The annual Holiday Open House held along High Street on the Sunday after Thanksgiving is a fun way…read moreto kick off the holiday season! A lot of businesses offer special hours and/or deals along the way, and there are several great community events going on. This year, there were fun opportunities at the corner of High and New England Ave: free horse and carriage rides, free trackless train rides, a snowplow touch-a-truck opportunity, musical performances, an iceless ice rink, and collection of nonperishables for the Worthington Resource Pantry. The Village Green had a neat Maker's Market, food trucks and stands, and was home to the tree lighting. We really enjoyed the train ride, and the fun train whistles the sponsor kindly distributed to the line! For other activities, the map/guide was really helpful! We especially enjoyed Sew to Speak's make your own mouse candy cane ornament for a small fee, AR Workshop's tree cookie stencil ornaments for a donation to Charity Newsies, CoHatch's make your own reindeer food, Electric Sheep's characters in a quiet space for a donation to the Autism Society (Captain America, Wonder Woman, the Grinch, and Anna and Elsa), HER Realtors' amazing holiday window decorations and their fun party atmosphere (balloons, cookies, freshly popped popcorn, and coloring sheets), and picking up some nice hot burritos from the Guelaguetza Street Food truck to enjoy. Naturally, we also eagerly stopped by for a visit with Santa on the gorgeous Worthington Inn porch, with pictures by SEE Studio. What a wonderful way to start the season!

Billed as the biggest Lego fest around. Held at the fairgrounds at the same time as several other…read moreevents, so traffic and parking were a nightmare. We ended up parking west of the railroad tracks and walking. It's in the Lausch building, a mid-sized display are (as far as the fairgrounds go.) Easy to check in. Cost is $20 each, for kids too (under 2 are free.) Inside there are many vendors, with good selections of all sorts of Legos: minifigs, big kits, smaller ones, retired ones, you name it. A couple of building areas, one for younger kids and one for older. Apparently some celebrities, but I'm not a Lego fanboi so I had no idea who they were- expert builders? Oh, and plenty of built displays, some pretty good ones. Only food or drink vendor I saw was Schmidt's. All in all, for the price it was just okay (though we didn't have to pay to park, as mentioned.) Prices for merchandise were standard, no deals I saw. Kid K had fun but wanted to leave after half an hour (and a small kit and a lightsaber...) I'd rather go to the local Lego stores, especially Bricks and Minifigs which has used kits sometimes and special deals.

I'm sad to say that I've lived in Columbus almost 30 years and this is the first time we've visited…read morethe Ohio Railway Museum. The museum is only open from March through October AND ONLY on Sunday from noon until 4pm. My grandkids were in town from Colorado and we were looking for fun things to do. The museum certainly meet the need. The grandkids had a great time exploring the exhibits and going for a trolley ride (twice). The trolley runs at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 and makes about a 2 mile run. The museum's website says that their primary goal is PERSERVATION and not RESTORATION - although it's apparent they do some restoration of their rolling stock. Everyone associated with the museum is a VOLUNTEER and there are NO paid employees. All proceeds from ticket sales and concessions goes back into the museum's mission. They have a 4-6-2 steam locomotive that is open to the public, along with a passenger car, a railway mail car, and a streetcar. And, there is the interurban trolley used for the 2-mail excursions. Most of the rest of their stock is in various states of perservation or restoration. With 4 and 6-year grandkids in tow, we spent almost 2 hours at the museum. As someone noted - this is a nice small train museum that's well worth a visit but probably not a place for repeat visits.

I'm not a big train person, but many in my family are or were (dad, brother, wife, daughter.)…read more We've thought about coming here for awhile, and today worked out. Very limited hours (Sunday 12-4.) The train rides are every hour, at the half hour, so 1230, 130, 230, 330. We came just as one was leaving. It's one car, an old streetcar, and a very cool, short ride. Goofy jokes from the engineer, info and sightseeing comments from the conductor, lots of whistle blows. Baby K loved it. There are other streetcars and trains in the yard, some of which you can climb in, many others awaiting restoration. It's very clearly an all-volunteer labor of love. The volunteers were very friendly and helpful, especially of the kids. It's not a fancy place, and you have to be careful on the tracks and gravel, etc., but it is great fun for kids. For this non-train-guy history buff, it was very cool. There are some displays in the station, and a few toys for the kids (a train set to play on, and some to buy.) They do Halloween and Christmas events, so we'll probably be back for those or just so Baby K (and maybe even Sweetie) can ride the train.

Visited this place for the fourth time. Good for kids but they start closing before time. Food is…read morebad.

