The first Saturday in May is just a normal Saturday for most people in the world. But in Louisville, Kentucky, it is one of the most anticipated days of the year for many folks. That’s right, it is the Kentucky Derby! Just for this two-minute horse race, there are two weeks full of festivities leading up to the big day. Celebrities and out-of-town guests flock in, donning their finest clothes and biggest hats, and drinking their mint juleps (which are gross). You can only imagine that things get a little crazy around here. Traffic is horrible for that entire two-week span, but gets the worst on the Friday before Derby (Oaks Day) and Derby Day itself. It can be exciting, but I got a little burnt out of all the Derby celebrations in my twenties. Now Ryan and I prefer to go out of town to flee all the craziness for a couple of days. This year, our destination of choice was Columbus, Ohio!
I know what you are thinking: why would you go to Columbus? It doesn’t sound like the most interesting city. But believe it or not, there are actually a lot of interesting things to do there. Here are some of the things we thought were worth visiting:
German Village (including the Book Loft)
This was the main reason I picked Columbus as our trip! I can distinctly remember visiting German Village and its old brick roads from way back when I was in kindergarten. I hadn’t been back until our trip this weekend, but it all looked just how I remembered it! The Book Loft is the best bookstore I have ever visited. It is a maze of about 20 rooms winding through an old house, each room full of books! If you don’t find at least one book you like when you are there, then you just don’t like reading at all! I purchased eight books. Ryan purchased six. The cashier exclaimed “Wow!” when I approached with my stack of books.
Schiller Park
This is a small park in German Village. We enjoyed watching the ducks and geese.
Topiary Garden
James T. Mason created this topiary interpretation of the pointillism painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte.
Kelton House
If you like historic homes, this is worth visiting. The most unique aspect is the basement, which serves as a museum to the underground railroad. I will say that for $6 each, I would have preferred a real person as our guide rather than the mandatory audio tour. We also weren’t allowed to keep the pamphlet and map of the house.
COSI
As you will read below, we didn’t get to spend much time here, but I know from previous experience that it is definitely worth a visit, especially if you have kids. It is a very hands-on and interactive science museum. I prefer it to the Louisville Science Center. You can also choose to just go to the planetarium (as we did) or an IMAX film.
Buckeye Chess Club
Ok, not a typical place to visit during a trip, but we did stop there. I don’t know a lot about chess, but it looked like it was a pretty good club, and the building it is in was pretty nice. There was a tournament going on and Ryan really enjoyed his visit there. If you are interested in chess, you might want to include it in your schedule. I guess the best way to do that would be to do a google search for the club and then contact the people in charge about when they have different events going on. This is not my area of expertise though, so don’t ask me!
Outside of the things we did, there are also art museums, theaters, stadiums, and much more. It is a great city for a short get-away. However, there are certain things we learned on our trip that will hopefully help you plan your trip a little better.
1. Don’t try to eat in downtown Columbus on a Saturday afternoon.
In my pre-trip research on Columbus, nowhere did I see anything that indicated that downtown Columbus is pretty much dead on Saturday morning and even through the afternoon. If I had, I would have planned the trip a little differently.
As it happened, I had picked out an inexpensive hotel in German Village for our one-night stay. As such, we decided to spend Friday exploring German Village by foot, and then after we checked out on Saturday, we planned to explore the downtown area.
Our time in German Village went perfectly. It was pretty easy to find places to eat (there were three within close proximity to our hotel), we found the Book Loft with no problem, and while the weather was a little cool and wet, it was not bad enough to stop us from walking around.
The next day, Ryan had been invited to pay a visit to the Buckeye Chess Club where a tournament was going on. The club is located in a suburb of Columbus.When he finished his visit, it was about time for lunch, and he suggested eating a restaurant nearby. Stubbornly, I insisted we go downtown first and then find a place to eat because I wanted to eat a locally-owned restaurant and not a chain. That was a mistake.
We got downtown and parked, then started walking in search of a place that looked good to eat. But everything we came across was closed on Saturdays! Even Subway was closed! We tried going to a couple of restaurants that were indicated on the map we had, but they were either closed for the day, or one even appeared to be closed for good. Finally, we saw a “You Are Here” map that included a list of restaurants. We noted the area that seemed to have the most and walked in that direction. This time, we were in luck! While some of the restaurants were closed Saturdays, we did manage to find a decent pizza restaurant that was open. It should be noted that we were the only customers during the entire time we were eating! It wasn’t even a weird lunch time–we had found the pizza place by 1:00. After our lunch, I did notice a few other open restaurants. If you ever need to eat in downtown Columbus on a Saturday, I recommend heading in the direction of Gay Street.
If I were to do this trip again, I would have us tour downtown Columbus on Friday, then spend Saturday exploring German Village, where all the restaurants are open on Saturdays.
2. Driving around German Village or downtown Columbus is not very fun. You are better off parking somewhere and walking.
It’s hard to see around many of the corners. Some of the roads and highways are not marked very well. There is a lot of construction in downtown.
3. Be prepared to pay to park downtown.
If there is a free place to park anywhere, we didn’t see it. We paid $6 to park at a lot on 3rd and Rich Street. That gave us the ability to park there all day. At the end of our trip, we were about to go to COSI, but decided to drive because it was starting to rain. The parking at COSI is $5 for museum visitors. A possible idea to get away with parking for free would be to park in German Village and walking or taking the bus to downtown. If you haven’t checked out of your hotel yet (as we had) then you could just leave your car there!
4. Look up the schedule for the planetarium shows at COSI and plan accordingly.
We didn’t have enough time to actually explore COSI in a way that would make it worth the money (admission is $20 for adults). It is definitely a cool museum (I went there a couple of times in Girl Scouts) and it would be worth that price if we had at least half a day to explore. But because this was such a short trip and we had other things we wanted to do too, we didn’t have time for that. So we decided to get tickets for just the planetarium, which cost $8 each. However, we did not look at the schedule of shows beforehand, and we made it there just in time for the last show. That meant we also had no choice in which show we saw. We were stuck watching “Space Park 360,” which was far less educational than what we were interested in. The children around us seemed to enjoy it, though (we were the only adults in there that were not with children).
5. Always bring your teacher ID with you on trips.
If I had brought mine, I could have been able to get my general admission ticket to COSI for only $10! Lots of museums offer discounts to educators, but you have to show an ID. I need to start bringing mine when I travel!
Follow these tips, and you are sure to have a great time in Columbus!
Tracy Travels & Teaches 
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