Nice little Tuesday . . .

If you've never been to Newport, Rhode Island, you should totally go. The town is full of amazing coastal views and beautiful, historical homes. I've visited twice and enjoyed every second.

And, guess what . . .

If you've never been to Newport, Kentucky, you should totally go there too. Growing up just outside of Cincinnati, I don't remember crossing the Ohio River all that often, at least not until I was old enough to visit the restaurants and bars on "the Kentucky side." I'm not sure about the timeline of the changes and renewal in Newport, but the town has a lot to offer right now. As part of our Cincinnati Spring Break last week, the kids and I had a great little Tuesday in Newport, Kentucky.

Our first stop was the Newport Aquarium.

The kids waited patiently for The Penguin Parade.

I guess it was unreasonable for me to expect to see penguins waddling across the carpet, but honestly, that's what I wanted. The penguins on push carts were perhaps not worth the wait, but ah well . . .

We weren't the only spring breakers at the Aquarium last Tuesday, but my mom overheard another group saying, "We're going to head to the big penguin exhibit first and beat the crowd." So we followed that group.

We had the penguin exhibit practically to ourselves, and we all loved it. Little Bit kept waving and saying, "Hi Pen-gens, Hi Pen-gens!" Bub was doing a sort of swimming/dancing motion against the glass. Grammy later named the penguins her favorite part of the aquarium.

Having visited the penguins first, we found ourselves going against the flow (pun intended), which worked out well. We enjoyed several exhibits in a quiet, non-crowded environment until we finally met up with the flow. It got a little tough wading (another pun, I'm on a roll) through the sea (NTB) of bodies and strollers with three little ones and our own stroller, but there were plenty of cool sights.

Little Bit and especially Bub were into everything. They had an opportunity to pet sharks but could not quite bring themselves to do it. Bub did touch (for a fraction of a second) a stingray, a snail, and a starfish. Pretty pleased with himself. I thought aquarium admission was a bit steep for the size of the facility, but I will say that the boys enjoyed the experience even more than I expected them to at ages almost 3 and 5. All in all, nice little morning.

Then we had to eat. My sister LAP brought my nieces Swiper and Wookie (blog handles, not real names, in case you are concerned) and we headed to Dewey's Pizza. Back in the day, when I was a young single girl in the city, there was only one Dewey's. It was very close to where I lived, and I have fond memories of cozy dinners with girlfriends enjoying the delicious salads and pizzas. Multiple locations now, but it's still so good. Every one ate well at lunch, and the kids enjoyed watching the pizza dough makers.

And, then, wouldn't you know it, there was a guy in the square making balloon animals for tips. So we got some balloon animals. Note that Little Bit asked for a lightsaber -- still obsessed with Star Wars.

Since it was all going so well, we also stopped at the candy store. We were, after all, on vacation.

Even though it was chilly, we had to get some shots of the kids and Grammy in front of part of the Cincinnati skyline. Poor Sweet P, hanging out in the stroller by herself. I need to mention that she was good as gold for the entire outing, NTB.

And then, it was early afternoon and time to head back to Grammy's house. A morning without a single tear or meltdown where we saw cool stuff, ate good stuff, and enjoyed it all and each other.

Nice little Tuesday.

One final bonus, the cost of parking in a garage right next to the aquarium and all the shops, bars, and restaurants? Wait for it . . . $2! I pay $2 to park at the pediatricians' office in Chicago and much more most everywhere else. Woo hoo!

Have you been to either Newport? Any spring break plans this year? Please share in the comments.