I feel very fortunate to live in a city with a wonderful zoo! The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is a 90 acre zoo with over 10,000 animals, representing over 575 species! The Columbus Zoo opened in 1927, with just a few animals. Today the zoo has five distinct habitats with plans for a sixth currently in the works. The habitats include: North America, Asia Quest, Shores, Expedition Congo African Forest and Voyage to Australia and the Islands. The new region, Safari Africa, is set to open during the summer of 2014. Safari Africa will be a 43-acre region focusing on the savannah of southern and eastern Africa. This new addition will feature giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, warthogs, lions, meerkats, monkeys, ostriches and Jack Hanna as a virtual tour guide for safari adventures! Visitors will be able to visit a village market, feed giraffes and go zip lining. As with many programs at the Zoo, Safari Africa will support conservation efforts in the wild. I can't wait to check it out!
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| Schrock Lake |
When Kenneth and I moved to Columbus in the summer of 2010, we were eager to discover everything the city has to offer - especially its parks! The Columbus Metro Parks include seventeen different parks (with a new park, Rocky Fork, currently being developed), all with plenty of hiking trails and interesting habitats. Kenneth set a goal for us, to visit all of the Metro Parks before he graduates from veterinary school in the spring of 2014. We visited several parks shortly after our move, some of them for the first time during the Metro Parks extremely popular Winter Hike series (which we plan to participate in again this winter!).
Sharon Woods, however, was the last park we needed to visit. In early September we finally made it happen! It took three years, but we have now visited all of the Columbus Metro Parks at least once. I really enjoyed our hike at Sharon Woods, I think we'll be back soon!
The Ohio Pawpaw Festival is a three day celebration of all things pawpaw! This year was the 15th year for the annual south-eastern Ohio festival. I went to my first pawpaw festival in 2007 when I was a student at Ohio University and have made it back for several festivals in between that first year and the 2013 festival. I've written a little bit about the pawpaw on my blog before (click here, here and here for some of my pawpaw photography).
The pawpaw is a tree native to Ohio with a very unique fruit (also the largest fruit native to the U.S.)! The fruit, which is soft like a custard (or pudding) tastes like a combination of banana, mango and vanilla. This fruit is unique and unfamiliar to Americans today because the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba) belongs to the tropical plant family Annonaceae, the majority of the plants in this family are found in the tropics, like soursop, custard-apple and cherimoya. The fruit is also highly perishable and more likely to be found on a hike in the woods than at your local grocery store (though you can find it some farmers' markets!)
I have not been putt putt or mini golfing in many, many years. So many, I don't remember the last time I've been! It was probably while on vacation with my family when my sister and I were a lot younger, we might have been in junior high or early high school. Mini golfing was something we only seemed to do on vacation, it was kind of a tradition!
Hayden Falls Park is a small park (about two acres) with a gorgeous waterfall and boardwalk path. I first learned about Hayden Falls from some friends who moved to an apartment complex near the falls about a year or so ago. They raved about how beautiful the falls are and how easy it is to get to them, the park is located just off of Hayden Run Road where it crosses the Scioto River. Kenneth and I have driven past the parking lot for the falls several times, but had never made time to stop.
