Ohio Road Trip

The end of August, I went with my dad and stepmom to Columbus to move my baby sister to college. It was an emotional trip but it was a fun one! We left Minneapolis at 6am on Friday morning and were on our way. 

We had a suburban packed to the brim with dorm accessories and school supplies. We killed time through Wisconsin and Indiana with the most eclectic mix of tunes you could think of {everything from Michael Jackson to Fleetwood Mac to Big Sean to JoJo, remember JoJo?} We had decided to break up our trip a bit and make a stop for the night in Cincinnati where my stepmom's bestie lives. This worked out PERFECTLY for me as my very best blog buddy, Erin, lives in Cincinnati! Erin and I have been following each other for YEARS and now chat in some form every single day. She is truly one of my best friends and we had been trying to conjure up a way to meet for quite some time now. So big thanks to my sister for picking OSU because I got the opportunity to turn Erin from a blog friend to a real life friend. 

Me and the fam met Erin for dinner at The Pub and had an amazing time. Erin and I may have ditched the group for some private dining in a little back corner by ourselves but we needed to make the most out of every second we had! Our time went much too quick and saying goodbye was so hard. I know Erin and I will hang out again some day but that time just isn't coming quick enough! 

The next morning we were up early to drive the final couple hours to Columbus. The drive went so quick and before we knew it we were on campus and Kara was getting her dorm keys, her OSU football tickets and our car was being unloaded. 

 We spent the morning unpacking, organizing and chatting with Kara's roommates. I can't get over what a great set up she has. She is in a quad but their room is two doubles separated by a living space, they have so much room it's crazy! Of course, there was an obligatory Target run for some last minute stuff as well as a mad goose chase for a missing cart with the notorious shoe rack {sorry, inside joke}. While out and about we stopped at a place called Piada which I have since had dreams about. It's kind of like a Chipotle meets Noodles where you make your own pasta bowls. Holy smokes it was so good. Word on the street is there's one coming to Minnie and I will post definitely be frequenting!

The rest of the afternoon we finished up the dorm to make sure it was perfect! It ended up so cute and I have no doubt Kara is going to love living there over the next year. 

Kara had an evening dorm meeting, so the rest of us took that time to check in to the hotel and take a little mini tour of campus. OSU actually reminded me a lot of the University of Minnesota so I definitely got a good vibe from campus. 

I always love seeing college football stadiums and Ohio Stadium was a pretty cool one. I can't wait to get inside come November when my Gophers roll in to Columbus to take on the Buckeyes!

After Kara was done with her meeting we picked her up and took her to dinner at Mad Mex. I ordered brisket nachos and it was without a doubt the largest plate of nachos I've ever seen. I'm almost sad it was so big because I couldn't come close to finishing them and they were SO.GOOD! 

terrible picture, incredible nachos. 

After dinner, Kara hit the town with her roomies for her first Saturday night in college {jealous!} while us old folks took our rumps to bed, one too many margaritas will do that to ya. 

We spent Sunday morning with Kara, walked around campus a bit and put some final touches on her room. We were all trying to delay the inevitable but knew that our goodbye was just around the corner. 

Leaving my baby sister 14 hours away from home was so much harder than I thought it would be. I know without a shadow of a doubt she made the right choice in Ohio State and will love college as much as I did. She may get homesick but her home until summer is a good one. I couldn't be more proud and am so excited to see what these next four years bring for my sister. I had a hard time letting go from my hug and miss her so much but know she's starting what will be the best four years of her life!