Our Weekend In Ohio

My husband didn't have to preach last Sabbath (9/29/07) and he wanted to take the family somewhere special. We always enjoy visiting different zoos and therefore look for places that aren't too far from where we live. We had talked about going to the Columbus Zoo in years past, but never quite got around to making the trip. That is, until last weekend. We had a fun-filled day that Sunday. We saw lots of animals and learned some new things along the way. For me, the highlight of the day was getting a chance to feed the Rainbow Lorikeet birds. Lorikeets are birds found in Australia. They're related to cockatoos and parrots. If you are lucky to live near a zoo where a lorikeet exhibit is available, make plans to buy a bit of nectar so you can feed them. They are tame and quite fun to watch as the eat right out of your hand-- well, sort of. (You'll know what I mean when you take a look at the pictures).

On Sabbath, we started out at Deleware State Park. This is where we ate our lunch and then took a walk down by the lake afterwards. We also drove around the park a bit to see what else we might like to do. However, there really wasn't much else to do there, seeing that we didn't have our own boat and we weren't camping there. So, we decided to head back toward Columbus to try another park we'd seen on the way.

Highbanks Metro Park is in Lewis Center, OH. It's a beautiful park! They offer seven different hiking trails, ranging from easy, moderate and difficult. There are two large picnic areas with tables, grills and shelters. There's two playgrounds, horseshoe courts and an area for volleyball. The Nature Center is especially neat. Just outside of the rear doors you step out onto a boardwalk that leads to an observation deck. That deck connects to Overlook Trail. Due to time constraints however, we had to choose a shorter trail. The park closed at dusk and we didn't arrive there until a couple hours before sunset. By the time we were done in the Nature Center it was too late to take a long trail.

If you enjoy being out in nature and you're in that area of Ohio, be sure and stop by for a visit. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. We were a little sorry that we didn't stop at this park first. Next time we will. [smile]

If you'd like to see pictures of our short trip, click here. It will open up a new page (give it a moment to download) where you can view the scrapbook that I put together of our special family weekend.