Carrying on from my spur-of-the-moment trip to the UK the week before, I headed to Columbus, Ohio on Thursday, November 18th to visit my friend Ken the Vet and go to the OSU vs. Michigan football game. Unlike the UK, however, this trip had actually been planned for a couple of months.

Bev, one of my dive buddies, drove me to the airport just before noon. I flew to Columbus on Air Canada via Toronto. The flights were fine, but clearing US customs in Toronto was not as smooth. Entering the pre-clearance hall after a brief sidetrip into the duty-free shop, I was greeted by a crowd of about 1000 people in two lines snaking back and forth. Joining the line, I realized that the progress of the line was going to consume all the spare time between flights and then some. Fortunately, the airlines and the customs people were working together and pulling people out of line for specific flights that were nearing their boarding time. Eventually, they called for people on the Columbus flight and I joined the “express” line and cleared customs uneventfully.
The flight to Columbus from Toronto uneventful and I have to say that the Columbus Airport is extremely efficient. The luggage was on the carrousel almost before were had cleared the jetway and walked to the baggage claim area. As an added bonus, the airport is one large free WiFi hotspot, so I had something to do while waiting for Ken to arrive.
Ken showed up shortly and we headed off to meet up with his girlfriend Margaret for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Very good food and the deserts were superb.
Hung out on Friday with Margaret and eventually headed into OSU to have a tour of the large animal clinic where Ken is doing his residency. In the evening, we headed out with some of his friends from the university for dinner at this amazing Italian family restaurant. They escorted us to our table via the kitchen. The various things on the menu came in two sizes: Small (2-3 people) and Large (4-6 people). We ordered some appetizers and two or three main courses which we passed around the table. Amazing food!
Saturday was the big football game between OSU and Michigan. OSU was the underdog, but played extremely well and won the game. The stadium was packed with over 105000 people, almost all of whom were wearing scarlet and grey, the OSU colours. Post-game, we headed to a pub for dinner. On the way home, we picked up the fixings for steak for Sunday’s dinner.
Sunday, Ken had to do rounds, so I slept in. After he was done, we headed out for a bit of a tour of Columbus by way of doing some geocaching. We did two caches before heading off to Margaret’s for dinner. The steaks had marinated nicely and we had a nice meal with a few of their friends. Margaret surprised us by wanting to go geocaching at about 10:45pm, so I found a nearby cache in the GPS and off we went.
Monday, I borrowed Ken’s car and did a little shopping and saw a little more of Columbus before meeting up with Ken at the university. Picking up my luggage, we headed to the airport where I caught my return flight to Ottawa via Toronto. Clearing customs into Canada was a breeze — no lineup at all. My dad met me at the airport in Toronto.
I have a few pictures which I’ll put online at some point. 🙂