When Christine, mom of our fencer Tessa, learned that the 2024 Fencing Summer Nationals would take place in Columbus, she shared the news with her friend who resides in the area. Excited to help Christine and her family make the most of their time in Columbus, her friend generously crafted a detailed guide to local attractions and activities within a 1-2 hour driving distance. Recognizing the value of this insider knowledge, Christine wondered if it could be shared with the broader fencing community. What makes this guide particularly special is that it’s unedited, giving it a genuine flavor of excitement and firsthand experience. A firsthand guide from a local is a treasure trove of ideas, particularly for those accompanied by young, adventurous fencers, fencing at Summer Nationals, and seeking new experiences. A heartfelt thank you to Christine and her family friend for their thoughtful contribution!

Ok, Columbus =).

First, I believe the fencing competition is at Greater Columbus Convention Center (400 North High Street), which is centrally located, between Short North and Arena District.

Key Columbus neighborhoods:

• Arena District (sports arenas & entertainment district)
• Short North (hip, cultural arts district)
• German Village (largest privately funded historic district in US, super cute brick houses, cobblestone streets, just south of downtown)

I know German Village best since the area existed when I lived in Columbus lol, and I lived on Fifth Street in that neighborhood.  Short North Arts District and Arena District are newer neighborhoods that got built up after I left the area and I’ve only buzzed by them on the way from Cincinnati back to DC.

When we drive by Columbus, our two stops are Pistacia Vera and North Market.  And then Jeni’s if we can stuff ourselves anymore (but Jeni’s just opened a location in Cincinnati, so we don’t have to be so desperate now).

Arena District

• North Market (59 Spruce Street, Tues-Sat 9am-7pm, Sun 10am-5pm) – public market / food hall across the street from Convention Center.  Come here for your meals instead of eating at the Convention Center!  It’s not going to be as amazing as Bay Area Asian food, but for the Midwest, it’s got lots of yummies in one convenient place. 
  • Lan Viet – pho
  • Flavors of India – Indian food
  • Tajine House – this was not there when I was last at North Market, but I’d LOVE to have access to tajine, yum!!
  • Bubbles – boba tea
  • Jeni’s – ice cream (see below ice cream note on Only in Columbus)

• Walk around Nationwide Arena (home of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets) and the shops around there.  I’ve only been there during the daytime so it’s always been quiet when I’ve gone.

• Scioto Mile Promenade (233 S Civic Center Drive) or any of the 9 connecting parks.  This greenway / walking & biking path didn’t exist when I still lived in Columbus, but yay for setting aside 175 acres along the waterfront from Arena District southward to downtown along the Scioto River.  COSI (below) is located along this path.

Short North

• Fox in the Snow Café (1031 N Fourth Street, Weekdays 7am-4pm, Weekends 8am-4pm).   Have not been here, but I totally would go, since it’s the buzzy place to catch breakfast and pastries are totally my thing.

• Brassica (680 North High Street, 11am-10pm every day).  Dear lord, I’m drooling just thinking back on this.  Fill up your pita or bowl with chicken shawarma or falafel, hummus, etc and all the delicious mediterranean sides.  Perhaps like a Chipotle for mediterranean food, similar to CAVA in the DC area which I love. 

• UDF / United Dairy Farmer (900 N High Street, 24 hours).  This convenience store chain is based in Cincinnati.  It’s what made the Lindner family billionaires (they expanded from dairy and gasoline to insurance/finance).  Just calling this out because if you’ve got a midnight craving for a snack, you can go to the “UDF” for the usual c-store selection.  If I recall, the one at this location has like 10 icee dispensers, more than I’ve ever seen.

• Stroll down High Street – the main thoroughfare of Short North.  Boutiques, art galleries, colorful murals.  I can’t recall at what point on High Street, possibly a lot further north closer to Ohio State University / University District it gets a little sketchier at night, when I walked around there were some homeless people and pot.  It’s 4 yrs later, and your kids are older than mine if I recall, so I think it’ll be fine, but head’s up.

