Quick & Fun Trip to Columbus, OH

Have you ever been to Columbus, OH?  Brandon and I hadn't.  So when we were invited to a good friend's wedding in the capital city, we saw a great opportunity to go somewhere new!

Whenever Brandon and I travel, I make a Google map using My Places in Maps.  I highly recommend it.  With my need to plan, and Brandon's desire to fly by the seat of his pants, the Google map option lets us plot out places, restaurants and activities without a hard and fast itinerary.  We can wake up, decide what we want to do that day and find things around based on the map (including food) so we can be efficient.  It's a win-win.

We flew to Columbus via red-eye on Friday night, landing in Columbus, around 5:00 AM EST.  We only got 3-3.5 hours of sleep on the plane.  (I'm a better plane sleeper than my hubby)  Picked up our car and drove to our Airbnb in the middle of downtown Columbus.  Once we were situated, we took a good, solid nap.  We were incredibly tired.  We woke up about 11 EST, showered, grabbed lunch, and then started getting ready for the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful!  Our friend Lauren looked stunning.  Her family and friends were so incredibly nice, welcoming and eager to give suggestions of nifty things to do and see.  And the venue was very cool, The Columbus Anthenaeum.  It is located right in the heart of downtown with a lot of character.

Lauren & Jaime's Wedding

Sunday and Monday were our free days to explore the city.  We, of course, hit up some retro video game stores, which Brandon was very excited about and got some really good pick-ups.  We also tried out, for the first time, the Bird electric scooters, so we could get around town easier.  (It was very hot!)  We had a blast on the scooters, exploring the Scotio Mile and surrounding areas.  What an amazing town!  Brandon and I really loved it.  The people are super nice, the city is very clean, well-kept and graffiti free (an anomaly to an LA girl like myself)!  We were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed Columbus :)

Scooter-ing along the Scotio River in Dowtown

The Scotio River

We didn't get a chance to go to the Columbus Zoo, but we heard it's quite a place to see.  We woke up too late and it was already a very hot day.  I don't do well in the sun.  We did explore more of the city, including the German Village and Topiary Park.  What a delightful city!  It's rich with history and beautiful structures.

German Village, an adorable part of town

Our last little expedition was something I was really excited about.  I'm OBSESSED with hedgehogs.  I think they are the cutest critters.  It's illegal to own hedgehogs (and a bunch of other "exotic" animals) in California.  Brandon got me a fantastic hedgehog necklace for Christmas, as it's the closest/sweetest thing to a real hedgehog he could get me.

I had a thought while we were planning our trip to see if I could find a place where we could meet some hedgehogs.  I found a lovely lady on Facebook with Heart of Ohio Hedgies who wasn't weirded out by my request to meet her hedgies even though I couldn't buy one.  She graciously let us meet, hold and play with some of her hedgehogs to fulfill my obsession.  It was pure magic.

Our weekend getaway was a nice escape from Los Angeles.  We had a lot of fun and definitely recommend Columbus to anyone who's looking for a new city to visit!