We LOVE Columbus, Ohio!!

We took a great long-weekend trip up to Columbus, Ohio, a city neither of us had been to before, and it turned out to be one of our favorite short trips ever.  

Saturday, February 18 -  We hopped on a short 45-minute Southwest flight today to Columbus, Ohio, to meet our friends, Chris and Tarryn, who drove down from Fort Wayne, Indiana, were they moved to a few years back.  We chose to meet in Columbus to catch our beloved Nashville Predators take the ice against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night, and since Monday was a holiday, it worked out nicely as an easy 3-day weekend trip.

We met up at a really nice two-bedroom apartment complex in downtown Columbus that we rented for the weekend through Airbnb.com.    They are known as the Wonder Bread Lofts because the cool living spaces are carved out of an old Wonder Bread bakery plant.  It is quite a unique place and the location was perfect with shorts walks to great places to eat, drink and be merry.

The view out of our bedroom window.  And, yes, the sign lights up at night.

Our first order of business after getting settled in was to take a quick stroll over to "Short North" a few streets over for some drinks and some late lunch/early dinner.  This busy area of bars and restaurants up and down North High Street is one of the city's busiest areas.  We stopped at the Arch City Tavern where the food was top-notch.

After dinner, we headed back to the apartment to change and then grabbed a cheap Uber ride over to the Fort Hayes High School Theater to catch a production of "Vox on the Rocks" by the Columbus Gay Men's Chorus.  This organization has been around an impressive 27 years and the talented group they have this season has to be ranked right up there as one of the best.  For $20 each we got Broadway-worthy entertainment (that would have cost a lot more there) as the group performed two-hours worth of TV-show theme songs and other tunes from shows over the history of television.

After the show our Uber driving taking us back to the apartment said we were near the "Who Farted" Brewery.  Huh, what?  Come again?  Well, actually it's the hilariously-named Hoof Hearted Brewery (pun DEFINITELY intended).  They are obviously clever folks and their beer is top-notch but we have two suggestions for them:
1.  Nix the booming night-club music.  People like to sit and talk at craft breweries.
2.  Take the cod off the menu....shoooo-weeeee!!

Sunday, February 19 - Since the hockey game wasn't until 6 PM, we had the full day to explore Columbus.  The weather was outstanding and unseasonably warm so being outside was definitely on our agenda.  We started with a quick walk to breakfast at the Fox in the Snow Cafe which had unbelievably good pastries and maybe the best egg sandwich we've ever had.  It was so good, we went back again on Monday.  We split a blueberry tart (in the back of the picture) and an egg and bacon sandwich on Sunday.  Then went with a cinnamon roll (foreground) and another egg and bacon sandwich on Monday.
Needless to say, we missed this place greatly on Tuesday....

After breakfast we needed a walk, so we drove up to the northwestern edge of of town to check out Hayden Falls Park, a beautiful little gorge where Hayden Run Creek drops 35 feet as it flows into the (muddy this weekend) Scioto River that flows through the heart of Columbus.

We continued our walking after going back downtown and walking some of the Scioto Mile, a river-walk in the heart of downtown Columbus.  This town has done a great job of creating some really nice outdoor recreation areas for its residents...and tourists!

Deer, Columbus - Thanks for the great times.  Love, Rob and Ashlee

After our afternoon strolls and a quick stop to check out The Horseshoe, Ohio State's massive football stadium, we parked back at the apartment and got our Predators gear on and then headed back over to Short North and bar-hopped a little southward toward Nationwide Arena where the Bluejackets play.  We settled on dinner at Barley's Brewing Company where the beer was good and the food was better.  I had the pierogies (when the in the north, right?) and sausage plate which was outstanding.

We got to the arena just in time to get a good local craft beer and find our seats about 10 rows behind the Preds shoot-twice goal.  Well done on the ticket acquirement, Chris!!  The place is great and it was packed, but I have to admit it's nothing like the roar at home in the lower bowl at Bridgestone Arena.  You Columbus fans have  got some work to do to become the 7th Man!  The game was a beauty with our boys squeaking out a 4-3 victory despite playing and losing a little less than 24 hours earlier in Minnesota and with our back-up goalie, Saros, in the net.  We really needed those points as well as we hang on to the top wildcard spot in the Western Division with a month or so of games left to play.

After the game we ambled back home back up Short North with a stop Le Chocoholique sweets shop for a couple of buckeyes, a local chocolate treat.  We spent the rest of the evening just hanging out in our neat apartment.  Below is the "court-yard" outside our door which is part of the old Wonder Bread factory with the roof removed.

Monday, February 20 - After the second great breakfast at The Fox in the Snow Cafe, Chris and Tarryn headed out since they had a long drive and some things to take care of back home.  Ashlee and I were on our own for most of the day since we didn't have to be back at the airport until 3 PM, so we did a little more exploring of this great town.   We wondered around downtown checking out the state capitol building, the historic Brewery District and the utterly charming German Village neighborhood.  Columbus has done a great job of preserving a lot of their diverse history and it really has paid off into creating quite a wonderful town to visit.

We stopped at the Rockmill Tavern in the Brewery District for a quick appetizer of burrata cheese drizzled with caramelized onion vinegar, oil verde, honey roasted Munich malt and Maldon sea salt along with a couple of flights of their own outstanding Belgium-styled craft beers.

We walked off our cheese and beer back over in the German Village at historic Schiller Park which is ringed by amazing old homes of exquisite beauty.  The weather cooperated once again with lovely temps for a mid-February day.

Our last stop before the airport was a doozy.  We visited the local and historic (Est. 1898) Krema Nut Company and had some awesome gourmet Krema Peanut Butter sandwiches there made with their own product, of course.  I had The Buckeye that included Nutella and Ashlee had a the PB Nana with bananas and honey.  They were so good and filling that we couldn't even finish them (even with the crusts cut off!).

We had a tremendous visit to Columbus and hope to come back soon.  We would love explore the town more in warmer months and maybe around Christmas in the quaint German Village.  Thanks again, C-Town, for a great trip!