A day out

Saturday July 9
With the promise of a largely sunny day, and a little cooler than it has been, we went out for the day up to Dublin, Ohio, a town/suburb northwest of the city of Columbus, the State Capitol. It’s known for its big Irish festival in August, it has a couple of nearby waterfalls, a number of artworks, and is also home to the original Wendy’s hamburger store! We first visited Hayden Run Falls, on the west side of the Scioto River. Then we went into the attractive centre and walked up and down the Main Street, stopping in Starbucks for a coffee, and seeing a couple of sculptures (see extra collage). We crossed over the Dublin Link, a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the Scioto River, connecting Dublin's historic district and downtown on the west bank with the newer Bridge Street District, still being developed, on the east bank. (Top left and lower central pictures in the collage. The bridge was scheduled to open in a big ceremony on March 13, 2020, with a light show and live music. However, the event had to be cancelled for public safety amidst the developing COVID-19 pandemic. They finally held it belatedly earlier this year, though the bridge has been open for use in the meantime. After following a footpath along the river for a while, we crossed back across the bridge and visited Indian Run falls, lower left in this collage, a nice shady walk among the trees. We then returned to the car and visited some of the more outlying sights, starting with the Field of Corn, centre right photo. The installation consists of 109 concrete ears of corn, positioned in rows in a grassy field. It was commissioned by the Dublin Arts council, and sculpted by Malcolm Cochran,being completed in 1994. The display site was originally farmed by Sam Frantz, an inventor of several hybrid corn species, and the land was donated to the city in the late twentieth century. So the art installation is partly a tribute to him, and also to remind visitors of Dublin’s agricultural heritage.
Next was the Giant Dancing Hares in Ballantrae Park. Built on a hillock, overlooking a childrens Splash pad and pond, they are the work of English sculptor Sophie Ryder. Upon closer inspection you see many recycled household objects embedded in the metal sculpture, for example coins, knives, a pair of pliers, clips from clipboards, half a hair dryer, etc.!
Our final destination was the Chief Leatherlips monument in Scioto Park, built of native limestone slabs. Chief Leatherlips was a great Wyandot Indian chief, “a good friend of Indian and white man alike” reads the adjacent plaque. The white settlers called him Leatherlips because of “his admirable trait of never breaking a promise”. He was executed by tomahawk near this spot on the orders of his brother Roundhead, for being too friendly with the white settlers.
We rounded up our day with dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant. It had a beautiful outside patio, with flower containers all around, but unfortunately the food was somewhat disappointing, nowhere near as good as our favourite Mediterranean/Middle Eastern restaurant around here!
A great day out!
Step count: 12,032

Three more blips posted today - I’m catching up!