 3 hours, we did get to experience this b-e-a-u-tiful sunset flying into Chicago!

Our AMAZING friend, Rachel, came to our rescue AGAIN and picked us up at the airport around 2am. Seriously, did I mention she's amazing?! We encountered a little road work on the way home and ended up walking through our front door around 2:40 am. After such a whirlwind experience, we were definitely happy to be home and glad we had such an amazing time in Indiana this trip! 

Thank you to the Lawrenceburg Schoeff's for hosting all of us again this summer! We're looking forward to coming back soon! 

-Sarah