Sunday, May 07, 2006

Tour of Columbus Begins

This post was supposed to be up last Monday 5/1. Better late than never, right?

For you regular readers, you'll remember a while back I wrote a post basically wondering what you would show people about your hometown if they came to visit. It got me thinking about how little I have visited in Columbus despite living here my whole life. This week I accidently started my Tour of Columbus just by being in the right place at the right time.

It all started on Thursday when I went over to my parents' house to talk to my mom about how horrible my track practice was that day. My sister and the kids were there and said they were going down to the main library to see an art project my nephew had done. They asked me if I wanted to go and although I was sweaty and gross from my run, I agreed to go.

Columbus Metro Library was recently ranked the #1 library system in America. The main library is downtown in addition to 20 branch libraries throughout the suburbs. The libraries are all interlinked meaning that if I can't find it at my branch, I can reserve it from another branch to be delivered at my home library. Personally, that's how I check out my books. I log onto the website and reserve the book to be delivered at the New Albany branch. If no one is on the waitlist, the book should be delivered within 3-5 days. It's a great system. And, if you can't find what you're looking for at Columbus, the library will search the other libraries in Ohio.





Thursday was my first visit to the main library and it didn't disappoint. The youth area has great artwork created by kids. There is also different plush areas for kids to sit and read, computers for kids to use, and a CD listening area with children's music as the selection. My nephew really liked listening to the music. The adult books and other media area are HUGE. Three floors HUGE! There is a media room, which would rival any Blockbuster. There's also a whole room full of sheet music. I've never seen that before at a library. Every floor has computers available for use too. Parking is free for the first hour and it's 50 cents for every half hour after that.



The Tour continued yesterday starting in German Village. German Village is a small section just south of downtown, which boasts a lot of breweries, beautiful Victorian homes, and some original establishments like Max and Erma's and Schmidt's. We ate lunch at Thurman's Cafe. Thurman's is this 'hole-in-the-wall' restaurant/bar that has the best hamburgers ANYWHERE! Each hamburger is 3/4 pounds and whatever toppings you get on it will just ooze out the side. Ask for extra napkins if you are going to be ordering the hamburger. And frankly, if you're going to Thurman's, you should order the hamburger.




After Thurman's we traveled back downtown to the Columbus Museum of Art. The museum is free on Sundays so what a better time to check it out. The last time I had been at the museum was when I was a kid and I remember it being bigger. We made it through the whole museum in about an hour and a half. I really don't know much about art, especially painting, so I'm not going to comment on the quality. I did really like this Chihuly piece. Chihuly had a display at the Franklin Park Conservatory a few years ago, but I'll write about that some other time.




The Museum of Art is next to the Columbus College of Art and Design which had some really cool displays outside. We took some pictures of these too.











The Tour will continue soon....

1 comment:

Dave said...

That's my burger in the picture: a mushroom swiss burger. I didn't come anywhere close to finishing it.