German Village:

Quaint cobblestone streets, darling brick homes (that my mom said are all wrong from a feng shui standpoint =D) on Beck, Mohawk and Deshler Streets built by German settlers in the early to mid-19^th century.  It was close to demolition in the 1960’s, but concerned citizens saved it last minute and now it’s considered one of the most desirable places to live in Columbus, long known for being gay-friendly.

• German Village Society Meeting Haus / Visitor’s Center (588 South 3^rd Street, April-Dec weekdays 9am-4pm, Sat 10am-2pm, Sun 12-3pm).  If architecture is your jam, stop by here for a map and short intro video to the neighborhood.  Staffed by volunteers.  Schiller Park (1069 Jaeger Street) is the key park in German Village.

• Pistacia Vera (541 South 3^rd Street, Sun-Sat 7am-3pm) – really delicious pastries.  I discovered French macarons here.  Every time I go by Columbus, I stop here for pastries to go, I even pre-order if I’m coming by late to make sure they don’t run out.  If I had time to indulge, I’d sit here (limited seating) and order one of their ridiculously indulgent and beautiful desserts – berry tarts, eclairs, millefeuille, things like that.

• Katzinger’s Deli (475 South 3^rd Street, 10am-6pm) – Known for their incredible sandwiches.  I’ve never had their Reuben, as I don’t like sauerkraut or rye bread, but that’s their top seller and food critic/host/hometown boy Ted Allen’s favorite.  It’s just a great place to browse for cheese, olive oil, rugalech, other random Jewish deli things.  I get the Doug’s Vegetarian Head Plant with artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers.  Their potato salad sides are really good.  You can sit here and eat, Pistacia Vera is two blocks away – so you can hit both.

• The Book Loft (631 South 3^rd Street, 10am-11pm) – a labyrinth of a bookstore with 32 rooms of books, narrow hallways, multiple levels, occasional dead end.  I looked it up just now and guess with Amazon and Barnes & Nobles chains, etc, that it’s now one of the largest independent booksellers in the US.

• Schmidt’s Sausage Haus (240 East Kossuth Street, Sun-Mon 11am-9pm, Tues-Sat 11am-10pm) – I am not a German food fan, but it’s a landmark.  It started out as a meatpacking house in 1886, and now the restaurant has been voted the official food of Columbus, known for sausage, sauerkraut balls, schnitzel, operated by fourth and fifth generation families.  I took Zach and Ty here because they are part German and it’s only appropriate to eat German food in German Village =D.  I got the Bahama Mama Original sausage meal – eh, had to try it once.  They did devour the pretzel nuggets appetizer and we shared one of the famous Schmidt’s giant cream puffs.

Other Columbus:

• COSI / Center of Science & Industry (333 W Broad Street, Columbus, OH, 10am-5pm everyday) – This is a pretty impressive museum, supposedly the #1 science museum in the country (I doubt it).  My kids are in a rebellious phase, so they won’t willingly go now, but 3 years ago when they were 10 and 7, the planetarium movies (Wildest Weather in The Solar System) were out of this world amazing.  They have exhibits that occasionally sell out (currently one on Titanic).  A mix between SF’s Exploratorium and California Academy of Sciences.

• Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens (1777 E Broad Street, 10am-5pm every day, two miles east of downtown).  A peaceful space, pretty gardens to walk through.  When I had a long weekend w/ the kids in Columbus, I took them to COSI one day and Franklin Park another day as their “things to see”, though you guys are near Golden Gate Park, so maybe you’ve got plenty of access to botanical gardens.  Has some Chihuly glass displays within the botanical setting

• Easton Town Center (160 Easton Town Center, M-Sat 10am-9pm, Sun noon-6pm.  15 min drive east of downtown).  Outdoor shopping malls are probably pretty common in beautiful weather California, but this was unusual for Ohio when it was built.  250 shops & restaurants, very pretty / very commercial.  Maybe the only thing of note is the meta-ness of shopping for Limited Brands (Victoria Secret, Bath & Body Works, A&F, Henri Bendel, etc) in the backyard of their global HQ in Columbus.  Stop here after Amish Country to reintegrate back into capitalistic society =).

