Indy Races to Irish Fest

We had a busy weekend that, strangely, involved no playgrounds and only a few bikes:

Saturday, my dad and I took the boys to Mid Ohio for the Indy 200 race. The Big Race was on Sunday, but I much prefer to watch the GT cars on Saturday--it's also less crowded, and easier to get around with the kids. We got up close for a good bit of racing:

Unfortunately, a thunderstorm hit mid point in the race. We saw a few spectacular off track excursions at turn 4 (?) the cleared out a good chunk of the field, but all we had for rain protection was a fleece blanket, which, it turns out, wasn't particularly waterproof. We made a chilly exit for our car.


Since we got home from the race a bit early, I drug the boys to the last weekend of the Calvin and Hobbs exhibit at the OSU comic library:

They were thoroughly bored, and I didn't learn much new about C&H, but it was still interesting to see some of the original artwork and early images.

Post exhibit, we walked around OSU a bit, and I took the kids through the new student union building:

Which, I have to admit, puts my old Husky Union Building to shame... though perhaps the U Dub has updated it in the 20 years since I've left Seattle.

Sunday was the Irish Fest. We avoided parking hassles by cruising down the bike path and using the free bike parking:

They always struggle to park my bike train, but it's easy to find when we pick up the bikes.

We played some old timey games:

I think Kate, with her short shorts, knee socks, and hair feathering in the wind, really had a Farrah Fawcet thing going on:

"Farrah who?" she asks. In other things that happened way before the kids were born, we watched some old timey metal smithy:

Then bought the kids wristbands for the rides. This year's Irish Fest theme was "Hot and Crowded," and the play area lived up to the name. We waited in line:

Then a ride:

Then another line:

Then another ride:

and so on. Then we waited for Kate's grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, enjoyed our lunch (once we found a table, and later, five chairs), then watched some Irish dancing:

I think Kate was ready to go out there and give them some disco moves.

I did enjoy my fried Oreos (to Jodi's quiet revulsion) almost as much as the shady, quiet, breezy ride home.