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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Pool Fixes Everything

This was going to be entitled "The Columbus Arts Festival Ruined My Sunday", but the local pool saved the day.

We've been knee-deep in building our new bathroom, and Sunday was no exception. We wanted to get out, and we had an enormous decision to make. Possibly the biggest of our lives. The Arts Festival ... or the pool. Arts Festival. Pool. Arts ... well, you get the idea. We decided to brave it, and take the bus downtown to regale ourselves with the finest fine art that Columbus can assemble.

As we were getting to our stop, we caught sight of the north end side of a southbound bus. We missed it by about 45 seconds. No fear, right? The next one will be along soon ...

40 minutes later, the next one came. We brought a big thing of water and had the proper gear on, so the sweltery 90+ degree weather wasn't too overpowering. Just boring. The bus ride itself was nice enough - it is quite clear, though, that the only folks in Columbus that ride public transportation are the ones that have to. It's really inconvenient, not overly comfortable, and doesn't drop you all that near where you want to go (unless you're willing to wait even longer for a connection).

As we got off the bus, we realized that, in it's new location away from the river, the Arts Festival is (1) not nearly as close to the bus lines, (2) about 10 degrees hotter with the overabundance of asphalt, and (3) not all that well put together. We were pretty disappointed once we finally hiked all the way there.

So, salty at each other and our situation, we walked and Henry rode his bike back to the bus (sidenote: Henry had a great time with all this ... he had a peanut butter and jelly, some lemonade, and his bike ... pretty much a home run day for him). We decided that we would be going to the pool afterall.

And it was magical. Henry, who to now has only been marginally interested in the pool, jumped in and stayed in the whole time (we were there about two hours). We did alligators and motor boats in the baby pool. We did throws in the big pool (the higher I threw him, the more he liked it). We all had a blast.

And then we went back the next day. And today, I'm sure they're going again, even though I'll be unable to join them. Hopefully my hotel (in Philly) has a pool. I'm sure it won't be nearly the same though without Henry.