Here’s Our Best & Worst Things From Ohio

Shae and I recently spent five weeks in Ohio, the fourth state on our 5 year, 50 state road trip.

Most of that time was spent staying with different sets of friends (apparently loads of great people live in Ohio). We therefore focused more on spending time with them than going out and doing “travel” stuff.

Despite that, we still found a lot of fun things to do and great places to eat, so here’s our favorite – and not so favorite – things from our time in Ohio.

Favorite Accommodation We Stayed At

Stephen – Nearly all our time was spent with friends, so I won’t pit them against each other 😉 In terms of other accommodation, as much as I liked our one night stay at the Sheraton Suites Columbus, I think I liked our secluded cabin in Stewart more. It meant we had a full kitchen for the four days we were there, plus they had a great fire pit where we were able to make S’mores.

Shae – Agreed. The cabin near Athens was great. Getting to it was a bit of a drive since I wasn’t convinced our car would make the hills full of our stuff but our little wombat, I mean car, did a great job. We were well positioned over a pond and had lovely nights by the fire pit watching the stars.

Favorite Meal

Stephen – That’s a tough one as I enjoyed so many meals. Our Cincinnati chili tasting challenge was fun, but I think my favorite meal was at Milestone 229 in Columbus.

Shae – Oh gosh. Please no more chili. I think my favorite meal was the Hungry Bros. food truck’s Vladamir Poutine at the Cincinnati Rollergirls match with Clare.

Most Disappointing Meal

Stephen – There wasn’t a meal I’d say I was disappointed with necessarily. I guess the least impressive meal though was the footlong chili dog I got from The Root Beer Stand while doing our Cincinnati chili taste test. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as other chili dogs, plus there was a ridiculously long wait in line as it took almost 30 minutes to order and get our food.

Shae – It wasn’t a meal, but I was disappointed with Brewnuts. It wasn’t tasty to me and for how much you paid it wasn’t very good value either. Especially, when I got even tastier donuts at the Buckeye Bakery for a quarter of the price the next morning.

Favorite Free Activity

Stephen – I think I’ll have to go for our visit to Old Man’s Cave in Hocking Hills State Park. A fun hike, several waterfalls, caves and more.

Shae – Definitely the Goat Derby!!! It was completely free to attend. We had a great time in the sunshine, watching goats and helping charity while pretending to be so fancy – what’s not to love!?

To be honest, I’m shocked that Stephen didn’t choose Jungle Jim’s as his… he loves a good grocery store.

Favorite Paid Activity

Stephen – My favorite paid activity was something we did on our last day in Ohio – our visit to the Ohio State Reformatory which is the prison where The Shawshank Redemption was filmed.

Honorable mention goes to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center which probably would’ve been my favorite thing if we’d not been there before.

Shae – Technically, it was in Detroit (during our time in Toledo) and we were treated to it, but seeing School of Rock: The Musical was pretty spectacular! We had great seats and great company with Patty and Ed.

Favorite Pet-Friendly Activity

Stephen – I think the visit to Old Man’s Cave again as our dog Truffles was able to do the entire ~7 mile hike.

Shae – While I think Truffles loved the hike (despite both of our little feets being sooo tired at the end), I think MY favorite pet-friendly activity was when I had some small furtography pawsistants to take pictures of Truffles in the park.

Least Favorite Activity

Stephen – Trying to go for walks in some Metro Parks in Columbus. Our first stop was Clear Creek Metro Park which had numerous trails but only allowed dogs on one of them.

We then stopped at another Metro Park for lunch, but left as soon as we could when ticks started being blown in on the breeze. Truffles ended up with three on her, but we thankfully got them off her in time.

Shae – Oh yeah, definitely the Metro Park day was a disaster of epic proportions.

Favorite Hike

Stephen – Once again, Old Man’s Cave.

Shae – Old Man’s Cave was amazing and I definitely think it was my favorite hike. But we did have a lovely walk/hike with Truffles, Clare and her daughter in Cincinnati’s Mt. Airy Forest that was really fun.

Favorite Quirky Thing We Did

Stephen – This one’s a tie between the Goat Derby and Jungle Jim’s.

Shae – The Goat Derby or the Roller Derby. I enjoyed both for different reasons but both were a little different from the normal way to spend your time.

Favorite Memory

Stephen – Getting to see all our different sets of friends.

Shae – Getting to spend time with all of our amazing friends – Will, Clare, and the kids, Ed and Patty, Jeff, Melody and the kids, Mark, Megan and the kids, and our new friends Susannah and Mr. Bojangles of Pet Love Photography in Cincinnati. Plus all the time with their puppers – Sydney, Libby, Ulysses and Valkyrie (and maybe some cats in there too :/ )  Also, sneaking out of Ohio to Indiana to meet Nicole from HRC and to Ann Arbor, MI to meet Greg (Stephen’s boss at Frequent Miler) and his wife.

Funniest Moment

Stephen – Dueling Shae when we went to a trampoline park with some friends and their kids. I won the best of three, but she did a good job knocking me off in the second round.

Shae – There were too many great laughs in this state to even try to narrow down one but the trampoline park was definitely a ton of fun.

Thing We Most Regretted

Stephen – Eating so much chili over the course of 10 days in Cincinnati. It was worth the sacrifice though.

Shae – Eating so much chili over the course of the 10 days in Cincinnati. It was not worth the sacrifice.

Something We Missed And Want To See

Stephen – All the things! Like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, we spent a lot of time hanging out with friends which meant that we didn’t do as much travel stuff. Ohio apparently has lots of great hiking, so that’s something I’d like to return to do.

Shae – I’m sad I didn’t get to see the road sign museum in Cincinnati.

Our Biggest Surprise

Stephen – How cool Jungle Jim’s turned out to be.

Shae – How much there was to do in Mansfield, especially when compared to how little there was to do in Toledo.

My Ohio Drinking Game Would Be…

Stephen – Have a drink every hour that you’re in Toledo. Although it has some great things like our friends, Tony Packo’s and a beautiful cathedral, the city itself seemed a little depressing.

Shae – Every time you misidentify a buckeye leaf for a marijuana leaf. Just sayin’… they look really similar on clothing items.

Summary Of Ohio In 10 Words Or Less

Stephen – It’s better than it gets credit for.

Shae – Oh How I lOve Ohio – it’s full of my friends!