What we’re about
Welcome to GOhio! Adventures Around Columbus. We do fun, interesting, or off-the-beaten-path activities throughout greater Columbus and central Ohio.
GOhio! is free and will remain so as long as I'm the organizer. You will never have to pay any sort of fee to be a member of this group.
All of our events will always be open to everyone. We never segregate events by age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religious belief, or class.
The ages of GOhio! members range from college age to late 70s. Anyone can join GOhio! and everyone is welcome to.
Thanks for stopping by, and send me a DM if you have any questions.
--Eric
Featured event
Happy 8th Birthday, GOhio! @ Pins Mechanical!!! 🎂 🎈 🍨 🎁 💐 🧁 🎉 🥳 🍰 🪅 📅
GOhio! turns 8!! 🥳 Come celebrate with us at Pins Mechanical! 😄
Summary
Pins Mechanical Co. is a social entertainment venue that combines old-school games like duckpin bowling, pinball, and other classic arcade and table games with craft cocktails, local beers, and punch. The vintage-industrial atmosphere is designed for playful, face-to-face gatherings with friends, family, and colleagues, offering a casual and lively alternative to a typical bar.
Pins' Easton location spans over 38,000 square feet, making it the largest in the United States. This massive entertainment venue features two floors, a mezzanine level with stadium seating, and three full-service bars. It offers 16 duckpin bowling lanes, two indoor bocce courts, and more than 60 classic and modern pinball and arcade games. For additional fun, the location is known for its two outdoor patios, an indoor slide, and an expanded patio pong setup.
Activities
As noted below, some machines take actual quarters. Pins has two change machines (one downstairs and one upstairs) that accept ones, fives, or tens (only), and return quarters (only).
- Duckpin Bowling
Like Bowling but with smaller balls, stubby pins, and no oil on the lanes. The cost is $9 per game per person.
- Pinball
Who's a wizard on these retro machines? At $1 per play, everyone! Takes quarters.
- Arcade
Play classics like Gorf, Pac-Man, Gorf, Donkey Kong, Gorf, Galaga, and Gorf! The best part is, there's Gorf! And all the arcade games are free!
- Patio Pong
The classic college party staple but bigger. Instead of tossing a ping pong ball into cups, you use a regular ball and oversized buckets. There are two of these upstairs, and they're both free!
- Ping Pong
The most popular sport in China! They have two ping pong tables downstairs and two more ping pong tables upstairs. For those of you who have studied topological spaces and set theory, you will know this means they have four total ping pong tables.
They have bubble gum dispensers with ping pong balls in them for 25¢ each. The dispensers take quarters. However, they also have racks where they store the ping pong paddles, and in these racks are slots for ping pong balls. It's not uncommon to see balls already here, so there's a chance you may be able to play ping pong for free if you want to.
- Hookie
You can't put your eye out! The safe alternative to darts: Hook thrown rings on a board. Outdoors on the upstairs patio, and free!
- Bocce
Like bowling, except there’s turf and a lot more balls. You can also knock your opponent’s balls out of the way. There are two of these upstairs, and they're both free!
- Foosball
Everyone loves foosball! 50¢ a game. Takes quarters.
- Giant Jenga
Stack massive wooden blocks into a tower, then take turns pulling out one block at a time without collapsing the tower. There are four of these sprinkled throughout the venue (two downstairs and two upstairs, with one on each patio), and they're all free!
- Skeeball
There are three skeeball machines on the first floor (near the Gorf machine!), and they're all free!
- Giant Connect Four
On the outdoor patio upstairs, and free!
- Bubble Hockey
This is upstairs. Up to four people can play at once, and it costs $1. Takes quarters.
- Cornhole
There are two cornhole lanes upstairs, and they're both free!
- Basketball
There are two basketball machines downstairs. They're tucked behind the downstairs bar, so they're not always obvious unless you go look for them. They're $2 per play, and they take quarters.
- NES and Sega Genesis video games
These are collections, downstairs (near the Gorf machine!), of video games that you can play for free!
- The Big Metal Indoor Slide
This large two-story slide is for kids, and certainly no adults would ride this. After all, it's not like it's free or anything.
Outdoor Patio
Pins at Easton actually has two outdoor patios. But for our purposes, only the upstairs one matters. See, it will be winter and likely cold. But their upstairs patio has multiple ceiling heaters and two massive gas fire pits that put out a ton of heat. Sitting out here may be a real option.
As mentioned above, the upstairs outdoor patio has one of the venue's two Patio Pong setups, one of their multiple Giant Jengas, the Giant Connect Four, and Hookie.
Food
Pins doesn't serve food, but there's a Mikey's Late Night Slice next door. This Mikey's is basically an extension of the Easton Pins; there's a large open doorway between both establishments. Mikey's has a fountain dispenser with Coke products.
You can also get Coke and Diet Coke (but not Coke Zero, like you can at Mikey's) at the bars in Pins, but I think the quality of the soda pop from Mikey's fountain is better than that from the bar hoses Pins uses to dispense soft drinks.
You are also quite allowed at Pins to either bring food in or order it in via your favorite delivery app.
Parking
I recommend parking in the Worth Garage. It's literally right next door to Pins, and it's free as long as you park on Level 2 or above.
They recently started charging people to park on Level 1, and you pay for parking on this level the same way you pay for street parking in Columbus, with the ParkColumbus app.
