Just out! Cincinnati Essentials is my new app that covers the waterfront from Cincinnati’s Ghost Subway to flying pigs and frying goetta. Designed for travelers and residents alike, Cincinnati Essentials uncovers the best of the quirky Queen City.

The mobile guide for Apple iPhones, iPods and iPads is available for $2.99 on iTunes. All updates are free.

Greater Cincinnati’s major attractions and little secrets are revealed in more than 230 entries and 1,700 photos. You’ll learn how to eat Cincinnati chili five+ ways and where you’ll never get a shot of tequila at the bar, no matter how you plead.

Essential photos, GPS maps and easy searches help users:

* Cheer on the first professional team in baseball
* Track the stars on the oldest professional telescope in America
* Meet 700 dummies at the world’s only ventriloquism museum
* Try to follow Sarah the Cheetah, the world’s fastest land mammal
* Raise a stein at America’s largest Oktoberfest—and do the chicken dance.

The interactive app lists dozens of free and budget adventures, plus handy taxi maps to estimate fares.

Entries are sortable by name, distance, cost and neighborhood, as well as subjects such as art, attractions, Cincy eats, family fun, music, riverside revels, shopping and sports.

As many of you know, I covered the city on staff at The Cincinnati Enquirer. I’ve since written about Cincinnati for National Geographic Traveler, Hemispheres, Midwest Living and media across North America. I’ve reported from every continent, but still like landing at CVG.

A total history geek, I trained as a volunteer Cincinnati Heritage Programs history docent at the Cincinnati Museum Center, and you’ll see juicy tidbits from Cincinnati’s past in Cincinnati Essentials.

The county is home to almost 300 different kinds of birds at different seasons of the year, including bald eagles which nest at Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Seymour and near Starve Hollow State Recreation Area in Vallonia.

Migrating Sandhill cranes fly into Jackson County fall through spring, and sometimes 6,000-8,000 birds can be seen in the Ewing Bottoms, on the north side of Brownstown.

March 6 events:

• At Muscatatuck, children can make bird bookmarks and visitors can take home a free Sandhill crane poster. The hiking trails will be open, as well as the Visitor Center from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m.

• Starve Hollow’s Birding Day activities will include free gate admission, kid’s “crane” crafts and directions to view an eagle nest. The Visitor Center will be open 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

• At Jackson-Washington State Forest in Brownstown, the property manager will be on hand to answer questions about the birds and the Skyline Drive Scenic Overlook.

For information, call the Jackson County Visitor Center at 888-524-1914.

Like to have your palm or tarot cards read? Madame Sheri is available before or after each performance for an additional fee. Hotel room packages start at $189 through April 30.

Destinations are tracking the turning of every leaf:

Ohio Department of Natural Resources has added a new map on its Fall Foliage website,  and offers 32-pre-mapped routes and even places of solace.

The Indiana Office of Tourism Development sponsors Leaf Cam so travelers can watch current images at five locations: The Fort Golf Course at Fort Harrison State Park in Indianapolis; French Lick Resort in French Lick; Corydon Capitol State Historic Site in Corydon; Hilltop Cabins in Brown County; and Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell.

Gatlinburg, Tenn., posts leaf reports and a fall foliage page. Nearby, Pigeon Forge is running three fall festivals, the Pigeon Forge Rotary Club Crafts Festival through Oct. 30, Dollywood’s National Gospel and Harvest Festival through Oct. 31 and Pigeon Forge’s Harvestfest season through Oct. 31.

Michigan is tracking its Northern color across the state, and Traverse City has its own leaf-peeping patrol.

The Traveling Teddy’s still catching her breath from ferocious adventures in Indiana–no one told her the state was so wild!

Little did Teddy know during lunch at the Naked Tchopstix that she would need all the luck she could get in Indiana. Betsa Marsh photo

Teddy, who will be adopted and named by the third-grade class of Meredith Schroeder this fall, learned to mold liquid glass into a paperweight at the Indianapolis Art Center. It sure was fun, but man, where those furnaces HOT!! Students as young as Mrs. Schroeder’s can take the class-Teddy gives it paws up.

Teddy is part of the Traveling Teddy geography outreach program of the Society of American Travel Writers.

Then, just when she thought things were cooling off, Teddy jumped back into trouble at Stapp’s Circle S Ranch in Greensburg, Ind.  Jim Stapp was nice enough to show her all the animals,

Boo-Boo reaches out for her little cousin.

from bison and billy goats to wallabies and wolves. But when she got to the den for the American black bear–look out! Kinship only goes so far–Boo-Boo and Yogi, 18-month old bears, were very interested in their little stuffed cousin. Whew! She escaped by the fur on her head and took off for home.