We went to Leeds Farm for their 30th anniversary. It was nice to get tickets 30% off online. It was…read morea very fun time for my son. He is 2 and I found the activities at the farm to be perfect for toddlers. They have numerous play areas and many places in which they have set up slides, which is my son's favorite. He had a blast in the corn grain barn. A great sensory play activity for all kids. He loved the mountain tunnel and straw barn slides. We enjoyed the pumpkin jump area and took both the hay ride and pumpkin express. My son also enjoyed petting the goats. We missed the piglet race, but sounded fun. There was a handwashing station near the animal and corn box barns, which I appreciated. We had a apple cider slushie, which tasted like taking a bite off a freshly picked apple, which was perfect for the warm day.

Along with a few others, I was in search of an event space for an all day event for about 20…read morepeople. I had heard about The Depot previously, so I suggested that we check it out as an option. It was easily the winner of the many locations we toured. The events manager was extremely friendly and helpful before and during the event. We used their catering and had plentiful food throughout the day - we had brought in our own snacks and they were barely touched because everyone was quite content with the breakfast and lunch foods! Also included was a history tour that let us learn more about the various rail cars present on the property. The tour was fun and informative - we easily could have listened to more! We have a very positive experience here, and the space is so unique!

We happened across The Depot Event Center on the web when looking for a venue, and found The Depot…read more We were not disappointed and have booked with them twice now. The facility is beautifully quaint, and met our needs and expectations. The Manager, Tim, is very friendly, flexible, and accommodating. We highly recommend The Depot Event Center. You would not be disappointed.

The performers where amazing. Interacting with the audience and performing classic rock songs in a…read moreway I have never heard before. The staff from ushers to the cocktail staff before entering were amazing. It was more than I expected. We can not wait for future concerts

Another year and another fun con. Sadly masks were required again, but hopefully this will be the…read morelast year for it. The voice actors are good about a free autograph with admission, but some are weirdly picky about what they sign or if they will charge for pictures you take of them. The scavenger hunt can be pretty fun and the ribbon game is also interesting as you can collect a lot of ribbons. Panels range acriss the board. If you have something you love be sure to apply to be a panelist or volunteer as staff to keep the con going.

Ohayocon was a blast! I didn't manage to catch any panels, but the artisans and vendors were…read morefantastic, the atmosphere was good, and the people were friendly. Ohayocon has a thriving ribbon tradition, so make sure to hunt for ribbons to add to your con pass, or even bring your own!

The staff at Thurber do a great job with events. This was my third time attending one on-site to…read moresee an author, and the second time on the lawn with a boxed meal. Their events at other venues are wonderful too. I also participate with their Book Bar events (different locations) where readers can get together to socialize or just sit and read. There is catered food and drink tickets for beer or wine. Always a nice evening. They offer writing classes for both adults and kids.

I've been visiting the Thurber House regularly since my very first trip to Columbus back in the…read moresepia-tinted year of...1989? No sorry, 1990, my mistake. It's never failed to inspire--and a national literary landmark like this is deserving of 5+ stars once you see what the site offers. Been a dyed-in-the-wool "Thurberian" since my 8th grade literature teacher assigned us to read "My Life and Hard Times".... When the class got to the chapter on "the night the bed fell", it took 20 minutes to restore order in the classroom because we were laughing so hard! Any author who writes a book that causes cynical 8th graders to almost die laughing 44 years after publication, says much more than any eloquent words can. Humor is the hardest thing to write for posterity since linguistically much syntax shifts/morphs with every generation. It's was my fascination with Thurber that propelled me to study the whole "Algonquin Roundtable" era of US 20th century literature that included such American icons as E.B. White, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, etc., and if you are able to read some of Thurber's key works (and the more scholarly bios by Rosen, Kinney, etc) prior to visiting this site, it will make your visit to the Thurber House more enjoyable. Sorta like if you read about the Battle of Gettysburg before visiting Little Round Top, you'll gain more insights and meaning from the experience. Some must sees: 1) the stairs leading up to "grandfather's" bed in the attic (now fully renovated and serves as the quarters for selected "writers in residence"); 2) his mother's bedroom window where she threw her shoe; 3) the kitchen where the deranged cook chased his father because she thought he looked evil.... Check the web link for the latest in events, closures and COVID policies. Parking is metered along the street. OSU is fairly close by ... within view (they also have an extensive Thurber exhibit), but you have to "buck" traffic (pun intended) since access is bisected by the now prevalent interstate highway. "Buck! Your time has come!"......... to get up out of your chair and go visit the Thurber House. Thank you so much for reading my review.