Sweets by LaDawn

By Ian DesJardins

            Last week I took a trip with my travel writing group to a little place called “Sweets by LaDawn”.  It is a small bakery that is located quite close to leaves of learning.  When we walked into the small building, the loud door buzzer sounded.  The lobby was very small.  It was about a meter wide and 6 meters long.  There was a glass container which held many delicious looking sweets.  Next to that was a desk with a cash register on it.  There were three lights hanging from the ceiling above the container and the desk.  The space that we were in was very cramped.  All six of us were packed into this little lobby area.  I was closest to the door, and it was a very awkward spot for me to be in because other costumers would open the door, try to get in, realize that there was no room, put on an angry face, and walk out.

            A few facts about LaDawn herself are that she moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to escape hurricane Katrina.  She also used to do all of her baking in her own home.  When she moved to Cincinnati, she started up her business in that building that we were in.  She had a little help for her business because before she moved, she had a costumer base.  These costumers recommended her when she was in Cincinnati. That really helped her Cincinnati business get off the ground.  She also said that some of the costumers in Cincinnati call her “the next cake boss” or “the cake boss of Cincinnati”.  She makes many specially ordered wedding cakes, cupcakes, normal cakes, and this wonderful thing called “Not-a-cheesecake cake”.  She said that the “Not-a-cheesecake cake” is her best seller.

There is a plan for a new app that will be coming out hopefully soon. It's an off track planet app. It's a travel guide app. The designer would like to create it as "the most beautiful, dynamic and intelligent travel guide in the world" as co founder and CEO of Off Track Planet Freddie Pikovsky said. He also says that he would like to advertise this app in hotels, on vending machines, and even in social media apps. Also any general places where it could catch someone's eye.

Queen City Underground

            The Queen City Underground tour was very interesting.  There were eight different places that we visited on our tour.  Some of the sights were very eye opening for me.  The tour was spread out over the town.  Many of the sights were hidden by modern buildings that were built on top of or in front of the sights.

            The first sight we visited was the “Entertainment District”   This district had various buildings.  Some of these buildings were part of the entertainment system in the area.  If you lived back in the year 1890, you didn't have all of the entertainment we have today, with all the technology.  So you would go to the entertainment district and go see a show, play, etc. 

            The next sight we visited was the “Heinrich Wielert’s Biergarten”.  One of the major things the people from “Over the Rhine” were proud of was their beer.  Our next stop was St. Paul Lutheran. 

Pretty much the all of Cincinnati was run by a man named George Barnsdale Cox.  If you needed a job, you had to consult him.  Most matters of business were overseen by “Boss Cox”.

            Next we visited the tenement houses.  Imagine living in two rooms with ten other people.  There was a small courtyard, and the building surrounded it.  People usually didn’t have enough money to pay for any personal plumbing, and you had to pay to use public bathroom for bathing.  So people usually just went to the bathroom in buckets, and dumped them out if their windows.

Our next stop was “Liberty Street”.  This was my favorite part of our tour.  This was the street that historically, if you were a slave, and you were running away, as soon as you crossed this street, you were free, and no bounty hunters could get you. 

            The seventh stop was St Francis Seraph/Crypt. Originally, this had been a grave area.  But when they decided to building a church, they sent out a message that said “come and claim the bodies”.  Strangely enough, many bodies were never claimed.  When the church was being built, people asked if they could have bodies buried directly beneath the alter.  So there was a crypt built for the dead.  Many people did not have enough money to pay for writing on the stones, so only a few numbers written on those stones.

            The final stop was the “Kauffman Lagering Tunnels”.  This was where beer was stored.  Since they didn’t have refrigerators back then, they had to store the beer underground where it was colder.  The tunnels were six floors beneath the street, and they were built so that beer barrels could roll directly into certain areas.  The tunnels were dark.  Eventually, people piled up trash in the middle of them. 

            The Queen City Underground tour was very eye opening to what it was like to live back then.   

Blog creation

Finally! I created a blog after a week of internet trouble.