Books, Doggies and Sausage!

This past weekend, David and I drove up to Columbus, Ohio. Originally, we were going to support a customer in his attempt to earn a SchH1 with his dog, but the guy and dog decided to wait and try another time. Since we already had hotel reservations we decided to go anyway.

Columbus is about a three hour drive from Midway, and is just about in the center of the state. It has a restored German community that was built up in the 1800s, mostly around the brewing and sausage making trades. It's a beautiful place to visit in the Spring, when the flowers are blooming and the temperature is mild.

Our first stop was The Book Loft. It's my favorite bookstore and a place where you can get lost, literally, in books (click the link and see...). David and I spent hours in the store and only ran into each other twice. We left a lot poorer in money but much richer in reading material. Ronnie scored four Warhammer 40K books. David got a few engineering and science books for his cousin's kid who just graduated with a degree in Engineering from the University of Arkansas. I picked up four books on Kentucky for my brother, who will be visiting next week, and a book David and I listened to on tape - Invisible Monsters, by Chuck Palahnuik (who also wrote Fight Club), which I am sending home to my mom. David picked up books on psychology (no thanks), container gardening and trees. I picked up Sundays at Tiffany's and Bonk.

After spending too much money, we took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. It really is a beautiful place to walk around. Some of the shop owners put out water bowls for the doggies. The doggies do appreciate it! We stumbled across Schiller Park, where the pictures below are taken. It's a nice community park, and it gets a lot of visitors. Envy really liked the ducks. Alfonse liked the dandelions.

Dinner was at Schmidt's. German buffet and cream puffs to die for (or from!). I ate too much, as I always do when I eat here. It was worth every calorie though!


Jay, I cheated and wiki'd it -

The Olentangy River (pronounced /oʊlənˈtænʤi/) is a tributary of the Scioto River in Ohio.

It was originally called keenhongsheconsepung, a Delaware word literally translated as "stone for your knife stream" based on the shale found along its shores. Early settlers to the region translated this into "Whetstone River." In 1833, the Ohio General Assembly passed legislation intending to restore the original Native American names to some Ohio waterways, but mistakenly gave Whetstone River the name "Olentangy"—Delaware for "river of the red face paint"—which had actually belonged to what is now known as Big Darby Creek.