Our dear friend Andrew Walch moved from Austin to Columbus, Ohio a few years ago with his wonderful partner Isabel. He's an incredible athlete and ultimate player, and a loyal lion of a friend, so he helped Mike and I with many projects over the years either by loaning us tools or helping build stuff. We miss him and were excited to see him and get to hang with Isabel, who we didn't get to hang out with enough in Austin due to the pandemic.
Isabel cuddled up with Hudson and their dog "Timmy", short for Tim Duncan, who Sybil was obsessed with.
See? Obsessed. But honestly, who wouldn't be?
Columbus has some great bike trails on green belts along the Scioto River. Isabel and Walch live in a quaint neighborhood called German Village, very near these trails and downtown, so we had a lot of fun on bike adventures around town to nearby parks, kid festivals, and the coolest bookstore I've ever seen.
It's called The Book Loft, and it consists of a labyrinthine 32 rooms and 3 stories of ceiling to floor books, new and used. We spent a blissful hour there browsing and reading, and could have spent many more. Our family loves books, and hitting up used bookstores is one of our favorite things to do in new cities to keep our travel book stash new and exciting.
After the bookstore we rode to a free children's festival that they have every summer Friday at a park downtown with the promise of blow up jumpy thingies, face painting, lawn games, and a carousel. It tickles me to watch how much enjoyment kids get out of carousels and I keep thinking they will be over them, but they still love them.
Hudson might have taught Timmy some naughty new tricks, like how to escape their porch enclosure.
In my Parks & Rec class, we talk about the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland catching fire due to the amount of suspended pollution as an example of the severity of water pollution in the US during the 1960s and 70s. After that I always have students cover the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in projects, so I was excited to visit the only national park in Ohio in person.
There is a beautiful and mostly forested trail through the park called the Towpath Trail that runs 90 miles total alongside the Erie and Ohio canalways and ends at Lake Erie in Cleveland. A towpath is where they built a path next to the canals so that mules could tow the boats upstream. There were remnants of some locks too.
Walch joined us for our bike ride through Cuyahoga Valley NP! He was very patient with our blazing 4 mph pace and frequent stops.
Walch wasn't the only champ. The girls rode 9 miles total with great attitudes.
Parker was on her tiny bike with no gears working 3 times harder than the rest of us. More than once Parker yelled out, "stopping!" and then said, "Can I have a hug?" We would hug and she would just start riding again. Meanwhile, Sybil was blazing ahead with one of the adults, and seemed like she had a few more miles in her.
More action shots of our littlest rider. I can't get enough of how cute she looks on her bike because it's too small for her so she looks like she's on a tiny BMX bike.
The coolest part of this trail is that you can ride it one way and take a scenic train back to the beginning! So we hopped on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad after lunch together at the Peninsula Depot and rode in style back to the car.
It was so fun to see Isabel and Walch and their beautiful home and life in Columbus. Thanks for your hospitality y'all! I think Columbus surprised both Mike and I with it's charm, artistic and progressive vibe, and access to parks/nature.
Next up, Niagara Falls and our international destination for the summer...Canada! Get ready Tim Horton's...I'm coming for ya.
No comments:
Post a Comment