Happy Beautiful Fall Day!

I was lucky to be on a beautiful piece of land like this on this glorious day! Enjoy!

Art in Downtown Columbus

Plants grown on the Green Rooftop garden at the Ohio Urban Arts Space

View of COSI from the Supreme Court building Law Library

A room in the Supreme Court, fancy, eh?

Did you know there is a lot of hidden art in downtown Columbus?

Well, maybe they are not hidden to you if you have found them. I just happened to have found some of them today during my tour here and a self-guided tour here.

The best part? They are free! Free art (or at least the ones you can look at, not take home) does not come around very often! Take advantage of it and go explore downtown!

A little glimpse of Boston

I have never really been a tourist in this city before. When you live in a place for a while, it becomes home, and you move about your home the way it's most convenient and comfortable for you.

For instance, this may be the first time that I am actually staying at a hotel in the middle of Boston. Though familiar to the area, I could not help but feel, well, like a tourist today.


So please enjoy some of these photos I took during my 4 hour walk from Commonwealth Ave. to Newbury Street, to the Boston Public Garden to Beacon Hill.

Boston is a very bike-friendly city. We should take after this, Columbus!

Dunkin' Donuts is everywhere here.

This sign made me happy.

Happy geese at the Public Garden.

A side street in Beacon Hill

Fall foliage

The John Hancock building

The Boston Public Garden, an oasis in the middle of the city.

We are only scratching the surface of this place!

Fieldtrip: Cambridge, MA

Cool Columbus is taking a field trip this weekend, back to my old stomping grounds: Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I spent a lot of my formative years here, and feel very at home, even after many years of being away. It was great to hop on the 'T', even with that strange, yet familiar smell of the subway station.

I also love being part of the crowd that feels so familiar to me (even though I am older than those around me now). Harvard Sq. and its soul has not changed one bit. Even the chess master is still here, waiting to be challenged. Maybe our son will be sitting opposite from him one day!

The namesake and his weekend

A little bird told me that this city has a way to celebrate Columbus Day the proper way?

Experience Columbus, the official visitor's bureau of this new, cool city of mine, has loads of ways for us to celebrate during Columbus Day weekend (Oct 8-11).

Every year in Columbus, on this fall weekend, a whole slew of Columbus attractions offer 50% off admission (or in some cases, BOGO or free). Plus, the tasty part -- Dine Originals Columbus restaurants offer 25% off.

If I were you, I would take advantage of what this city has to offer!

By the way, can someone tell me why this city is named after the infamous explorer? I would guess that he did not land his ship around here...?

Pawpaws

Ah...the pawpaws. The semi-tropical native fruit to this area was well celebrated at the 12th annual Pawpaw Festival last weekend.

I didn't know anything about the fruit, but after eating and drinking and seeing everything pawpaw related, I am a bit more informed!

You can read more about the festival and my experience with the family here!

Cheryl's Cookies

I got to be a fly on the wall at Cheryl's Cookies photo shoot the other day. This is because I am a lucky girl with a neighbor as a talented photographer. Although he himself does not shoot the cookies, he lets Cheryl's Cookies crew use his studio space. And what a beautiful space it is!

I could not get over how calm and peaceful the environment was. Everybody seemed so content, happy, at ease with the process... even with hundreds of cookies surrounding them.

Those cookies were well taken care of, too. They were dusted, precisely placed, angled and shot in the most professional way. I was impressed.

Athens Area

Our first taste of Pawpaws!

And Pawpaw beer

We had a lovely 24 hours away from Columbus.

First there was the Pawpaw Festival where everything you needed to know (or eat, or drink) that had to do with the native fruit was right there (more on this later!).




Then there was Ohio University, and the town of Athens. Apparently (as I have now learned) a fierce rival of the OSU Buckeyes.




Then, there was Strouds Run State Park (where we camped) with its tranquil lake, sweet smelling hiking trails, and a lot of buckeye trees and huge toadstools!

We got a little of everything and we were only 1.5 hours away from home. If you have not gone south on Rt 33, I would highly recommend it. Even if it's just for a drive to see the change from flatness to hills!

It's worth a trip.

Topiary Garden

With threatening rain in the forecast, I risked it to the Topiary Garden today!

It was as if I was entering a garden party with couples arm-in-arm, people rowing a boat, some may even be dancing (hard to tell with some of them). The park has an interesting background. Read about it here!

It surely is an oasis: a tranquil oasis right behind (now) one of my favorite libraries ever. I loved walking around these carefully cared-for topiaries, some of them have yet to fill in completely to what they are to become ( I feel like that on most days myself).

And the pond! With the huge Coi fish!! They surprised me, to say the least. I was wondering if the pond was big enough for these giants?

I didn't linger too long as the rain started to fall. I can imagine, though, on a sunny fall day, with the family and a picnic. It might just be the perfect spot to hang for a while.

Columbus Public Library

Columbus, you have something to be very proud of!

Again, it has taken me a while to visit the main public library on Grant Street. Many people have suggested that I take the kids there, that they have a great kids' section, that there is an art gallery, that the library got Museum of the Year award.

Believe it or not, my librarian friend in Santa Cruz praised about this library even before we packed our boxes to leave town.

We are lucky to be only a couple of miles away from this beautiful place. I was a little dubious about parking only to be pleasantly surprised that there is a designated parking garage for the library, and that it is free for the first hour (and only 50 cents for 2 hours!).

The kids were excited at the selection of books. I was blown away by the architecture, the art gallery, the natural light that comes inside.

And I didn't even go upstairs to where all the books are.

I am setting up a date with myself to go there just to really get to know it some more.