• Meatloaf at Cap City Diner (1299 Olentangy River Road, 11am-9pm generally, 6 min drive east of downtown).  Classic comfort food.  When we go through Columbus to MD and it’s around dinner time, I will stop here specifically for the meatloaf, which I don’t normally crave nor eat anywhere else.  Cap City Diner is one of Cameron Mitchell’s restaurants and he was the king of the Columbus restaurant scene for many decades (list of restaurants).

• Field of Corn (4995 Rings Road, Dublin, OH, Open 24 hours, 18 mins NW of Columbus).  A little ridiculous, and significantly out of the way in a NW Columbus suburb, but it’s a quirky thing I have occasionally taken visitors from the coasts to see because nothing is more Midwest than corn.  109 human sized (6 ft 3in) corn statues standing upright in rows.  Meant to symbolize the community’s farming legacy.

• Honda Heritage Center (24025 Honda Parkway, Marysville, OH.  Thurs 10am-3pm).  45 mins NW of Columbus.  Have a Honda Accord, Acura TLX or Acura Integra?   See where your baby was born =).  History of Honda with vintage cars, concept cars and other displays.  No auto plant tour tho =(.  Open for a few short hours each week on Thursday.

Dayton Area

• National Museum of the US Air Force (1100 Spaatz Street, Dayton, OH.  9am-5pm every day).  Jason and Ty go there multiple times a year, including last weekend.  Jason says if you’re into airplanes and not displays, it’s the best, better even than National Air & Space Museum in DC & VA in his opinion.  But it’s no frills – more like the giant hangar that is Udvar-Hazy, they also minimized the food court selection to packaged sandwiches.  You can get super close to the planes.  Jason says don’t miss the Valkyrie way in the back and presidential planes.  Ty tells me about the B-29 that dropped Fat Man.

• Esther Price Candies (This location is 4 mins from Air Force Museum: 194 Woodman Drive, Dayton, OH Mon-Fri 9am-6pm, Sat 9am-5:30pm).  For over a decade, I pooh-poohed this old-fashioned / grandma looking Midwestern chocolate brand.  And now I am kicking myself because they do a few skus really well.  When I go here, I purchase loose (vs in a box): dark chocolate cherry cordials and pecan toppers (over opera cream).  I’m not a caramel person but they are known for their caramel pecans (turtles, elsewhere) and I get them once in a blue moon and they are very good.

• Original 151 and Nani – (2727 Fairfield Commons Drive, Beavercreek, OH.  Inside Fairfield Commons Mall.  Mon-Sat 11am-8pm, Sun noon-6pm).  Come here only if you have a Pokemon fan, but the mall is only 11 mins from Air Force museum.  Both stores are owned by No Limit Gaming, a large trading card store in Dayton, that apparently had connections to people in Japan.
  • Original 151 is like an Unofficial Pokemon Center in the middle of Heartland USA.  It’s not a big space, but they somehow stock a plushie for every one of the Gen 1 Pokemon and other Pokemon paraphernalia.
  • Nani is its sister store upstairs, which has plushies, manga, figurines from One Piece, Jujutsu Kaisen, Dragon Ball.  I haven’t been to Fairfield Commons since Nani opened in 2022 but yay tiny Dayton for being able to support so much Japanese themed stuff.  Apparently, an anime-themed cafe called Izakaya also opened at the mall in Feb 2024
  • Round1 arcade with bowling, billiards and arcade games a few doors down from Original 151.  This DID exist the last time we were there and there were some really intense music rhythm players who wear white gloves to do their ridiculousness there – just like we saw in Japan.

• Young’s Dairy Farm (6880 Springfield Xenia Road, Yellow Springs, OH, 11am-9pm Sun-Sat).  This is a working farm.  I would not go for the food, and the ice cream isn’t even that amazing when you have Jeni’s in Columbus, but it’s just slightly out of your way to Columbus if you’re looking to soak up Midwest wholesomeness – ice cream shop, cheese store, little ones can feed the goats, older ones can do the batting cage and mini golf. 

