SATURDAY - JUNE 24, 2000

WE ALL VISITED The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal this afternoon. This building was once the train station back in the '30s and '40s, when trains were in their glory days. In 1972 the trains stopped running and the building was made into a shopping facility, rather unsuccessfully. Nearly twenty years later passenger service resumed when Amtrak began operating here in 1991. Renovation and the building of the museum complex had already begun, with the Museum of Natural History & Science and the Cincinnati History Museum opening in 1991 and the Cinergy Children's Museum opening in 1998. It might also be familar to you as a building that's often used by movie directors when they want to show a building with an art deco look. It was used in the movie Batman.

Throughout this year, the city of Cincinnati is holding a series of events, contests, festivals, and so forth all centered around the theme of Pigs. Pigs, or more specifically, Pork, features prominently in the history of the city, which was once home to so many packing and processing houses that it had earned the dubious nickname, Porkopolis. Among the pig-oriented events is the Big Pig Gig, an ongoing massive art project and fundraiser in which various artists (mostly local, but some well-known world-class artists as well) are commissioned to decorate basic fiberglass pig statues which are then displayed in various locations around the city. There are three models available, each approximately life-size. One is sitting, one standing, and one rising on its hind legs. The artist must decorate one of these, which is purchased by the sponsor for a donation of several thousand dollars. Just how many thousands is determined by where the sponsor would like the pig to be displayed. Several of these wonderful creations line the walkways leading to the Union Terminal Museum Complex.

We went to the Museum of Natural History and the Children’s Museum. The Natural History Museum was really neat. There were lots of skeltons and displays of prehistoric animals, and a whole area devoted to life in the Ice Age. There was a cavern display that was even better than the real caverns we went to last year when we visited. That's because here you can get right up close and touch things, while in the real caves you don't want to do that or you'll ruin them. There was a room with a large box of sand and rock, with fossil bones in it, and brushes. We could carefully uncover a rare fossil just like real palentologists do. And in another part of the museum was a big display about reptiles, which Ryan really liked. We had to wait for awhile because he wanted to read something from the computer database about reptiles.

The Childrens' Museum was also a lot of fun. It's all hands-on stuff, where you can make things happen using gravity, or water, or wind. There is a whole room full of places to climb and crawl and slide. A lot of the things there were really for younger kids, but we had a good time. And I saw more than one adult crawling across the rope bridge!  Our favorite room was where you could do things with piles of plastic balls. We stayed there until the museum closed.

All text and photos ©2000 by John Lipman, except as noted. All rights reserved.