Things to Do in Blue Ash

The first Funny Bone location opened in 1982 and has spread infectious laughter ever since. Established stars such as Drew Carey and Jerry Seinfeld have graced the stage, as well as up-and-coming talents with fresh faces, fresh routines, and that fresh pine scent. The venue also plays host to a full-service bar, where patrons may steep their sorrows in calming brews then ingest them triumphantly.

Tommy Evans, who has been diving since 1983, shares the beauty of the underwater world through his hobby—aquatic photography—and his business: Central Coast Dive Center. At the PADI-award-winning center, dive instructors can introduce students to diving basics, such as operating the air tank and making sure its full of laughing gas. They also can prepare them for PADI-open-water certification and other more advanced certificates.

Students can practice in the onsite heated pool, or in natural waters on the center’s trips to Little Cayman, Cabo San Lucas, and other tropical locales. To complement its classes and trips, the center stocks gear from high-end brands, such as Atomic Aquatics, Zeagle, and Henderson.

Hundreds of unadorned pottery pieces line the shelves and wooden worktables at Mad Potter, a whimsical studio where walk-in artists can select the preferred vessels for their creativity and set to work crafting custom masterpieces. The studio’s panoply of provided art supplies includes patterns, stencils, and colorful paints with which to decorate vases in floral designs and pasta bowls with step-by-step instructions for wielding silverware. Professional potters emerge from the earthenware scenery to answer questions throughout the process and to fire finished artworks until each is hardened and safe for food, dishwashers, and microwaves. Large groups can rent out the studio to fashion brittle cakes for birthday parties, and resident artists often travel to businesses and homes to allow kids to paint in their natural habitats.

Founded by a group of friends who created the acclaimed Newport Gangster Tour as a fundraiser in 2008, American Legacy Tours blossomed into a full-fledged tour company two years later. Participants choose from seven distinct tours that traverse cities as guides share fascinating and sometimes seedy history. The Queen City Underground Tour ventures beneath the city’s streets into a hidden burial vault and long-forgotten tunnels, and the Newport Gangster Tour delves into a scandalous past by visiting the sites of former brothels and speakeasies. Elsewhere, on the Haunted Covington Tour, guests feed their thirst for fright and their hunger for candy handouts from amiable apparitions.

Flying Hoofs Stables’ head trainers, Jessica and Asha, dedicate its 19-acre plot of Kentucky land to instruction in proper horsemanship. A surrounding network of trails and an outdoor arena provide ample space for catching wind in the hair during summer camps and trail rides, whereas a second indoor arena sets the stage for the stable’s lessons. Here, beginners get a first taste of proper horsemanship and tack fundamentals, and advanced riders receive customized instruction in a choice of styles including Hunter, the classic English riding style, or Jumper, a prerequisite for learning horse hopscotch.

Throughout her entire adult life, Sharon Obermeyer has lived and breathed art. She studied it at the University of Cincinnati, taught it at Antonelli College for 17 years, and she created it for children's books at Standard Publishing. Despite her career successes, she felt the need to spread her passion to a wider audience. "I made the decision to make art accessible and affordable," she says, and this led her to found Mount Washington Art Works, where she designs inspiring art curriculums for both children and adults. Certified by the National Association of Art Educators, she uses step-by-step lessons to teach an array of styles, including drawing, painting, perspective, and charcoal. No matter which lesson she's teaching, she supplies her students with all the of the necessary art materials, such as a canvas, brushes, paints, and a resident oyster that allows for reenactments of Girl with the Pearl Earring.