Josh Young

Staycation seems to be the new word for the year. Everyone’s staying where they’re at for their “time away.”

Last weekend, Marie and I decided to give it a shot. So I booked us a hotel on priceline.com (where you can name your own price), and I ended up with a room at the Westin downtown on Fountain Square for about 20% of their suggested rate. Sweet! I even got them to upgrade us once we got there to a room on the 15th floor overlooking the Square, even though they said they weren’t supposed to upgrade anyone who booked through a “third-party.”

Downtown has improved significantly since the time when I was working down there a couple of years ago (I spent about 8 years working downtown – yuck). Even on the weekend, there were several things to do, and we were able to park our car on Friday afternoon and not move it until Sunday when we left. That was pretty nice.

Here are some of the things we did/ate while we were there:

• Jimmy John’s (my old favorite)
• Boi Na Braza (holy cow, that’s a lot of meat!)
• PNC Midpoint’s Indie Summer Concert Series
• Bruegger’s Bagels
• Starbucks (of course)
• Potbelly
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• Rock Bottom Brewery
• P&G Movie Night on the Square (with fireworks)
• Graeter’s Ice Cream (Black Raspberry Chip rules!)
• Arnie’s on the Levee
• Cincinnati Museum Center
• District 9 (don’t waste your money…)
• Defiance (this one was worth it)

Overall, it was a great trip. Very relaxing. And the best part? Our drive home was only 20 minutes!

Josh Young Personal