The Return of Cleopatra

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This weekend I flew to Cincinnati, Ohio to see my dad's side of the family. I hadn't seen any of them since I had been back from Germany so I was really excited and I'm glad the weekend went well. We did a lot. On one rainy day we went to the Cincinnati Museums, which are now located in the old Cincinnati train station. We went for the special Cleopatra Exhibition, which is only in 5 cities in the US! Cinci is the smallest of the cities where it's being held. It was a really fantastic exhibit. I had been to an exhibit like it here a few years ago about the Titanic and they were both very entertaining and educational. We were given audio guides and the freedom to walk through the exhibit at our own pace. Unfortunately, there was no photography aloud!! I was really disappointed, but hopefully I can describe it well enough for a mental picture. I think it took between an hour and an hour and a half. There were so many exquisite artifacts from Egypt and the "lost" city of Alexandria. The ancient capital of Egypt was hit with multiple natural disasters and the historic part of the city has remained underwater since. Modern diving and excavation equipment has been successful in bringing up many objects, a lot of which are now on display in the USA Cleopatra Exhibitions. We learned about why Cleopatra has such a reputation for being a seductress, having won the hearts of two very powerful men of her time, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. There was a particularly cool piece I remember, which was an Egyptian calendar carved into a rock like pillar that was found.

Walking in you were first shown a short video about Cleopatra, the Exhibit, and the finding and excavation of all these ancient treasures and artifacts. After the movie the screen raised and you were looking at an ancient statue, leading you on through to the rest of the exhibits. First was a glass walkway with sand underneath and different items strewn across the "ocean floor". It was a cool addition to the exhibit. Farther along we walked into a room with different glass encased objects and different statues set up. All the while we could either read along or listen to the audio guide's walkthrough of Cleopatra's life with a voice actress playing her. There was one really cool room with two huge statues as soon as you walked in. I think they were of Egyptian gods, but I think they were at least 2 1/2 times as tall as me. I thought that was pretty cool. At the end of the exhibit there was some information about the ongoing efforts of finding Cleopatra's tomb, which we were told may be on the verge of happening. We'll see!

We also learned many in depth details about Cleopatra's personal life and her rise to power along the way. She was the last pharaoh of Egypt (Cleopatra VII), but was in fact from a Greek family. She could speak Greek and Egyptian, which was rare in that time period for someone from the Ptolemaic family of rulers. She also thought or considered herself a goddess, in particular the goddess Isis. We learned how scholarly she was and that she had studied a very wide range of subjects. From all different sorts of mathematics to a handful of foreign languages as well.

It was quite interesting to see and I would definitely recommend visiting if you can visit one of the cities where the exhibition is held.

I also played a lot of euchre with my grandparents while I was there. My grandparents call it an "Indiana" card game, because they haven't met many people outside of Indiana who know how to play it. It's more common in the Midwest states than anywhere else in the United States. It's a really fun card game, so if you have 4 people, give it a try. But it is pretty complicated and takes some practice!



My aunt breeds and shows dogs in Cinci so Mia and I were both excited to meet three new puppies that she was babysitting for a day for her friend. Mia hadn't met the rest of my aunts five dogs either, only the youngest one named "Petals". She breeds and shows Clumber Spaniels, which are not a very common breed here in North America. Mia had a lot of fun meeting the new dogs and I got some good shots of her meeting the three new puppies too. The new puppies were Welsh Spaniels, a similar, but different breed. They were really sweet dogs and Mia almost even took one home with her 😊 They were definitely small enough to carry on the plane

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Photos

Connor
Mia took this one

Cincinnati Skyline
on a rainy day

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Cincinnati rains
I enjoyed your photos. Looks like you and Mia continue to have a great time. I am glad to hear that. I liked the photos of Zeta, Connor, and Petals as I am a real dog lover. I especially like the one of Connor sleeping in the chair. When I was a young child I road the train and it left from the train station that is now a Museum. Many moons ago. If you and Mia get to San Francisco this summer Dave and I will be happy to take you out for dinner. Dave and I would love to meet both of you.

[Beata and Tomek]

Love the puppies ;-) Are they Sringer Spaniels??

[Johnny speaks]

Re:
Beata and Tomek - close, they the white ones are called Clumber Spaniels and the brown are called Welsh Spaniels MJ - Thanks MJ! We'd love to meet you both too. I'll see if I can make that happen. They have cheap tickets every once in a while. We were going to try to go to LA for Mia's birthday (we ended up changing it to NYC, because there's not much for public transport in L.A. Seeing as we're both 19 and can't rent a car yet), but San Francisco would be even better! By the way I see you had a great time in Mexico! Show us what San Fran looks like when you get there, I'll look forward to the blog