Columbus, OH
A meat-packing family since 1886, a restaurant since July 1967, when George Schmidt closed the packing house and remodeled the family's old livery stable in German Village; five generations in, it is still theirs. The Bahama Mama, the number-one seller, was grandpa Schmidt's packing-house recipe, named after Uncle Grover met a Bahamas bartender by that nickname; in 2014 Columbus voted it the city's official food in a newspaper contest. The jumbo cream puffs came with Betty Tresselt, the first employee hired in 1967, who brought the recipe from northern Germany; the family once hauled 5,000 to Cincinnati's Oktoberfest and sold out in a day. Schmidt's has also run a stand at the Ohio State Fair since 1914, the fair's oldest. Open daily from 11. German Village itself, brick streets and 19th-century cottages on the National Register, is worth the visit alone.
Renamed in 2016 to honor astronaut and Ohio Senator John Glenn — Mercury 7 astronaut, first American to orbit the Earth, four-term US Senator. CMH is a primary commercial hub but accommodates GA traffic. The airport sits on the east side of Columbus, with the impressive city skyline visible on most approaches. Glenn was born in Cambridge, OH and grew up in New Concord — Ohio claims him fully. Lockbourne (now Rickenbacker) was named for another Ohio aviation legend, Eddie Rickenbacker. Ohio's aviation history is unmatched.
Columbus is the state capital and Ohio's largest city, and from the John Glenn Columbus airport its center is a short hop southwest. The Ohio Statehouse, finished in 1861, is one of the purest Greek Revival capitols in the country — squared-off and severe, capped not by a soaring dome but by a low drum cupola, so it reads differently than most statehouses. Just south of downtown sits German Village, platted in 1814 and built up by German immigrants into one of the largest privately funded historic districts in the United States — all red brick and cobblestone. The Scioto Mile lines the riverfront, and a statue of John Glenn — Ohio's astronaut-senator, whose name is on the field you departed — stands inside the Statehouse.
You're landing at Ohio State's own airport. Don Scott Field has been the university's airfield since 1943 — named for a two-time All-American quarterback who became a WWII pilot and died in training — and aviation at Ohio State reaches back to 1917, when cadets first flew from what is now the heart of campus. Southeast of the field sits the campus and Ohio Stadium, "the Horseshoe": opened in 1922, the first concrete double-deck stadium in America and once the largest poured-concrete structure in the world, its south end left open in the signature U that gives it the name. It holds over 102,000, and at every home game the marching band spells out Script Ohio — a tradition since 1936 whose i has been dotted by honored guests including astronaut and Ohio son John Glenn.
One of the largest sets of geometric earthworks in the world — built by the Hopewell culture between 100 BC and 500 AD. The Octagon Earthwork and Great Circle are extraordinary: a perfect octagon enclosing 50 acres connected to a circle 1,054 feet in diameter, all built without metal tools. The earthworks align precisely with the 18.6-year lunar standstill cycle — astronomical engineering 2,000 years ahead of European equivalents. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2023 as part of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. From the air, the geometric perfection is staggering.
This quiet Union County field sits in the middle of an unlikely automotive capital. In 1982 Honda built the first Japanese-owned car plant on American soil here at Marysville — the first US-made Accord, "USA 001," rolled off the line on November 1 that year — and the complex has since grown into Ohio's largest employer. Northwest of the plant, near East Liberty, lies the Transportation Research Center: a 4,500-acre proving ground born from Ohio State engineering research in the early 1970s, anchored by a 7.5-mile high-speed test oval that is a genuine landmark from the air — a vast banked ring scribed into the farmland.