the Topiary Garden

While we were in Ohio for Thanksgiving, I made Brad take a detour by Topiary Park in Columbus. He had never seen it before, & since it is one of my favorite places in the city, we simply had to stop.

Topiary Park is a privately funded park on the grounds of the former Ohio School for the Deaf (a magnificent building), just east of downtown. The park features a topiary interpretation of George Seurat’s famous painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte." It is amazing how much the topiary have grown in the five years since I left Columbus; you can really see the painting now.

This is the real painting - it's massive. It's breathtaking. It's genius. It's beautiful. It hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. I could have sat there all day & looked at it:

Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

And this is Topiary Park:

Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

Do you see it? The dog? The lady with the umbrella? It's all there.

The man with the pipe (my favorite character):

Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved

The man with the pipe:

Photo (C) Christina Saull - All Rights Reserved


Isn't it fantastic? I love innovative public art!

Five for Friday

1. I was going to start this post with an apology for not doing a "Five for Friday" last week by saying "Sorry I didn't post last week, we were in ______." But then I momentarily forgot where we were (answer: Ohio for Brad's ten year high school reunion). Do you think that's bad? Perhaps it's a sign we've been traveling a lot lately. Or that life is insane. Or that I'm getting old.

2. So yes, we were in good ol' Marion, Ohio (small town, about 90 minutes north of Columbus) last weekend for Brad's ten year high school reunion. It was a fun time had by all, filled with extremely cheap drinks (Hello $2 Blue Moon!), reenacting where Brad fell and broke his ankle his senior year, and extremely bad dancing to old songs (the "Thong Song" and Justin Timberlake. Hello 1998). But it also made me glad that I am boycotting my ten year reunion, which is at the end of July. Since I have a desire to really only be good friend's with one person in my class of 680 (or 630. or 640. something like that).

3. Summer has officially arrived in D.C. Too bad spring decided to skip out on us this year, as a sunny, 65° day is really the best...

4. I forgot the highlight of our trip to Ohio: strawberry chip ice cream at Graeter's. Mega yum. Really, summer isn't complete without a scoop of strawberry chip. I even splurged and got the waffle cone. I justified it by having a salad for lunch the day before. One day I will open a Graeter's franchise in D.C. There are so many Ohio people here, I wouldn't even have to change the flavor name from "Buckeye Blitz" to "Peanut butter chocolate."

I ♥ you Graeter's - you make my summer complete.

5. This weekend we are headed out of town, up to the Big Apple. We'll be meeting a bunch of my family there to celebrate the life of my great-grandmother. She always enjoyed the finer things in life, like awesome Italian food and a good glass of red wine, so I know we will be toasting her in style!

BBQ and Pedi's

Last weekend, Brad and I traveled to Ohio for my bridal shower and our respective bachelor and bachelorette get togethers. On Friday evening, my Maid of Honor and her fiance Mike threw us a BBQ in the back yard of their cute house. Thanks Gena and Mike!

Christina salutes with a hot dog, while Brad fills his plate with mac and cheese

Cutting our OSU cake... Brad is saying "Should cutting a cake really be this hard? I hope it's not this hard at the wedding."

Cake successfully cut

Brad plays nice

Christina... not so nice

Brad: "I thought we agreed not to smash cake in each other's face?"

Christina: "That only applies to the actual wedding reception!"


Christina cleaning up the damage. Brad was an incredibly good sport.

On Saturday afternoon, the girl's went for pedicures and out to lunch.

Laura and Christina catch up on their celebrity gossip while their toes dry

The pedi girls - Rachel, Christina and Laura (minus Gena, who took the picture!)

I will upload pictures from the crazy dinner at Buca and my bridal shower when I get them. Thanks for a great weekend everyone!!!