January 2012

Despite the cold, January proved an eventful and entertaining 31 days. My sister got married, I was rehired for the upcoming season, and I underwent multiple adventures with my close friend Paul.

One of the first things we did was visit Cincinnati and Newport.

In all honesty, the weather wasn't too horrible - it was nice enough to be outside and take photos, at least.

I've always found bridges interesting - not to the same degree as roller coasters, but for many the same reasons.

Different styles, builders, designs, histories... Not too different from roller coasters, really.

I just really like anything to do with structures though - skyscrapers are also pretty fascinating.

Yep. I'm running out of captions.

We also visited Jungle Jim's, one of the most bizarre grocery stores in existence.

There's also some fun theme park history intertwined with the store, such as these bumper car shelves.

And a small collection of creepy/fun animatronics.

Minor detail, but this display needs updated - besides the old box designs, Trix no longer has fruit-shaped pieces.

If you ever wanted a full pig's head, here'd be the place.

Most people know about the Jungle Jim's monorails and their Kings Island history, but the store also owns a couple of other pieces, such as this snail from Hanna-Barbera Land.

One final place we visited was this large, although admittedly strange, antique store. If you wanted a box full of glass doll heads, here'd be the place.

There were also bottles, keys, magazines, cups, and a bunch of other antique items for sale.

January was enjoyable, but the whole time was still spent waiting for Kings Island to reopen.