Teenager for 24 Hours – Road Trip With My Daughter
outside Jungle Jim’s World of International Foods
It was about time. I needed a road trip and a real vacation. Let’s be honest, family vacations can be as draining as no vacation. During Spring Break we had one of those traditional drive half way across the U.S. to a beach affairs. It was great. But it was a lot of work before, during and after.
So my teenage daughter came up with the idea. “We have to go to Cincinnati to see “Portugal. The Man”. Right, I know. It took me a while to figure out that the man was not Portuguese and that “the man” was an alternative or indie rock group. But that was months ago. I knew who she meant when she asked and I agreed to take her to Cincinnati for this concert.
My daughter is a guitarist/singer. She’s played and sang a few Portugal.The Man songs at small venues around town, “People Say” and “So American”. I really like those songs and have them on my playlists for running and listening to in the car.
Then she played their new album “Evil Friends” for me and I was totally sold. It’s a really good album! Now I am cranking “Waves”, “Smile”, “Modern Jesus”, Purple, Yellow, Red and Blue”, hell, the whole album!
Now I know this music is way too hip and cool for a 47-year-old soccer mom, but it was fun being teenager for a weekend with Isabel. On the spur of the moment, I booked us a decent hotel and bought the tickets online for the concert (I think we reveled in finding a cheap hotel – tickets were only $22 each too!). There was some drama and chaos at home just before we departed making our flight all the more sweet! As soon as we drove out of town I felt this incredible sense of freedom and excitement.
Just before entering the freeway to Cincinnati we impulsively stopped at a grocery store and loaded up on junk food (for midnight munchies) and “hippie” drinks. Swept up by Isabel’s adolescent energy we grabbed every weird, random thing we saw: gigantic gummie butterflies, Sour Patch Kids, honey mustard pretzels, etc. $25 later we were on the road.
Hotel was terrific for $69 it was a palace. At first I was not pleased at the location of our room at the top of the staircase overlooking the front desk but the morning after the concert, being able to go down one flight of stairs to pick up a breakfast tray of goodies was a bonus!
Honestly doing things on the cheap was a big part of the fun. For dinner before the concert we were looking for a place to get pizza and ended up at a Romano’s Macaroni Grill and ordered appetizers for dinner. Lots of greasy, cheesy foods – impulse was still ruling the day.
Isabel was positively bouncing all over place and a few times the mom part of me came out scoldingly warning her to get a grip. Yeah. A lot of good THAT did!
Downtown Cincinnati, by the university where the venue was located was fairly nice but we took a ride through the hood on the way. That’s when the parent part gets heavy. I hate going through the hood. And it seems every time I go to some new city, I ride through the hood. We had a few guys come up to us on the street after we parked panhandling but it was no big deal. I have admit I was uneasy walking back to the car after the show. Isabel of course thought the thrill of danger was part of the fun! 
Now…the concert was as extremely loud, crowded, hot events go, terrifically stimulating but I am a bit too old for this kind of thing. Yes, after back surgery and in my old age, standing for hours close to gigantic speakers takes a toll on me but Isabel was loving every minute of it. The crowd was polite too and here I was one of just a few “old” people I spotted. The rest of the people there looked to be college age or thereabouts.
On the way back to the hotel around midnight with my GPS dying we went through a different part of the hood. Back at the hotel we flopped on the King sized bed, spread out the candies and chugged down a liter of water. At least I remembered to brush my teeth.
I was awake at 5:30 a.m. when some hotel guests were quietly checking out. I don’t even mean that sarcastically. I am a light sleeper. We had the complimentary waffles and breakfast bar for breakfast and checked out. Conveniently we were staying close to Jungle Jim’s gigantic grocery store and IKEA so it was mom time – shopping. I have to make a whole new post about Jungle Jim’s. We shopped half the day, had lunch at IKEA and then hit the road home.
Good times. I will be doing another road trip with my son this coming week to Chillicothe, Ohio. His interest is in history so we will be going to see Tecumseh! and visiting the Hopewell Culture National Park. Short, sweet trips like this give both my kids special individual attention and it’s really fun too.
Morning Warm Up 