Gentle Reader, we have had an exhausting day. We were such go-getters! We started at the crack of 10 a.m. and headed out to the Franklin Park Conservatory for a photo excursion. It’s a beautiful place, all gorgeously sunlit and plant-filled, and the grounds beyond the conservatory are lovely (although they were covered with snow this morning! [!!]), but our advice to anyone over the age of 8 is to skip it on a school day. Yeesh. There were raucous school groups everywhere.
But we still managed to take a few pictures:
After two hours of hothouse humidity and screaming kids, we were well past ready to leave. We staggered onward in our busy plans to have a scrumptious lunch at the North Market in the Arena District (the districts in Columbus remind us of the Hank Scorpio episode of the Simpsons. We keep expecting to stumble across the Hammock District).
North Market is way, way, way cool, and we managed to find among all the different booths some scrumptious Mexican food for lunch, and chased it with some famous Jeni’s ice cream. We’d walked past Jeni’s downtown yesterday after our lunch at Betty’s, and passed it up, so we were super-psyched to be able to try some at a booth at North Market. The flavors (salted caramel and queen city cayenne) were outrageously good, but you know what? The ice cream from our neck of the woods is better overall. It’s good to know we can still stand by our statement that we have the best ice cream in the world.
After lunch, we headed out on foot to the Central Ohio Fire Museum, because we are seriously, seriously cool.
Okay, the real reason we were there was to get a picture of a fire engine, one of the items on the flickr scavenger hunt we’re doing. They wouldn’t let us just go in, get a picture, and leave, though, so we got stuck taking a tour. With just us and the tour guide. It ended up being shockingly informative and interesting (although we could have lived without the fire safety demos at the end), and we even gained a tour member midway through, when a Blackhawks fan/history buff/Chicago fireman who was in town for last night’s game dropped in. If you’re ever looking to kill half an hour in Columbus, we highly recommend the Central Ohio Fire Museum (assuming you’ve already had ice cream).
After the fire museum, we were pooped. We staggered back around the block to our hotel (did we mention the fire museum was, like, next door to our hotel? Because if it wasn’t, we totally wouldn’t have gone there. We’re not that lame), then sat around feeling sorry for ourselves for being so tired. And for having spent all morning amongst hellions at the conservatory.
What could make us feel better? Why, the best beer in Columbus, that’s what! The promise of beer was the only thing that could get us back on our feet, and it ended up being so worth the short walk. Of all the places we’ve recommended from our trip this week, Barley’s is at the absolute top of the list.
So now the sun has set over beautiful Columbus (no, really, we watched it set over Nationwide Arena from our hotel room), and we’re planning to hit the road early tomorrow morning. We might have laughed that this vacation was a goofy sort of mistake of poor planning, but the fact is, Columbus is a wonderful place to visit. We’ve had a great time, and look forward to coming back soon.
Oh, and we had a very successful time photography-wise, too. If you want to see zillions more exciting, behind-the-scenes pictures from our time here, check out the set on Flickr.
