Columbus

On a cold day (I think the coldest this year to that point), we headed out to Columbus to meet some old friends. Dustin was a good friend of mine in high school, and we'd met his wife Mellonie at our wedding, but you know how weddings are... it was likely a short and rushed conversation. Anyway, they were living in southwestern Ohio for a month for work, so we decided to meet up and catch up, since we were so close and all. 

Columbus is a 2.5 hour drive from Cleveland, and it's not the most exciting one, but it goes fairly quickly. We passed through LOTS of farming communities to get there. Once there, we met up at a Chic-fil-A (it was Sunday so we had the parking lot to ourselves) and headed to an area my friend Carrie told us about, the Short North. 

We had lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then explored the cute stores along the strip, breathing a sigh of relief as we escaped the cold (it was 24 degrees and the "feels like" was 13, so it wasn't the best day for being outside at all). We stopped at a coffee shop to warm up, at a market to explore (Carson tried some hot sauce that was much too hot and I egged him on to taste it so I feel bad about it).

We ended our time in the Short North by stopping at a frozen custard place. It was understandably empty, since it was so cold... but worth it. The guy behind the counter took this picture, and cut Carson's head off.
You can see the chalk writing on the wall behind Carson..

We drove around Columbus after that (which is when I took this out-of-chronological-order pictures) and ended up walking around an outdoor place and a Marshalls before we went back to our car at the Chic-fil-A. 

It was a great day! FREEZING COLD (and they most recently lived in the South, so they were less prepared) but still great to see and catch up with people we've never hung out with as married couples. Wish they lived closer; they are great friends!