Our One Day in Columbus, OH

This summer the girls and I set out on a big summer road trip. We packed the car with snacks and Netflix and got ready to have some midwest mayhem. The first city on the tour was Columbus, OH and we camped out at the Crowne Plaza in Dublin, OH. I was excited to see that Dublin is the home of Wendy's and being a Wendy I felt right at home - haha. The town was a great little place to spend the night with plenty of chain restaurants to choose from and a historic little town center. The hotel was clean and nice but our 2 qualifications for a good stay were a fail- no free breakfast and the girls were not impressed with the pool, saying it smelled and was too cold (it seemed fine to an untrained eye, like mine). Overall, the price was right and it was only for one night! The main reason we stayed was the proximity from the hotel to the Columbus Zoo.

I am not normally a zoo-goer but when I saw that Jack Hannah was the reigning chief of the zoo, I thought that was worth checking out. The zoo started out like any other zoo, but as we strolled along we found there were some new twists to things. The petting zoo went the next step and had combs and brushes available to groom the goats. The lion enclosure, my favorite part of this zoo, is set up around a docked airplane that the kids can climb in to get a better look. The lions were camped out along the wings and under them for shade. Their enclosure was large and deep but they were up close and personal. We fed the giraffes some lettuce from a deck that put us at eye level. We went underground and saw Nora, the polar bear cub, performing a beautiful swim show. Then we moved on to some animals that I have never seen before- a manatee, koala beers, a moose and kangaroos. The kangaroo enclosure was also interesting, with no barrier between us and them. Jack Hanna helped design a zoo with natural habitats for the animals and not cages like it was back in the day. The other thing this zoo had was spaces for play scattered about. The little one pretended to fly the airplane in the lion enclosure and both of the girls loved the splash zone, especially on the hot day that we were there. The other favorite was a big playground full of tubes and slides. The carousel is always a hit for my crew too. Overall, we had a great day at the Columbus Zoo and if zoos are really not your thing there is an aquarium that we did not make it to and a big waterpark next door.

After a full day at the zoo we headed for some grub. We parked along a beautiful cobblestone street in the German Village and grabbed a bite at Katzinger's deli, which I read about as a fav stop in Cleveland. The reuben they are famous for tasted fine to me but not out of this world. The service was fantastic and there were free pickles in a barrel, which was a novelty to me. We then wandered over to a place for Mom. Book stores are always on my list and Columbus is home to the Book Loft, a totally unique maze of books spaced out through 32 rooms. It was hard to find just what I was looking for and even trickier not to lose the kids. There were some tight spaces and sometimes you would find yourself backing up to let someone else through. However, this was still lined with books and novelties and certainly worth the stop. I think this book store would be best on a rainy day with a lot of time to really spend browsing through each room. The last delicious stop on our quick Columbus tour was at Pistacia Vera to finally try macarons. We picked the right spot!! They were super delicious and again the service was wonderful. I couldn't even tell you which was my favorite but the girls loved the chocolate. This place should be a must go on every visitors list.

There is so much more to see in this great city and we would love to go back. If you are passing through or just looking for a great place to get away let us know at Stowaway and we can help you to plan where to stay and what to do!