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Spring is coming
www.cincinnati.com
By Connie Yeager
Post staff reporterBy the calendar, we're only three and a half weeks away from the official close of the Winter That Would Not End. Although it's been known to flurry in Greater Cincinnati into early April (can you say chilly Opening Day?), the arrival of spring is slated for March 20.
With that in mind, here are some options for channeling the green season immediately, along with a few ways to savor the remaining days of winter if you're so inclined.
• One of the best promises of spring is the annual blooming of the Fifth Third Cincinnati Home & Garden Show, which debuts this weekend at Cinergy Center (the former Cincinnati Convention Center), Fifth and Elm streets, downtown.
The 39th annual show showcases 20 garden installations representing a "Neighborhood Gardens" theme, from "California, Ohio" and "Avondale's Botanical Charm" to "Indian Hill Retreat" and "Serenity in Mount Lookout."
More than 100 of the show's 340-plus exhibitors are new this year, ranging from interior designers and pool and patio companies to kitchen, bath and home furnishings exhibitors and building and remodeling contractors. Also new this year is the Interior Design Show, featuring presentations each day of the show's run (through March 6).
A popular element of the show, the Olay Garden Market, returns for its fifth year March 3 through 6. Presented in association with the Junior League of Cincinnati, the show-within-the-show focuses on home and garden decor, plants, garden accessories, food, art, fashion and jewelry and is included in Home & Garden Show admission.
The Home & Garden Show also boasts HGTV seminars by Matt Fox and Shari Hiller ("Room by Room," 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday) and Erica Glasener ("Gardener's Diary," 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday); and an appearance by the man-eating plant "Audrey II" from the touring Broadway production of "Little Shop of Horrors" Saturday and Sunday.
Show hours are 10:30 to 9 p.m. Saturday and March 5; 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and March 6; 5 and 9 p.m. Tuesday and March 3; noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday and March 4. Admission is $10 adults, $3 for children age 13 ad under at the door; discount tickets, $7, are available at Greater Cincinnati Fifth Third Bank locations through Friday (513-281-0022).
• It may be indoors, but the second annual Cincinnati Cornhole Classic is sure to conjure up dreams of long, balmy summer twilights punctuated by the "thwack" of cornhole bags hitting the mark. Competition begins at noon Saturday at the U.S. Bank Arena, downtown; for registration information, call (513) 421-4111, ext. 149 ($75 per team, advance registration only). Spectator: $5.
• An age-old, annual tradition that's been celebrated for 13 years in Cincinnati's Main Street Entertainment District returns this weekend to signal the coming of spring. Bockfest revels kick off with a funky parade and continue with Renaissance-flavored revels such as a pub crawl and live entertainment Friday and Saturday nights.
• For those who don't want to give up the wintry mix quite yet, the slopes at Perfect North, Lawrenceburg, Ind., are still primed for skiing. They're celebrating their 25th anniversary of operation with a special price of $25 for all lift tickets this Friday. The ski and tubing resort is open 9:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday for late-night action each weekend through March 12 (tubing hours 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday, 9:30 a.m.-1 a.m. Saturday), and their season-ending Carnival is scheduled for Sunday, March 13 (513-381-7517).
• Newport Aquarium, Newport on the Levee, is a great place to surround yourself with a virtual glimpse of endless summer. From the seamless underwater tunnels, where sharks, turtles and other sea creatures swim overhead, to the lush, expansive 2004 addition of Hidden Treasures of the Rainforest Islands, it's a great spot to leave behind the realities of slippery streets and gray skies. (Of course, they also have a Kingdom of Penguins display for a bit of ice-sport fun as well.)
The Aquarium is sponsoring its first Mystery Dinner Theatre, "20,000 Leagues Under the Dead Sea," at 7:30 p.m. March 4 (cost is $49.95; for reservations, call 859-815-1427). The Newport Aquarium is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily; admission is $17.95 adults, $15.95 senior citizens and $10.95 children ages 3 to 12 (859-261-7444).
• The Cincinnati Zoo, 3400 Vine St., Avondale, is also a good locale for indulging in summer dreaming. Its heated indoor displays, such as Manatee Springs and the Cat House, offer a respite from the weather, while such outdoor exhibits as the "Lords of the Arctic" polar bear display offer animals who revel in the cold temperatures.
