miniature golf - Columbus Family Adventures

Westerville Golf Center

Well-manicured miniature golf course suitable for all ages

A game of miniature golf seems well suited for all ages and occasions. While playing a round with our two children at the Westerville Golf Center, I took a moment to survey the field of players on an warm afternoon in April.

There were timid teens out on dates, rowdy twenty-somethings extending their happy hours, and retirees dressed in their country-club best taking calculated swings amid the course that looks like a small town with wooden houses and white picket fences.

Then there were our children, who like others, carefully selected the colors of their golf balls – green for Max and pink for Rosie – which they soon whacked several times into the water features. They also created their own obstacles by standing like bridges over pathways, enticing one another to knock their ball underneath their opponent’s legs.

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The Westerville Golf Center we’ve found is welcoming – and tolerating – to all audiences big and small, and has been since it opened at the corner of Schrock and Cooper roads in Westerville in 1970.

Before getting married, Mike and I used to practice our golf swings at the driving range. The facility has covered, heated tees, so you can practice year round. Mike would buy a bucket of balls and attempt to teach me how to properly hold a club and consistently hit balls in a straight line. My lessons typically ended with me hitting softballs at the batting cage instead. Now softball’s a game I understand.

Mike now prefers to take Max to the driving range and rekindle with the rest of the family for a game of miniature golf on one of the two 18-hole courses.

Youth golf lessons are available, but Mike learned how to play the game from his dad and hopes to instill the same love of golf in our son.

For now, though, it’s all fun and games.

Cost for mini golf is $4 for children and $6 for adults. Children 2 and younger are free. Deals are offered throughout the week such as play both golf courses for the price of one on Monday and Wednesday.

Spring hours are 9 a.m.-10 p.m. daily.

Westerville Golf Center is located at 450 W. Schrock Rd., Westerville. For more information, visit www.westervillegolf.com.

May 13, 2015/by Wendy and Mike Pramik

Indoor Fun

SportsOhio

Spaces for city kids to play inside and out

Playing outside was easy when I was a kid growing up in northeastern Ohio. I simply walked out our front door and explored the world, often following streams wherever they led.

SportsOhio in Dublin offers spaces for city kids to leisurely play inside and out.

SportsOhio is a hundred-acre campus of rec centers with indoor and outdoor areas for soccer, baseball and ice skating. It’s also a fun zone for playing miniature golf, driving go-karts, hitting golf balls and baseballs, and jumping on inflatables.

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Two ways for families to sample what’s available at SportsOhio are during “Open Play Days” on select Fridays throughout the year and at “Phat Fridays” in the spring and summer.

My children and I checked out an “Open Play Day” at the FieldSports building in early April. I signed a waiver and paid $8 apiece for my kids to play for three hours. Rosie and Max went straight for the bounce-house area that included a jump house, inflatable slide and obstacle course.

They jumped, slid and bounced until they were red in their faces, at which point I purchased blue Slushies for them at the concession stand. We then climbed a set of stairs to rows of picnic tables. The perch also served as a lookout post over the vast indoor facility.

We spied ball fields on either side and a fierce game of dodgeball taking place in a court in front of us. Behind that was a basketball court where kids were riding scooter boards across a shiny, wood floor. The most appealing area was a turf-covered field filled with toys normally found outside, like hula hoops, bouncy balls, scooters, frisbees and big-wheeled tricycles.

The three hours zipped by, leaving my kids pleasantly exhausted for the ride home.

We’ll most likely return for “Phat Fridays,” when visitors get unlimited access to outdoor activities such as go-karts, mini golf, inflatables, batting cages and outdoor fields for $15 apiece from 7-10 p.m., beginning April 24.

SportsOhio is located at 6314 Cosgray Rd., Dublin. For more information, call 614-791-3003 or visit www.sportsohio.org. Learn about upcoming “Open Play Days.”

April 10, 2015/by Wendy and Mike Pramik

Educational

Olentangy Indian Caverns

Explore caves and mine for gems at nostalgic roadside attraction in Delaware

One of the beloved aspects of traveling across America by automobile is the unexpected roadside attractions you see advertised on billboards and barns along your journey.

One such tourist spot I’ve seen promoted for many years in central Ohio is Olentangy Indian Caverns, located 20 minutes north of Columbus in Delaware. It took me more than 20 years to finally visit the roadside caves that I knew nothing about and expected about the same.

Happily, I was wrong.

My family had a great time exploring an underground maze of passages, mining for gems and striding through the woods. Visitors also can play a round of miniature golf, romp on a playground, shop for souvenirs and learn about the history of Native Americans in Ohio.

The caverns were formed millions of years ago by the force of an underground river cutting through limestone strata. This was Columbus white and Delaware blue limestone, if you want to get technical.

What’s really interesting is that how the holes in the ground were used by the Wyandotte Indians for refuge and by lots of others as hiding places.

Narrated tours and self-guided tours are available depending on the time of year.

We took a self-guided tour, using a map to plot our way through underground passages that lead into open spaces. Some spots have audio.

An explorer by the name of J.M. Adams discovered the caverns in 1821. You can even view his engraving in the rock. As you wind your way underground, you’ll see the echo chamber, a natural air shaft that circulates air every half hour; the Crystal Room, with an impressive “beehive stalagmite” looming overhead; and Cathedral Hall, a 500-foot passage that features fossils on the walls and a 50-foot tower that once was a waterfall.

Evidence shows that Wyandotte Indians used the caverns as shelter from the weather and protection from their enemies – the Delaware Indians. Native Americans used the caverns until the early 1800s, and hundreds of arrowheads and stone tools were found.

My husband liked learning about the culture of Ohio’s Native Americans in the Cave House Museum. The kids really liked romping around the meadow and mining for stones we purchased, complete with silt, in the gift shop. They placed them in a sluice with running water and “panned” for the colorful stones through the muck.

Olentangy Indian Caverns is located at 1779 Home Rd., Delaware.

The cavern is open daily from April through October and on weekends in November. Be sure to wear sturdy, closed-toe shoes and a jacket, as the caves remain a constant 50-degree temperature. Bottled water is permitted.

Learn more about Olentangy Indian Caverns.