Things to Do in Covington

Step inside the unassuming Victorian walls of Creativities' hands-on studio, where artists of all age levels and skill levels hone their crafting skills across a wide range of mediums. Give yourself or your youngsters some tactile stimulus through projects utilizing beads, clay ($3–$10), metal, wood ($3–$10), paper, textiles, and more. Once you cover the modest studio fee for each artist in your party ($8 per person for two hours), make yourself cozy anywhere in Creativities' comfortable reaches and become an insta-engineer by assembling a wooden train kit ($5), a ribbon expert with a ribbon headband ($10), or another type of expert craftsperson via the crafty items available for purchase in the store. Let your mind relax, and simply see where your hands, brains, and optional monocle take you. If you experience a creative block, or any other block-sensation, the friendly, artistic staffers will be happy to assist. If the muse strikes most at home, pick up a few supplies and relocate to your home kitchen, family room, or crafting dungeon.

Cherry Grove Lanes embraces the changing of the seasons with both indoor and outdoor areas dedicated to group recreation. During the warmer months, the alley raises the nets on seven sand volleyball courts. Primed for nighttime play, the well-lit courts rest beside an open-air lounge that accommodates groups with colorful parasols, shaded tables, and ample room for airborne chest bumps.

Indoors, Cherry Grove Lanes provides solace from summertime sweats and wintertime gusts with 34 synthetic bowling lanes and a pub equipped with dartboards and pool tables. The lanes host fall and summer leagues for adults, seniors, and children, as well as bowling instruction from four-time PBA national titlist Brian Himmler. The staff also fires up sandwiches, appetizers, and pizza to prevent guests from cracking open bowling balls in hopes of reaching the tasty nougat cores.

The firefighters of Engine Company #45 Firehouse extinguished their last blaze in 1962 after 56 years of fearless public service. Although the team dissipated, the elegant, 1906 firehouse—with Renaissance Revival details and three doors wide enough to accommodate horse-drawn fire engines—remained, languishing as a city storehouse until 1980, when the Fire Museum of Greater Cincinnati moved in. The building was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places and filled with special exhibits acknowledged by Fox19.com and 365 Things to do in Cincinnati. It was also filled with antique firefighting gear that is in excellent condition in spite of years of smoke inhalation.

The collection reveals early 19th-century firefighting tactics with an alarm drum that once warned of fire from the roof of a carpenter shop and was later used to provide rhythm during disco infernos. In the Safe House exhibit, families diagram their homes and create personalized emergency plans while learning tips about fire prevention.

The bowling alleys at Crossgate Lanes, Stone Lanes, and Eastgate Lanes invite gamers to send balls down gleaming runways in expansive, family-friendly facilities. Those weary of drawing straws to count the pins after each ball can take comfort in automatic scoring at all three locations. Each alley also hosts regular glow bowling, with lighting more luminescent than the water-wheel-powered disco balls of the 1970s. Patrons of Stone Lanes can also relax after their games in an onsite lounge, which is outfitted with three televisions.

At Cincinnati Diving Center, the certified instructors take the art of diving seriously—from beginner’s sessions to rescue-diver courses, all training programs incorporate both classroom and in-water sessions to ensure complete preparation for frolics in the sea or the neighbor’s aquarium. The center also sells scuba and snorkeling gear for successful swims and coordinates group trips to the ocean to free divers from the stresses of vacation planning.

At Neusole Glassworks, gurus of all stripes and skill levels come together to fuse, blow, and mold glass both for independent projects and classes that explore the art form. The nonprofit facility sets the stage for inspired creation with flame-working, hotshop, and fusing studios that help the crew and their pupils transform raw materials into polished paperweights, unique pendants, and colorful new windshields. Upstairs, Neusole Glassworks invites browsers to tote pieces home from the gift shop or let their eyes feast on the myriad colors and textures at Atmosphere @ Neusole—a gallery for emerging artists and the facility’s students. In addition to welcoming anyone into its facility, Neusole Glassworks dispatches a mobile glassblowing studio to enliven street fairs and churn out slippers for palace dance parties.