The next part of the journey I was in Virginia for a brief stop before heading to Ohio for a week. I went to visit the Sturgeon family for a couple of days and started getting into the Christmas spirit! My first night in town, Jennifer took me to a USO concert featuring Brantley Gilbert. She got the tickets by winning a lottery. It was a night full of treats! We took a bus from Fort Belvoir into DC. The concert was at the Forum and we drove right through downtown. DC at night was beautiful and I haven’t been there in ages. We were on one of four busses to the venue, and ours was chosen to get backstage passes to meet Brantley Gilbert! Included in our tickets were food and drink tokens. There were all kinds of “hidden” goodies and giveaways all night long. The Friends couch is on tour in the US right now, and it was at the concert. Then, there was the concert itself, which was fantastic!
Jennifer and I left together to head to Ohio for a Polish ladies reunion over a long weekend. Jennifer, Robin, Dana, and I met in Warsaw in 2015. I love these ladies dearly and even though we don’t see each other as much as we’d like – we all keep each other sane. Most of the time… Great friendships don’t know time or distance, they’re just always there. Needless to say, a wonderful weekend ensued!
Robin booked us a food tour that was one of the best I’ve ever done. We spent the day in Colombus, eating and drinking and being merry. It all started at the North Market.
Dumplings 
Forno’s Pizza 
Jeni’s Ice Cream
I’ll start by saying ALL of the food was fantastic. The first several stops were in the North Market. Then we ventured out into the city to a few other restaurants. We had a fried chicken sandwich at Hot Chicken Takeover, cheese at the Black Radish Creamery, pretzels at Omega, dumplings at Momo Ghar, a trip to the spice shop, a breakfast bowl at the Guild House, pizza at Forno’s, and then ice cream at Jeni’s. We did not go home hungry. Here are some more pics from the day.
The rest of our weekend we spent laughing, talking, watching Hallmark movies, and catching up. Robin and Blaine hosted us at their beautiful home, so were we all spoiled by the time we left. I’m already looking forward to the next reunion. Hopefully it won’t be so long!
There’s going to be a part two of Ohio….