Tuesday morning, we woke up at Cort's house in Cincinnati. Holly had started school, but Gwen and Garrett still had a few days left of summer vacation. We brought in the Oculus so Cort and Garrett could give it a try.
And then after an early lunch, we headed out. Our next stop was Columbus to visit my cousin, Jake.
We stopped at a rest stop, surrounded by corn, and I was just like.. yup, this is Ohio. There's a whole lot of nothing between Cincinnati and Columbus.
Jake has been bugging us for years to come to Columbus, and it just so happened I was able to get the kids flight into Columbus for a good deal. I didn't want to get anything too early in the morning, because I was afraid they wouldn't make it to the airport, and Columbus had a cheaper late night flight I knew they wouldn't miss. So, we decided to add a day in Columbus to our trip. We stopped by Jakes house, and see all the work he's put into it since he bought it a couple years ago.
Jake works at Canopy (by Hilton), and told us if we stayed he could get us a great friends and family deal, and since the kids were getting in so late, it sounded like a plan to me. After the house tour and some drinks, we headed over to the hotel and checked in.
It's a really nice place. We got a room with two queen beds..
..that had the cutest little window seat.
It's pretty spacious for a hotel room too, with a very large foyer area..
..which can be shut off from the bedroom area by a sliding barn door.
The bathroom was equally as lovely.
And there were all kinds of nice touches, including some nice hand soap, filtered water, an espresso machine, and a pull out refrigerated drawer.
Jake also pointed out he's in the postcard picture for the hotel (that's the back of his head there bartending). We did go up to the rooftop to see the bar and take in the view, but we didn't stay.
Instead, Jake took us around Columbus in his mustang convertable.
He had planned on taking us along the riverwalk a certain way, but we discovered some of it was under construction (Jake still tried to see if they really meant "no tresspassing", and in fact, they did).
But, we found the detour and walked around.
Meanwhile, the kids were getting to the airport.
In case you're wondering how it went....
They were not helping my anxiety about them getting to Ohio by themselves. But, poor Hayden hasn't flown in 3 years, when he was 13- and they didn't make him go through the scanner thing because of his age, so this was his first experience with it. He told the guy he had kleenex in his pocket, then it turned out he didn't, and he was concerned he had just lied in "an official capacity". After this debocle, Calib later sent us a message that said "the plane isn't even here yet, don't think we're leaving on time", which led Asa to Google it and find out they were in fact on time, to which Asa asked "are you sure you're at the right gate?" Turns out they weren't, and they had to race a couple gates down. So, there's that.
Anyway, while all that transpired, we continued our walk along the river.
After we had walked a few miles down, we rented bikes to ride back to the car.
Asa just had to stop to climb the water tower.
After our walk and our bike ride, we headed into downtown for some dinner.
We requested somewhere with outdoor seating, and ended up at Dirty Franks, a hot dog place. They had all kinds of crazy ones, including one called the picnic table with coleslaw, baked beans, relish and potato chips on it. It sounds weird, but it worked. You also get a lot of bang for your buck here. I couldn't even finish all my food, and had to pass some on to Asa.
We were joined at our meal by this guy (which I'm including, because I think it's a killer picture).
Next door to Dirty Franks is an arcade bar. The entire front is open to the outdoors, and there was next to nobody inside, so we decided to head on in.
Basically you buy a drink and all the games are free!
And the drinks are all 90s inspired. Jake and Asa's even included rock candy!
Throughly exhausted from the day, we headed back to the hotel to wait for the kids to get in. Jake stayed with us long enough to go to the airport with Asa while I stayed behind. After all the drama, they did make it to Columbus all on their own, just fine. But, Calib immedietly walked in and told me he didn't know how I do it- getting everyone places on time, and he asked "is this why mom's drink wine?"
Next Up: A night at Lighthouse Point
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