This was an awesome summer weekend!
Manfriend was away at a Bachelor Party so Evelyn and I lived it up and utilized all of the summer happenings in Columbus. This also happened to be one of my most wished-for weekends of the summer getting everybody revved up for my absolute favorite July 4th festivities.
ComFest (officially Community Festival) is a large, free, non-corporate, volunteer-driven, music and arts annual festival held the last full weekend in June at Goodale Park. Free the nipples, people puffin’ in the park, you’ll see a little bit of everything kind of festival, right in the heart of Downtown Columbus, but never without drama and this year it came in the form of rain.
Friday
Friday began per usual, getting the 4-year-old off to camp at Wellington, hitting the gym and getting as much work completed before my mini is back under-foot.
That evening I shipped Evelyn off to my Grandparents for a “slumber party.” It rained allllllll day Friday, so Evelyn was glad for the change of scenery. The rain also lead to the cancellation of Comfest for the first time since I can remember!
I got invited on a girl date, by a girl I met on the internet, who also lovingly refers to me as ‘The Craig’s List Killer.’ I have the best of friends, really.
It was a big weekend of doing things for the first time, I am somewhat ashamed to admit I’ve never done. Beginning with a tour of Middle West Spirits, one of my favorite distilleries in town. My Dad rocks a Middle West Spirits t-shirt proudly, because I am pretty sure he was one of the first tours to go through years ago before it was even trendy. Middle West Spirits is at every event I go to, adorns my liquor shelf, I even randomly met the sweetest employee of theirs, Molly, at Brother’s Drake one night!
I am proud to say I am not longer a Middle West Spirits Virgin and cannot wait for their kitchen/restaurant to open in approximately 6-8 weeks! I also highly recommend the tour/tasting if you’ve never done it.
After touring Middle West Spirits we hopped over to another Short North staple but another first for me, Hubbard Grille. After some initial confusion and awkwardness…. man slamming glasses, I’m looking at you! Our waitress made a strong recovery with quick cocktails and on point recommendations. I know I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I love a recommendation and when the waitress was firm in her insistence that I order the pork chop instead of the gnocchi I obliged and immediately began to fear I’d be plagued with the dreaded food regret.
Waitress was on point! If you go to Hubbard Grille order the pork chop and the brussel sprouts.
Pro Tip: Swap out the mashed potatoes for grits when you order the pork chop.
Saturday
Saturday started out strong with another first, Hot Chicken Takeover!
I know, I’m embarrassed. I literally cannot believe this tasty chicken has somehow evaded me for the past four years.
Hot Chicken Takeover was everything it is rumored to be and more! I’m going to devote an entire post to sharing photos and tidbits of all the fun facts I learned about Joe DeLoss and how he got started frying chicken.
Pro Tip: Go to Hot Chicken Takeover and order the banana pudding. Dead. Serious.
Saturday afternoon, Evelyn and I headed down to Comfest. It was her fourth, she’s been every year since she was born. I hope to continue this tradition with her for years and years to come.
The kid is seriously so cool and she doesn’t even know it yet.
If you watched my Instagram videos Saturday you saw Evelyn used her Shimmer & Shine magic powers to help get us a front row spot and it was an awesome day from there on out.
We hung with our favorite Comfester and Evelyn’s favorite person, Eat Play Cbus. Who is Super Nanny and can always be counted on for a solid play sesh, reason number 3,456,349 Evelyn loves Megan!
I also finally got to meet Laurie in real life. She follows the blog, so technically she is another follower who I am going to begin hanging out with way too much for meeting on the internet. I seriously have the best followers and the best online friends, HA! Don’t ask us how we really know each other…
Ok, I’ll spill it, I’m never one to keep secrets. We dated the same guy, not at the same time thankfully, many many moons ago and it didn’t go well for either of us, which are always the most fun conversations, when everything is hindsight! 🙂
Sunday
I love productive Sundays. Thank God for Grandparents because they are the only reason I ever get stuff done. Poppy, CiCi and Evelyn went on a bike ride through Park of Roses while I cleaned, grocery shopped, food prepped and covered the house in divine smelling eucalyptus.
I took a nod from Jan who runs Spicy Salty Sweet Home Blog, who always shares about restocking her eucaluptus weekly because it smells so good. It has been on my list since I went to her house and fell in love with the smell and decor. I finally got around to stopping at Trader Joe’s for the $2.99 bundle….cannot be beat! The smell of fresh eucalyptus all over your house cannot be beat either.
Pro Tip: Start Following Spicy Salty Sweet Home and doing everything Jan says!
My Brother visits at the end of the week, we have a Family wedding and a full schedule stocked with Fourth of July festivities beginning later this week and into next.
July 4th is my FAVORITE Holiday. It is also my 15 year High School reunion… are you shocked, I’m that old? I know me too….!
Some more great Summer days are definitely in store.
