Days 9, 10, & 11 Columbus OH

Saturday 6th, Sunday 7th, Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th. 

We've spent the last three day here in Columbus arriving on Saturday evening. Had a great drive from Washington DC. Mostly clear skis with gorgeous clouds and very green country side. Traveled through upper state Maryland via Hagerstown and Cumberland. Cumberland is a town right on the North Branch, Potomac River and has 4 or five large steepled churches sitting facing each other in the city of town. You can centianly tell where the center of town is. There are a number of passes that take you up and over the mountains before entering West Virgina and Pennsylvania back to West Virgina and then the long straight road, USI 70, in Ohio. The dive to Columbus is only ~6 hours not accounting for the various pit stops.

Arrived in Columbus about 4:30 and went to the Crown Plaza Downtown to check in. Only one problem; this wasn't the Crown Plaza we had reserved. At bit embarrassing, fortunately I had only gotten a couple of the suitcases unloaded. With directions in hand we headed out to our hotel out in a suburb of Worthington, about 6 miles out of town. The hotel itself turned out to be quite nice. Nice large room. We booked this hotel because it has an indoor/outdoor pool; Annabel loves to go swimming so when we come to town we get a hotel with a pool. We had a very nice dinner at the hotel restaurant much to our surprise. Usually we find hotel restaurants a bit mediocre but the meal we had here was wonderful.
Sunday.

After a good nights rest we made it over to Annabel's to see her and her parents. Chris and Kathleen took us out to brunch for our anniversary at a local establishment; very nice. Good visit with the kids. Sunday was our day with Annabel. After brunch we sweep her up and took her to her first movie; Monsters U. She was great for an almost 4 year old. She sat in her seat with a kids tray of popcorn, lemonade, and little candies, and was memorized by the movie. We enjoyed watching her more then the movie. After the movie we went back to the hotel for games and a swim.
Jenny had bought and sent along a bingo game in Spanish (Annabel is taking Spanish lessons) and a Snoopy snow cone machine.  Of course we had to make snow cones and play Spanish bingo and play and play… After dinner we made it out to the pool. Annabel loves to play in the water so this pool was ideal. Half indoors and half outdoors and very well heated. We also played in the hot tub. After about an hour we went back to the room and guess what we played bingo again. She finally feel asleep to images of the Princess and the Frog movie on TV.
Monday. Annabel had her first day at pre-kindergarten which she was very excited about. This gave Angie and I the afternoon to ourselves so we went back to the hotel and napped. It was great to catch-up. In the late afternoon we picked up Annabel and took her to ChuckECheese. This apparently is her new favorite activity. She like to run around and collect tickets. Very exciting for her and us just to watch her. She accumulated 200 tickets which got her a ChuckECheese spoon, a straw, and a spider. Oh the simple joy of being 4.

Tuesday. Annabel has tumbling this morning so we meet Chris for coffee and pastries at another local venue, Pistacia Vera. It was very nice chance to catch up with him and see how things are in his life. Everything seems to be good with him and the family. We're baby sitting this afternoon at Annabel's while mom and dad are working.

That's it for now. Tomorrow we'll be off to Chicago for a couple of days before we start our trek long Route 66.

If any one has any suggestion as what to see and where to eat in Chicago let us know.