The one time I have visited Columbus, Ohio, it was because my wife had a conference there, and I just went along for the ride. I will never forget it; the hotel was the downtown Hilton, and it was glass-sided on at least three sides, facing west, so every room had amazing views of the city.

One interesting thing about that trip was, one of the other participants, from a small town about an hour west of Savannah, refused to fly, so he drove all the way there. We had just pulled up in front of the hotel in our cab, and guess who pulled in behind us? Randy, in his pickup truck! I could not believe the timing. Of course, he had left the day before we flew up. Still, that was quite a coincidence.

We had a corner room – No. 711, easy to remember – which pointed west, with window views on both the north and south sides as well. Marvelous views from the 7th floor!

We were just west of the city center, as I recall, with much of downtown in walking distance nearby.

So while Anne was in classes, I got to explore the city. The waterfront was nearby, as was the state Capitol building. And an amazing park was north of town a bit, with a topiary garden, which I’d never seen before.

It had all the greenery pruned to resemble the scene and characters of a very famous Impressionist painting, “Picnic by the Seine” (river in France), I think by Claude Monet.

One could easily make out the characters (girl with parasol, ladies reclining on benches, etc.), the animals, etc. It was just amazing! It must have required quite a bit of constant pruning, especially in the spring.

I walked there from the old downtown area, but I caught a cab back to the hotel. It had turned out to be a longer walk than I’d realized, and I was tired by then. I got lunch at a diner downtown, then went down to the riverfront park, where I found a replica of one of Christopher Columbus’ three ships moored there.

I don’t remember what it cost to tour the ship, but the boat was small, and I wasn’t willing to pay that fee, so I just looked at it from the dock. I remember that downtown had gaps in it, where buildings used to be. It was an odd sight.

The state capitol building there was interesting, for two reasons. It had a large rotunda, where once had hung a huge stained-glass replica of the state seal.

That had been taken down during a renovation, some 20 or so years ago, boxed up and put in storage in the basement for the duration. But then they forgot about it! So it stayed in storage for a long time.

When it was later discovered, it was uncrated and hung again, but in the basement level, not the rotunda. It was still an impressive sight. I bought a round mousepad with the seal design on it, as a memento of that trip. (I still have it.)

The other interesting story about that state capitol was that it was the third one Ohio had. The first one was located in the upper half of the state, as that was where the population was centered at the time (1800’s). But over time, the population grew in the southern half of the state, so the capitol was later moved there.

Finally, the city of Columbus having grown substantially, and being in the center of the state, the city council got the state legislature to relocate the capitol one more time.

And gave them a $50,000 fee to do so, along with land for a new state prison nearby! Imagine that.

What an incentive. Of course, back then, $50,000 would have been quite a lot of money.

All in all, it was an interesting trip. Friendly people, interesting history.

I was just glad the conference had been scheduled for the spring, not the winter! They do get a lot of snow there, and us Georgia boys are just not up for that.

Rafe Semmes is a graduate of both Savannah High and the University of Georgia. He drives through Richmond Hill frequently from his home in Liberty County, which he shares with his wife and a number of cats.