There's a new baby to see in the (indoor) Vanishing Giants exhibit -- Likimi, a female okapi born Jan. 15 as part of the zoo's animal conservation breeding program. The zoo also offers winter education programs, such as the Landscaping Your Home -- 2005 Series, which began Jan. 31 and continues through April 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. Mondays ($8 per program; call 513-559-7767, for topics and registration).
Zoo hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; admission is $11.50 adults, $9 senior citizens and $6 children ages 2 to 12 (513-281-4701).
• Krohn Conservatory, Eden Park, is one of Greater Cincinnati's oldest and greenest indoor oases and temporary winter escapes. Its current, pre-spring show, "Woven Romance: A Victorian Knot Garden," offers an intricately formal setting of plants evoking gardens from the palace of Versailles to the Hatfield House Victorian Gardens, now through Sunday. You'll find such colorful and fragrant harbingers of spring as hyacinths, daffodils, tulips and pansies, as well as a romantic double "heart" arrangement of begonias and violas. (The spring show, "A Farewell to Winter," debuts March 19 and runs through April 24, and will be open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Easter Sunday, March 27.)
The conservatory is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged (513-421-5707).
• At Cincinnati Museum Center, the current Robert D. Lindner Omnimax Theater feature, "Forces of Nature," serves as a reminder of the downside of spring, with its chronicle of tornadoes, as well as of such other natural phenomena as volcanoes and earthquakes. Its run, originally scheduled to end Feb. 18, has been extended through March 4 ("Mystery of the Nile," a brand-new film, will debut March 5). The theater's Friday Classic films offer meteorological contrasts -- "Titanica" chronicles the deep-sea resting place of the ship done in by an iceberg (8 p.m. Friday), while March's feature, "Coral Reef Adventure," explores the sun-splashed, tropical South Pacific (8 p.m. each Friday in March). (PG) Admission for each film is $7.25 adults, $6.25 senior citizens and $5.25 for children ages 3 to 12.
Also at Museum Center is the temporary exhibition, "Nicholas and Alexandra: At Home with the Last Tsar and His Family." Although it runs through May 1, it's tied in with "A Russian Winter" series of related events both at Museum Center and at various tri-state arts locations. The exhibition is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; admission is $9.75 adults, $8.75 senior citizens and $6.75 children ages 3 to 12 (513-287-7000).
• The harvest of winter will be celebrated with maple sugaring events this weekend and next. At Woodland Mound Park, Anderson Township, the program will include an interpretive hike, maple treat tasting and a video about the tapping process, from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday (free with park vehicle permit, $2 daily, $5 annual, 513-521-PARK).
Hueston Woods State Park, in Oxford, will host its 39th annual Maple Syrup Festival March 5, 6, 13 and 14 with pancake breakfasts in the Hueston Woods Lodge (7 a.m.-1 p.m., $5 adults, $4 children age 10 and under), and maple syrup tours (noon-4 p.m., meet at the Blue Heron parking lot; 513-524-4250).
• A sure sign that spring is on the horizon -- the Hamilton County Park District's Sharon Woods and Vineyard golf courses open for the season this Saturday, and Shawnee Lookout Golf Course will open March 12 (the park district's other courses are open year-round; for information, call 513-521-PARK).
• A different kind of green arrives Sunday, March 13, with the 39th annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. The 2005 parade, which steps off at Eighth and Reedy streets, downtown, at 1 p.m., will salute the 75th anniversary of the Greater Catholic League for high-school sports. Regardless of the weather -- they march in rain, snow, whatever -- there will be plenty of green on the scene that day (513-922-2230).
• A pinnacle of winter Olympic sports hits the U.S. Bank Arena ice at 7 p.m. March 16. Smucker's Stars on Ice skating show will feature such Olympic champions as Sarah Hughes and Jamie Sale and David Pelletier; tickets are $27 to $97 (513-562-4949).
Finally, here are two early-spring dates on which to hang your warm-weather hopes:
• The Cincinnati Reds open their 2005 home season in Great American Ball Park, downtown, at 2:10 p.m. April 4 against the New York Mets. Although Opening Day tickets were snatched up in a record 12 minutes, the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade will offer plenty of free spots along its route from Over-the-Rhine to Fifth Street, downtown.
• Paramount's Kings Island launches its 2005 season April 9, and its latest thrill-ride attraction, "The Italian Job: Stunt Track," is slated to debut sometime in April, depending on construction (513-754-5700).
