On Thursday, Oct 15th, we arrived in Casa Grande, AZ and parked the RV before setting off to the airport in Phoenix to fly to Columbus to visit Eric. We arrived late but Eric was there to pick us up and took us back to his house where we had a great sleep. It was a beautiful fall day in Ohio, and Eric drove us to the Hocking Hills State Park, where we hiked to the Rock House. A ¼ mile trail leads to an opening in a cliff face with gothic-like windows and awesome views. Hocking Hills State Park is unique with so much to see, waterfalls, breathtaking cliffs, deep recess caves and forestland as far as the eye can see and there was not enough time to see it all. We headed back to Columbus where we picked up Lauren Martorano, Eric’s girlfriend, and went out for a drink.
On Saturday we wanted to go to the Ohio State vs Penn State football game at Ohio State University but the tickets were outrageous so we went to a bar near the stadium to catch the pre-game excitement. That was pretty crazy! Eric’s house is across the street from the Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and we took the two dogs, Milo and Laker for a nice walk through the park. The beautiful glass house was the original western entrance to the Park, originally built in 1895, and now is the Palm House, with special exhibitions and Dale Chihuly artworks. To this day, Franklin Park Conservatory is the only public botanical garden in the world to own a signature collection of Chihuly’s magnificent glass artworks. What a wonderful asset to have in Columbus and so close by. On Sunday evening we were invited to Lauren’s house, where we had dinner with Linda and their dog, Penny.Click on thumbnail to view images
On our last day with Eric and Lauren we went to the German Village area of Columbus where we ate lunch at Lindey’s, one of the true gems of German Village, and we were able to sit in the patio. The food was excellent, but we couldn’t linger too long because we had to get to the airport for our flight back to Phoenix. What a great trip visiting Eric in Columbus, a city we never really spent much time in when we lived in Ohio for so many years, but so happy that Eric lives here now.