Thanksgiving in Ohio

Hey there!

I’m back in Austin after a week of exploring Ohio with Nate. His immediate family doesn’t live there, but it’s where he was born, went to undergrad and law school, and where lots of his extended family lives. So we decided to spend the whole week there to explore the state and enjoy the cold weather!

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First stop: Bill’s Donut Shop, a 50-something-year-old shop with theeee best donuts!

 

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We went to a Bengals game on Sunday. This was my first NFL game (and something I’ve been wanting to check off my list!) and I had sooo much fun, even though I was freezing cold by the end!

 

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We drank Rhingeist beer and ate Gold Star chili coneys and sat FREEZING in the cold while we cheered for the Bengals! I felt like I was fitting into Ohio pretty well…

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Reppin’ the Bengals! 😉

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The Bengals didn’t play so well and lost the game…so sad. But at least I got to experience an NFL game for the first time! Ha. Can you tell I’m a bandwagon football fan?

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After Cincinnati, we drove to Columbus to visit the city where Nate went to law school. We stopped for some caffeine at an excellent coffee shop in the Short North: One Line Coffee.

Sweater + Book + Coffee + Cold Weather = THEEE coziest!

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Nate showed me around the Ohio State University campus and the building where he attended law school. I love being able to glimpse into those memories of his.

Oh my gosh. Y’all. I’ve heard about Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for years now on instagram and blogs. I’m telling you that it did not disappoint. So much yum packed into one little store! I went with salted peanut butter with chocolate flecks and gooey butter cake. Hey Jeni’s: Austin needs you to put in a shop on South Congress, ok?

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We walked up and down the shops on High Street and grabbed a couple ornaments to bring back home to Texas.

This weather had me feeling so Christmas-y the whole week!

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This book store  in German Village is officially one of my favorites. My one, sad, lonely picture isn’t doing a very good job showing how cute this place really is!

The 32-room store is packed with the smell of books! There’s a map showing how to get around (I got lost once or twice..) and arrows pointing in directions up-and-down various flights of stairs to help customers find a certain genre.

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While we were in Columbus, we stopped at the house my grandparents lived in about 50 years ago with my mom her two sisters. They were the original owners then, and my grandpa asked us to take a picture so he could see what it looks like now. Still beautiful!

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I had to stop and take some pictures of these pretty trees while walking through Victorian Village. They’re beautiful! I have a lot of good things to say about Austin, but I’ll confess that we don’t get these gorgeous fall colors. They were stunning.

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After Columbus, we drove further East to Athens, OH, the little town where Nate went to college. OU is Ohio’s first university, and it’s over 200 years old and beautiful! I had so much fun wandering through the brick-lined streets and hearing Nate’s college stories.

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The town is teeny tiny, so we were able to walk down the main streets of downtown before we got too cold and went to share a few flights at Jackie O’s, a local brewery in Athens, OH. I love these Ohio shaped serving boards!

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Since Nate was in ROTC in college, he had plenty of memories of early morning runs in the frigid air. I told him I could relate with my memories of walking in the snow to swim practice in the dark morning hours. Then we both agreed we’re happy to be living in Texas now. Ha.

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The actual Thanksgiving holiday was spent in Dayton, OH with a bunch of his immediate and extended family members. I seriously had the best time getting to know all of these people who will be party of my family when Nate and I get married in just a few months!

We prepared for the feast by eating pizza the day before Thanksgiving. #smartmove

I had no idea that “Dayton-style pizza” was a thing, but Marion’s Pizza is famous for their thin crust pizza that’s cut into little-bitty squares. This pizza is dangerous because the pieces are so tiny, you can’t keep track of how much you’ve eaten!

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And for our final meal in Ohio, we ate at Skyline Chili, which everyone told me I had to try. In case you don’t know this (I didn’t…), Cincinnati chili is a whole thang. It’s not like the typical chili I would expect, which is thick of beef and almost like a stew, served with corn chips and cheese. Cincinnati chili is thin, sweet (with what I think is nutmeg and cinnamon), and layered on top of a pile of spaghetti (weird, I know!) and a HUGE pile of shredded cheese on top. This is 3-way chili, and you can choose to make it 4-way by adding either beans or onions, or 5-way by adding beans and onions. Everyone has their own opinion about which way is best, and they all seem to be pretty passionate about it! Haha.

I chose 4-way with beans. I never thought I’d be eating chili, spaghetti, and beans all on the same plate… It was actually pretty good 🙂

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Thanksgiving was such a blast this year. I’m grateful to have experienced this part of the country with my fiancé. I love hearing his stories and memories from the years before we knew each other. And I’m especially thankful to be building more memories together!

Hope today is wonderful!

Kelsey

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7 years ago

[…] would wander. Part of that could be due to the fact that I was reading it on a plane at 10 pm on our way home Ohio last month and I was super […]

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2 years ago

[…] goodbye, and went to go cheer on our team! (By the way, bundling up for this game reminded me of this freeeeezing cold NFL game Nate and I attended back when we were engaged! Brr.) I wore pretty much all of my cold weather gear that I’ve purchased for various cold […]

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