• Yellow Springs, Ohio.  If you’re headed to Young’s Dairy Farm, this is a small hippie village/enclave in a sea of Deep Red you can swing by.  Home of Antioch College, bohemian/eclectic shops and restaurants.  Oddly enough, this is where comedian Dave Chapelle is based (his dad was dean of Antioch College at some point).

Ohio Amish Country (Millersburg, Sugarcreek, Berlin – about 90-120 mins NE of Columbus). 

This is out of the way for you guys, especially since it’s the opposite direction of Dayton, but I wanted to toss this out in case you wanted to expose your kids to something very antithetical to modern American life.  I took Ty for a half day stop here a few years ago when we were driving back from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati.  He had a friend who was into Weird Al, so we got to see “Amish Paradise” up close.  Note everything is closed Sundays for obvious reasons.  I had Ty look for the horse & buggies.

• Heini’s Cheese Chalet (6005 Co Hwy 77, Millersburg, OH.  M-Sat 9am-5pm).  Cheese galore.  They make cheese onsite and do free samples of cheese, jams, Amish things.]
• Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center (5798 County Road 77, Millersburg, OH.  M-F 9am-5pm, Sat 9am-4pm).  Took 30 min tour of the one room school house, learned how they worship.  I was quite moved (Ty doesn’t have much attention span, of course), I learned a lot about Amish culture.
• World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock (corner of Main Street & Broadway, Sugarcreek, OH.  9am-9pm Apr-Nov.  Every half hour, a cuckoo bird pops out and you hear Swiss polka music playing as the band and dancing couples emerge from the clock.  Dorky but if you’re going to Amish country, you have to go all in. 
• Amish baked goods – Supposedly butter is the reason why Amish baked goods taste so good.  We got some cinnamon rolls from Esther’s Home Bakery & Cafe (115 E Main Street, Sugarcreek, OH.  M-Sat 8am-5pm) a few steps from World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock and they were really good.
• Der Dutchman (4967 Walnut Street, Walnut Creek OH.  M-Sat 7am-8pm) – Amish style lunch with comfort foods like fried chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh-baked pies.

Only in Columbus

• Red, White & Boom!  Weds July 3 Independence Day fireworks celebration.  Genoa Park 303 West Broad Street.  You’ll be there during Fourth of July celebrations and it’s the biggest Independence Day fireworks show in the Midwest.  Cincinnati does Riverfest over Labor Day weekend, likely to not compete w/ fireworks at the state capital =).

• Buckeyes – named after the state tree of Ohio.  It’s a peanut butter center dipped in chocolate, leaving a small circle of peanut butter visible, similar to the buckeye nut.

• Ice Cream.  We are spoiled in Ohio with super premium ice cream between Jeni’s Ice Cream (based in Columbus) and Graeter’s (based in Cincinnati).  Lots of locations.  Try them both =):

• Jeni’s – known for seasonal (sometimes unusual) flavor combinations, so you have to see what’s available when you get there.  I like Brown Butter Almond Brittle, which is available year round.  Sometimes during the summer, they have a Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam that I really like.

• Graeter’s – supposedly Oprah’s favorite, super-duper premium ice cream, French pot method, chocolate chips that are more like chunks.  They are known for Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip.  I like the regular Vanilla Chocolate Chip.  You can buy buckeyes here too, the chocolate covered peanut butter balls popular for their resemblance to the buckeye nut of the state tree.

Only in Cincinnati – these are things I reco for Cincinnati visitors.  Maybe you might see in Columbus, I’m not sure.

• Skyline Chili for Cincinnati chili.  Get the 3 way (chili over spaghetti with loads of cheddar cheese).  I do not like Cincinnati chili, it’s Greek inspired, runnier, and has cinnamon notes in it, but people swear by it.  Cincinnati-born Zach and Ty both ask for it occasionally.

• Goetta, sort of like breakfast sausage.  Like scrapple but a German-inspired peasant food of ground meat and steel cut oats to stretch out servings of meat.  Something like 99% of goetta is consumed in the metro Cincinnati area – I’ve never seen it anywhere else, but if you see it offered at a Columbus area diner, give it a go =).