Shaking Things Up in Columbus

Friday (which is typically our day for fun adventures), we decided to try someplace new. We pass through Columbus on the way to visit our family in North Vernon, and I've been eying the Kids Commons for a while now.

We started like many adventure days with breakfast at Sophia's. That way everyone gets a big full belly and we don't have to worry about getting food when we get there.

It's probably a little more than 30 minutes away but totally worth the drive just for this badboy.....

It's a huge tower climbing structure. I know it looks dangerous but it's designed so they can't fall (or if they do they will just fall to the step below them).

When I was a kid this used to be the Commons mall and now it's no longer a mall, but they remodeled part of the building and use it for events and conferences and whatnot. The mall always did have what I thought was a cool indoor playground but when I was a kid it did not include this tower thing.

I didn't know what I was missing. 

Look at all the different designs of these types of 'climbers'. Some of them are so cool!

 (Note the Columbus courthouse in the background. Maybe I should send this pic to their board of tourism?)

Aside from the tower the rest of the playground is pretty cool too. In the hot summer months we are always looking for cool free places to blow off steam and play. This just made it to the top of the list.

I was content to stay in the playground are all day but had made the mistake of telling Tessa there was a children's museum across the street. She talked me into it.

We are pretty darn spoiled with our regular Children's Museum (the largest in the world!) so this place seemed pretty small and a little overpriced, but it was fun. After a large school group left we were the only ones there for a long time.

There was a bubble zone but the bubbles kept popping. I think they need to work on their bubble recipe.

The giant toilet slide was pretty darn cool. Yes you climb down in and it 'flushes' you into a slide that takes you down a story. Charley would NOT do it. I think he thought it was a real toilet. All the pleading in the world wouldn't make him change his mind.

There was a little athletic area up top with some games and equipment, where Tessa got buff.

I think the museum guide guy felt like he needed to entertain us since we were there all alone, so he shot off some alka seltzer rockets in film canisters in the alley. That was pretty fun but I didn't get any pictures. He kept trying to shoot them onto the roof, and succeeding. He told the kids to try it at home and I had to chime in and add that we don't OWN any film canisters, or film for that matter. Perhaps we can improvise.

All in all it was a great day down south and a good change of scenery.