Whistles, Popcorn & Ice Cream

During the summer, finding things to do during the week can sometimes be tricky. The weekends are much easier with festivals, fairs and interesting events. After the normal places like parks, museums and libraries have been exhausted, what is left? Well, Ohio has many amazing businesses with interesting stories and accolades. Some of these businesses offer factory tours or history tours with delicious treats or cool souvenirs at the end.

Last year my nephew and I enjoyed the Anthony Thomas Factory tour. It was quick, informative and cheap. We were given a free chocolate Buckeye at the end and the modestly priced tickets doubled as vouchers that could be applied toward goodies to take home. Of course we took full advantage.

This year my goal was to make this summer with my nephew mostly about new experiences. So the last two weeks we started our adventures touring a few Ohio businesses that we had not before. The thing is, of three businesses visited, we only got one real tour. Here is the breakdown of our experiences.

The American Whistle Corporation

I can't say that this is the most exciting tour unless you have some kind of affinity for whistles but this is an important company not just to Ohio but to the United States. The company is the ONLY company in the United States that produces metal whistles. The competition is all overseas. They create whistles for the Columbus Police department, and bigger police departments like NYPD. They are even responsible for the whistles used in the Super Bowl. 

For $4 you are walked through the process of creating a whistle. The tour guide takes you from machine to machine, explaining how the machine works and holding up the product for each part of the process. If it's hot outside, expect it to be pretty hot in the factory as well. They also have a rule of no photography in the factory. At the end of the tour you are given a company whistle. At the giftshop you can buy accessories like lanyards or the gold whistle like the ones Super Bowl officials and referees receive as gifts.

Al's Delicious Popcorn 

Founded by a man named Al who has since passed away. Family friends took over the brand and have been running the business and developing new flavors ever since. 

At Al's, the tour is more like watching a video, then tasting a bunch of their 60+
popcorn flavors. You don't get to go behind the scenes; they show you the process and go over some of the company history through the video. We stopped being terribly disappointed after we started tasting popcorn. The guide selected several flavors for the group to taste and then allowed us to pick extra flavors to try. There didn't seem to be a cut off. We probably could have tasted everything if we wanted to. Flavors we tasted included, Bubble Gum, Root beer, Jellybean, Pizza, Mango and Columbus Mix (a mix of vanilla butternut and white cheddar). They offer small $1.25 and $1.50 bags if you want to continue your tasting at home. Which we did. Our favorites were kosher dill and butter pecan.

Graeter's Ice Cream 

The Graeter's have been making ice cream
 since 1868. The fourth generation is still very much involved in the business. They pride themselves with producing the ice cream as they did in the beginning, in a French pot. This process produces a denser ice cream whereas newer ways to produce ice cream allows more air in the cream.

If you have the 15 person minimum that gets you a personal tour guide, this guided tour is probably worth checking out. Otherwise, going to this location when you have a Graeter's up the street from you is kind of a waste in my opinion. The production has been shipped off to Cincinnati so the tour doesn't include getting to see anything being produced. It is just a hallway where a video can be viewed, you can read historical facts, view production photos and get a close up of old equipment. It's kind of cool if you are in the area but I can't say it's destination worthy. My nephew and I stopped in after our tour at Al's Delicious Popcorn. I would recommend visiting them both while in the area. Who can't appreciate popcorn and ice cream in the same day?

If you are interested in these tours and need more information, clink on the business name links.

Until next time,
Be blessed! Be free! Be adventurous!
Kris, 

The Cure To Boredom Part III / Exploring My City II

Exploring My City Part II

by Kristin 

The gallery in the Columbus Metropolitan Library

More than a few weeks ago, I posted about my adventures here in Columbus with my nephew. I was put in charge of entertaining and educating my nephew for two days each week while he is on summer break. Since the last post we have checked out a many places and learned many new things. Like a teacher, I created a lesson plan which included a list of places for me and my nephew/student to visit and the days in which we would visit them. After much research this list included the Anthony Thomas Factory, the North Market, the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and some of the traditional places like COSI and the Ohio History Center and Ohio Village. Today I will only cover a few places we visited. These are the places I found to be less covered in all of the sources I found on entertaining kids in the Columbus or entertainment for tourists in general. The sources listed places and ideas but 
sometimes I still had to come up with a way to make things a little more interesting and fun. Check out our latest adventures!



Columbus Metropolitan Library

Well, I know what you are thinking. Educational? Yes! Entertaining? Could be. There are books there and reading for children and adults is a great thing.  It's a library, why is that so special in terms of tourism? Well, it is within the largest 100 libraries in the country, it is a beautiful representation of Greek architecture and they have a beautiful small art gallery upstairs.  All my years of checking out books there and eating muffins from the little café cart, I never knew about the upstairs gallery until this past month. My nephew and I renewed our library cards, checked out a few books then spent some time looking at art in the gallery. The gallery featured some interesting pieces made from glass, book pages and fabric. To make a day of it, we got lunch up the street at Hills Market and ate our lunch behind the library at Topiary Park. 

 

Anthony Thomas Factory

I really loved the chocolate factory tour! The tickets were two dollars for adults and a dollar for my eleven year old nephew. We were given vouchers with those values to use toward a purchase at the end of the tour. There was no photography allowed in the factory because they produce chocolate for well known companies who outsource their work. While we were there, we saw them making Christmas candy for one of the names most of us have known since childhood. Here is a hint, rhymes with sticks! So when you see egg shaped Santa Clause chocolates filled with cookie and caramel this coming December, it was probably made at Anthony Thomas's Factory using the outsourced company's recipe. We walked through a glass catwalk over the workers where we could see everything being produced. The workers who weren't on high demand assembly lines waved and smiled at us as we passed. At the end of our tour we were given a free buckeye chocolate. Then most people strolled through the store to find a way to use their vouchers. No surprise, we were among them. Leaving the place twenty dollars lighter, we were excited about our chocolaty souvenirs.

The North Market

I recently introduced my nephew to the North Market. I grew up visiting the place. It is the place most people go when they can't find an ingredient they need for a recipe anywhere else. In fact it was the place I went to buy a special kind of goat cheese for my French cheese cake I made for a project for French class. I t was also the first place I tasted Jeni's ice cream. It is a great place to meet friends for breakfast, lunch or early dinner. Believe it or not it is also a great place to take kids. It can be a great cultural experience for a child with so many different foods from different countries. Most vendors offer samples.  Often there are large areas dedicated to sampling what the vendors sell. My nephew had a great time sampling salsas, sauces, popcorn and ice cream. Sounds like a stomach ache waiting to happen but it is a good time. After walking around the whole place, we settled on some Polish cuisine for lunch. That was something new for both of us. It was a gamble with us both trying something new but we really enjoyed the meal.

My summer with my favorite little guy is coming to an end. I have two weeks left with him before he goes back to school. Every week I looked forward to a new adventure with him and sometimes it felt like we jumped on a plane and went away for the day. There is so much to do and learn in the city we live in. While I love leaving to explore unknown territory elsewhere, I was surprised to get the same high and satisfaction from participating in activities in our own backyard. This was especially true when the destination or activity was just as new to me as it was to my nephew. There is so much to share and so little time so I will post my favorite places that I haven't covered soon. 

Until next time,
Be Blessed! Be free! Be Adventurous!