Run 52: Columbia Tusculum

February 18th (President’s Day), 55 degrees, mostly sunny.

By this point in the process we have established that Cincinnati is beautiful. We know that the hills and the river and the homes and the parks are nothing less than breathtaking. What I didn’t realize until today is that all of these things converge in Columbia Tusculum.

Here is the thing about Columbia Tusculum: its residential streets are not easily accessible by a thoroughfare. The only thoroughfare—Columbia Parkway—is fast and furious and only a handful of brave souls have their address on the Parkway. Compare this to neighboring Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout where busy Observatory, Erie, Linwood, Delta, and Madison offer an intimate look into living room windows. This setback makes the streets of Columbia Tusculum feel private and a bit exclusive.

We started our run in Alms Park, which has a gorgeous pavilion:

And a view of the municipal airport, which is close to our apartment and is looped by a great hike/bike trail that we run around quite frequently:

Here Donnie is telling me that this is “Run 52” not “Photo 52” and we need to move it along:

At the entrance of the park, there are curving streets of mansions on enormous wooded lots. Many of these homes have views of the river and downtown:

Behind these trees is one of my favorite modern houses in Cincinnati:

And then there is St. Ursula Villa perched at the top of the hill:

Next we explored the “San Francisco” side of Columbia Tusculum with its narrow Victorian three-stories on steep hillside streets:

Donnie fit in a few hill sprints but for me, this was the point in the route where I had to take off an extra layer and reach down deep inside to make it to the top:

From there, we stopped briefly in the business district, which is home to one of our regular go-to restaurants, Allyn’s. Allyn's has improved its veggie burger in recent years:

There is a strip mall with a Fitness Center and a Yoga studio:

And the Starbucks that I will occasionally stop at on my way Downtown (although my hair is usually fixed a little better):

And here is a picture of the Speedway where earlier today I was innocently trying to redeem my grocery store rewards card when a rangy guy in line behind me whispered “You are a beautiful woman… you are a beautiful woman” over my shoulder. Considering the setting, I did NOT take this as a compliment.

On the other side of Columbia Parkway is the “New Orleans” side of the neighborhood. Here the homes have a Cajun feel and let you know that they’ve withstood a flood or two:

The streets are lined with a handful of posh businesses:

We passed the Carnegie Center:

And two churches as old as God himself:

Here we realized that during the half hour or so we had spent in Columbia Tusculum the only other people we had seen were contractors coming in and out of their white vans.