3 things we loved about Columbus, Ohio

When we took Mihret to Flying Horse Farms this summer, we knew we needed to stay relatively close, in case there was some type of medical emergency. We found a lovely hideaway tucked in the middle of nowhere that I’ll probably tell you about someday. But not today.* But it was already booked for part of the week, so we chose to stay in Columbus, Ohio, for the first night of our stay.

I must admit that I wasn’t overly-excited about the thought of staying in Columbus, Ohio. We’d visited there more than 20 years ago when we went to the North American Christian Convention. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t really that impressed.

But things do change. We had a really good time in Columbus, Ohio, this time around. I’m sure there were many reasons why, but I think the primary reason is because we did some really cool things while we were there.

And contrary to popular belief, there’s more to the city than just the Ohio State Buckeys.

3 things we loved about Columbus, Ohio

Schmidt’s Sausage Haus

I honestly thought it would take some convincing to get Christy to agree to go to a German restaurant. But she was all for it. And well worth it. Schmidt’s Sausage Haus was a memorable experience.

We had to wait a while for a table, but that was OK. It gave us plenty of time to walk around and explore the historic German Village of Columbus, Ohio, with its brick streets and unique shops. We really liked exploring The Red Stable. They had a little bit of everything.

Of course, dinner was the highlight of the night.

Christy had the Honey Roasted Turkey Breast Reuben – “Thinly sliced tender honey roasted turkey breast. Topped with German sweet slaw, melted Swiss, und special dressing served on toasted pumpernickel” (also known by many as the Rachel Sandwich).^o Sorry, y’all. I didn’t think to take a picture of it. You’ll have to take my word for it that it looked really good. It tasted really good, too.

I had Bratwurst on a New England split top bun with a side of Spätzle^. And a pickle spear – which I didn’t eat.

I’ll be honest.

I felt kind of lame ordering a plain ol’ Bratwurst. But it was good. Really good. I think I’ll order myself a Rachel if we ever make it back there, though. And I’d love to go back.

By the way – did I mention the live music?

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Oh, man. This was heavenly. It made my Inner Tuba Band Geek so happy. But I also had flashbacks from my high school German class. When Christy was in French class in high school, she learned the French national anthem. She still stops everything during the Olympics and sings along (in French, of course) whenever the anthem plays.

Me? I didn’t learn the German national anthem.^#

We learned German drinking songs, instead.

OK. We might have learned other German songs. But I don’t remember any of them. In fact, I only remember one – In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus (literally, “There’s a Beer Hall in Munich.” And if I’m honest, I only remember one part of the song. Of course, it’s the most important part of the song, but it’s still the only part I remember.

My German’s a bit rusty, but I’m pretty sure the literal translation of these lyrics goes like this: “There’s a beer hall in Munich. One, two, let’s drink!” And then you take a drink of your beverage. And since my German’s a bit rusty, I had to look up this song, just to make sure I wasn’t imagining it (or the chorus). I wasn’t wrong.

You don’t know how desperately I wanted this duet to play In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus. I would have stood up and shouted “Eins, zwei, g’suffa!” with so much gusto, I probably would’ve embarrassed my hot date.

Alas, they did not play the song.

And alas, I did not embarrass anyone.

Maybe next time.

Columbus Museum of Art (CMOA)

Sundays are free at the Columbus Museum of Art. That reason alone is enough to give the place a try.

I think this was our first time visiting an art museum without kids since our Spring Break ’98 attempt to fit all of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 60 minutes. It was very Clark Griswold at the Grand Canyon-esque. Unfortunately.

But I’m not complaining. It was a last-minute decision to visit The Met, so I’m glad we were able to squeeze that in to our family vacation to New York. It was one of the highlights of the trip.

Anyway…

My point of mentioning that is that it’s been a few years since Christy and I explored an art museum together. And we had a lot of fun walking through CMOA together. We discovered some 20th century American painting styles that we’d never encountered before. We also spent a lot of time in the Cubist and Impressionist areas.

I think we spent more time getting lost in the artwork than we’d expected. And that’s not a bad thing.

I also stumbled upon a Dale Chihuly sculpture and had to try to make it look like it was my hair.

Eh…

It made sense in my mind. Not so sure it makes sense in real life. But I tried to make it a thing anyway.

North Market Downtown

Indy has a city market downtown. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good place to go. But there’s so much wasted potential there and I feel like the city as a whole is missing out on what that place could be.

Let me tell you, North Market Downtown, is everything I’d ever hope the city market in downtown Indianapolis would ever be – and more!

With all of its shops, restaurants (including one that had been featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives), and bakeries, this place was alive with activity. We couldn’t decide on just one international treat, so we decided to sample several things and bring the leftovers back to our hotel for a late night snack.

What’s that in the foreground of this photos? Yeah. That’s Lobster Fries from Coast to Local Market & Oyster Bar. We didn’t save any of those for later.

We finished our visit to the market with some scoops of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream. You can have their ice cream delivered to your home if you’d like. But it’s definitely worth the trip to North Market (or one of their other stores) to give them a try.

Thank you, Columbus!

Although our stay was brief, we had a great time in that capital of Ohio. Thank you, Columbus, for a great time.

We’ll be back.

Endnotes

*I admit that my motive is completely selfish. I don’t want any of y’all book the place while Mihret’s at camp. I’m sure you understand.

^Fun fact: I had never had Spätzle until my internship in Athens, Ohio. My host family served it for dinner one night. i loved it. Always wanted to have it again. This was the first time I’d had it since then. It was just as good as I’d remembered and I look forward to having some again someday. Hopefully I won’t have to wait another two decades. I guess I could just buy some through Amazon if I get too desperate.

^oThat’s a quote from the Schmidt Sausage Haus menu.

^#To be fair, I took German in the years immediately before and after German Reunification. I don’t even know if they had a national anthem when I was studying a language. And if so, recordings of the song probably weren’t readily available (it was the pre-Internet Dark Ages, after all). Edited to add after initial thoughts: here’s a brief explanation about the national anthem and possibly why we didn’t learn it in class.

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Matt Todd

Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"

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