The Big Four-Oh, Part 2: Our Anniversary Get-Away

     ...Continued from yesterday:   
     As our 40th anniversary approached it did occur to Tom and me that we probably should  do something special, different, whatever, to celebrate the occasion. 
      After we'd stormed our brains a little Tom came up with the idea of spending our anniversary weekend at our new favorite fall-back get-away, the Berlin Resort in Amish Country.

     But alas, by the time I tried to make a reservation - about a week out from the date - The Berlin Resort was all booked up for the weekend.  It hadn't occurred to me that our anniversary would be falling over the long President's Day weekend or that Amish country would be such a popular President's Day weekend destination.
      That same day, however, I found amongst my emails a Groupon for a Top Secret Hotel deal, the gist of which was that one could get a room in a 3.5 star hotel somewhere in the Columbus area at an inexpensive price, but one was required to commit to paying for the room in advance before one would find out  which hotel one was committing to or where in Columbus the hotel was located.  In a flash of inspiration I thought, why not have our anniversary get-away here in Columbus?  After all, there's plenty to do around town and we could stay at the 3.5 star Top Secret Hotel for cheap.
       Tom liked the idea so I booked a room for two nights, Thursday and Friday (our anniversary was Sunday, but this was close enough, we figured), at the Top Secret Hotel,

..which turned out to be The Crowne Plaza North off 161 and Busch Boulevard on  the  north side of Columbus.
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      So Thursday evening after my last lesson of the day we headed off to our anniversary get-away at The Crowne Plaza North.

The lobby

   Our room

     After we were settled in we set out for dinner.  Since we were situated on the north side of town and not too far from the Ohio State University District, we decided to go to the Blue Danube,

...the popular 77-year-old OSU student hang-out known as "The Dube" among its many aficionadi.

     The portions being double-sized and all the entrees including two sides,

...we split an order of Chicken Parmesan - delicious!

...and for the two sides we ordered two equally yummy salads.

     After dinner we swung by a Tim Horton's on our way back to the hotel for a couple of doughnuts, a doughnut always being a great dessert to top off any meal (or so say we doughnut-lovers).
     The next morning, as I'd spotted a Waffle House down the block from our hotel and never having been to a Waffle House before, I requested that we have breakfast there,

...which we did.

    The place was crowded for a Friday morning, I thought,

..but friendly, some in the crowd appearing to be regulars as they chatted and joked with the waitstaff.

     Tom ordered a Western  Omelette with hashbrowns,

...while I had my usual sunnyside-up eggs that for some reason came with a double-order of hashbrowns.  I did not complain, though, as those hashbrowns   were very good, nice and crispy on the outside.

     But though Tom and I both liked what we ordered, by the time we left I had the feeling that we'd actually missed the boat at this Waffle House, as I noticed that almost all of the customers ordered waffles as their meal or with their meal, which gave me the feeling that we probably should have done so, too.
      Still, our breakfast, though perhaps not the specialty of the house, was sufficient to fuel us through our morning activity,

...a visit to the Columbus Historical Society.

       (Anybody remember Spoolies?)

...where we learned, among other things, that:

...there were no dinosaurs in Ohio;

...70% of large mammal species in North America died during the Ice Age,

...if life on Earth were compressed into a 12-hour clock we humans have only been here, like, half a second,

...and, most surprising, the house we used to live in at 654 Maplewood Avenue in Whitehall, which we bought from the widow of  previous Whitehall mayor Walter Moling,

...was mentioned in an Ohio history book.

      After we'd spent several hours touring the museum it was time for a lunch break. 
      For lunch we chose another North Side Columbus spot place we'd never been to but had heard of,

...which was likewise quite crowded for a Friday afternoon.

      Tom had the beef and noodles, which he liked,

...while I had the House Salad, which I also liked after I scraped off the bacon.

     After lunch we headed back to the University Area to the Gateway Film Center,

...where we saw, in a small theater with the world's most comfortable state-of-the art reclining movie seats,

...the wonderful, heart-gripping movie "Moonlight." (If you go to see it, bring Kleenex).

    After the movie we walked around the Ohio State campus area,    

..busy with the Friday afternoon crowds,

...and Happy Hour-goers.

     We walked around the beautiful  campus for a bit,

...then visited the Carmen Herrera exhibit at the Wexner Center for the Arts.

    There was another exhibit as well, which consisted of a 2,000 lb. glass and metal sculpture so constructed that one could easily swivel the piece around on its axis.

    After our visit to The Wexner Center we walked back to the Gateway,

...then for dinner returned to The Blue Danube (see yesterday's post),

...where this time we split an order of yummy Chicken and Rice,

...and should have split a dessert, but didn't.

   Tom had a huge slice of the Mile-High Chocolate Cake,

..while I had the most awesome and equally huge slice of Cherry Crunch Pie.

     However I must admit that the size of our desserts did not keep either one of us from polishing them off to the crumb, I suppose to the shock of our waitress, who exclaimed as she removed our plates, "Wow, you guys finished those desserts all up!"
      Now, granted, it probably was pretty unbelievable that we ate up those massive desserts, still I hate it when a waitperson expresses disbelief or even makes any comment or observation at all on the fact that I've cleaned my plate.  It makes me feel like normal people don't clean their plates, and I imagine the waitperson hurrying back to the kitchen to announce:  "Hey, everybody, c'mere, look out into the the room, see that lady  at that table six?  She cleaned up that whole whopping piece of pie!" 
     (Sigh).  Next time we're ordering one dessert and two spoons.
     To be continued...