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Dayton, Ohio
Racing on you got the wrong one, wrong one
If I was a plane (I’m not in case you were wondering), I’d probably want to fly with my mouth closed to avoid all of the bugs, geese and wind getting sucked into my face hole. But since I’m not a plane, I can admire other planes who do not care about such matters. And if I wanted to see even more planes, I would be in luck since there are a lot to see here at the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, perhaps the best reason to visit Dayton and reason enough alone to consider a trip to Ohio itself.
Ohio is a big state, but not so big that you can’t hop from city to city to see things (it would be an awesome place for high speed rail, if such a thing were to ever happen in this country). We’ve already left Dayton, drove to Cincinnati, ascended the Carew Tower and are taking pictures of the Ohio River, Kentucky, and as much of the city that you can see from such great heights.
And if I’m in Cincinnati, I’m going to try and find time to visit the CAC, Cincinnati Arts Center, designed by Zaha Hadid.
The CAC is a simple and complicated building. It’s simple because it’s small with a main public staircase and easy to understand. It’s complicated because that stair and those spaces shift around enough to keep you guessing as to what you’ll exactly see as you navigate it’s simple plan.
There are things to see in Cincinnati other than the CAC and the view of Kentucky. The Underground Railroad Museum (not pictured) is quite good, the buildings at the University of Cincinnati are really interesting (also not pictured) and the ribs at Montgomery Inn are some of the best I have ever had (take that, Fat Matt in Atlanta). But if you’re really looking for things to do, you need to head to Cincinnati Union Station, a glorious train station that has been repurposed with museums and attractions instead of all those high speed trains that would make getting around Ohio an absolute joy.
We have left Union Station in Cincinnati and are now in Columbus, an hour and a half drive or a half hour imaginary high speed rail ride away. We’re in the state capitol building, which doesn’t have a dome but does have a basement that I found more interesting than the parts of the building actually used for Ohio state governance.
The reason I was in Columbus was to take my father to Nationwide Arena to root for the Columbus Blue Jackets as they played the hated New York Rangers (who won anyway). The reason the Blue Jackets are called the Blue Jackets has to do with the exceptionally obscure fact that Columbus manufactured Union soldier uniforms during the Civil War, and the Blue Jackets take their blue jackets seriously. In fact the arena has a canon on display that they fire every time the Blue Jackets score a goal, just in case there are any rebels hiding in the arena I guess.
Washington DC’s National Building Museum’s big summer installation this year consists of an atrium full of (fake) Icebergs by James Corner Field Operations. Sure, its not as exciting as last year’s crazy ass ball pit beach or 2014’s crazy ass Bjarke Ingels walk through maze, but it’s still reasonably interesting. The fake icebergs are in some fake water, translucent blue fabric that looks a little goofy but is actually quite effective in person. Definitely worth a visit if you can get there (or if you can time travel back to summer 2016, depending on when you are reading this).