I've seen them enforce this by ticketing people's cars, but I don't know how they actually compel payment. The garage is not a public street that actual cops can write you tickets for parking illegally on. If you have an actual ticket from a cop that you don't pay, they can go so far as to issue a warrant for your arrest. But all Easton has, seemingly, is, "Please pay our ticket." Still, in my ongoing efforts to eliminate needless stress and aggravation from my life, I just park above the first Level.
The actual address of the garage is 4049 Worth Ave, Columbus, OH 43219. However, your GPS is stupid. The actual entrances to the garage are on the cross steets Brighton Rose Way and Fenlon St, not Worth Ave. Just keep this in mind once you get to the garage.
Where we'll meet
I'll post in the comments where I am. People will obviously want to explore different areas of the venue over the course of the event (and there's a lot to explore), but please just let me know (as in, come find me) once you've arrived.
Peroration
Come on out and say hi! 😄
Upcoming events
17
Saturday Board Games! ♟️ 🎯 🚉 🎲 🎴 ♥️ ♠️ 👾
Crooked Can Brewing Co., 5354 Center St, Hilliard, OH, USThis week's Saturday Board Games! will have a Special Guest Host: Krista! 🙂
So please bring any and all of your own games that you wish to play! And say hi and thank you to Krista when you see her! She is making this week's event possible! 😄
--Eric
* * *
We'll play various and sundry board games at Crooked Can Brewing! The brewery has extensive food options, a good amount of space, and a large (free) parking lot.4 attendees
Wildlights
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, 4850 W Powell Rd, Powell, OH, USHistory
Wildlights began in 1988 as "Wildlight Wonderland," a smaller-scale effort to boost winter attendance at the Columbus Zoo. Before the event started, December was a slow month for the zoo, with as few as 1,000 visitors in the first week. The inaugural display featured 100,000 to 150,000 white lights around the lake, successfully drawing 12,000 people and establishing a new holiday tradition.
The event quickly grew in size and popularity, adding more lights and new attractions over the years. Early improvements included increasing the number of lights to 200,000 in the second year and adding animal-themed light sculptures. By 2006, the event fully transitioned to LED lights, paving the way for a massive expansion in the scale and creativity of the displays. This change allowed the zoo to grow its display to millions of colorful lights. The event has evolved to include themed animated shows, like the Holiday Magic light show over Conservation Lake, and new immersive experiences.
Today, Wildlights attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each season, becoming a Central Ohio holiday staple. Each year, the event continues to add new attractions, like the 2024 Yule Tide Boat Ride on Dino Island. The modern version of Wildlights also incorporates special features to enhance the guest experience, such as meet-and-greets with holiday characters like Rudolph and sensory-friendly viewing nights. Throughout its history, Wildlights has continued to expand, adding new elements while creating a cherished winter tradition for the community.
Summary
Except for the Congo and Africa regions, most of the Zoo is scheduled to be open and appointed with various Christmas decorations.
The Dinosaur Island Boat Ride, Zoo Train Ride, and Grand Carousel are also supposed to be open and in a state of appropriate Yuletide cheer, weather permitting. Gold members can ride the rides for free; otherwise, they're $3 or $4, depending on the ride and whether you're a Zoo member.
S'mores and Frosted Nuts will be available at both Wild Burger and the Congo Food Court.
There's also supposed to be a new, "immersive" light display this year in Adventure Cove. Perhaps the Zoo is trying to make everyone forget just how uncomfortable of a roller coaster the Tidal Twist is. 😆
Where we'll meet
If you've never been the Zoo before, they have "red" and "blue" parking lots that are really both equidistant from the main gate. I generally park in the red lot, but and time- and distance-wise, they're really the same.
After you've parked, the Zoo has a security gate that you just walk through while they scan you for nuclear bombs and things like that. Then there's a second gate, inside the first security gate, where you'll either give them your ticket (which you can buy either online, or at one of the ticket windows on-site), or where they'll scan the membership QR code on your phone if you're a Zoo member.
Just inside this second entry gate is a big fountain with a large metal globe over it. We'll meet by this fountain.
Restrooms and water fountains
You can't walk five feet at the Zoo without bumping into another set of restrooms and water fountains. When kids need to pee, they need to pee, and the Columbus Zoo is a family-friendly place.
The restrooms also all have paper towels and not those stupid hand dryers. When kids need to have their faces wiped, they need their faces wiped.
There are even restrooms outside the second gate before you even officially enter the Zoo. I'm telling you, someone did some good planning on this place.
Tickets / pricing
Zoo entry is $26 for residents of Franklin County, and $36 otherwise. Parking is $10.
If you're a Zoo member, though, this is all free.
"Should I buy a membership?"
Probably. If you go even twice a year, the membership pays for itself.
I will always run at least one event a year at the Columbus Zoo. This event will actually be my second at the Zoo for 2025.
After the presents are opened
After absorbing all the holiday cheer and electromagnetic radiation that the Zoo has to offer, we'll charge over to the positively rated Nocterra Brewing, which is about five minutes away from the Zoo. The brewery has a food truck that has burgers, fries, chicken, pretzels, and grilled cheese.
The actual address of the brewery is 41 Depot St, Powell, OH 43065. Come out and join us even if you can't make the Zoo (but feel appropriate guilt if you don't).33 attendees
Past events
440
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