Our fam­ily has taken numer­ous trips to Ohio over the years because there’s such a diverse and eclec­tic range of things to do. Ohio is a won­der­ful state that’s so often over­looked here in the Midwest. In 2010, there are going to be even more fun things to do and places to visit for fam­i­lies look­ing for an inex­pen­sive Midwest getaway.

Family Fun

Ferris Wheel at Cedar Point, Ohio

The country’s largest indoor water­park resort, located in Sandusky, Ohio, is expand­ing again with its new Kalahari Zip Line Course. Designed with an African vil­lage theme and set above the resort’s out­door water­park, the expe­ri­ence will fea­ture six-story tow­ers that launch guests; a tow­er­ing ropes course; and a rock climb­ing wall. This brand-new adven­ture area is part of Kalahari Resort’s expand­ing team-building activ­i­ties for meet­ings and con­ven­tions, but will be avail­able to all guests. Target open­ing date is late spring 2010.

Cedar Point’s newest water adven­ture, Shoot the Rapids, will take rid­ers on a 2,100-foot-long jour­ney, through a wooded area and around an ille­gal still used for brew­ing sweet-tasting elixir, all while encoun­ter­ing sur­prise water ele­ments and spe­cial effects. Opening in the spring of 2010 and with a price tag of $10.5 mil­lion, it’s the most expen­sive water ride ever built at Cedar Point.

On March 26, 2010, the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium will intro­duce a new Polar Frontier exhibit area. In addi­tion to polar bears, Polar Frontier will house Arctic foxes, Alaskan brown bears and rein­deer. Also, on March 27, Beco the Asian Elephant will turn one-year-old.

Wake Nation in Cincinnati will open a new, kid-friendly wake­board expe­ri­ence, “Easy Line,” for young­sters ages five and up in spring 2010. The site is the first and only cable wake park in the tri-state (Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana) area, allow­ing both begin­ners and expe­ri­enced rid­ers the abil­ity to wake­board, water ski, knee­board, and/or wake skate on a 10-acre lake with­out a boat.

In 2010, the world’s most pop­u­lar bea­gle, Snoopy, and the entire PEANUTS gang will come alive in Kings Island’s new Kids Area, Planet Snoopy. The park also fea­tures Diamondback, debuted in 2009 as the park’s tallest fastest and mean­est coaster; and Boomerang Bay, the 15-acre water park offer­ing more than 50 water activ­i­ties, includ­ing 30 water slides (free with park admission).

Sports & Recreation

Ohio is home to the new Firefly Hollow – located in Little Hocking, near the Ohio-West Virginia bor­der – which offers nature and bird­ing Segway tours in a rural, scenic loca­tion. Firefly offers a unique alter­na­tive to the typ­i­cal city-dwelling tours, and allows par­tic­i­pants to eas­ily nav­i­gate through wilder­ness ter­rain with min­i­mal effort.

Ohio’s Lake Erie Marsh region will be the site of The Biggest Week in American Birding, May 6–10, 2010. Attracting bird enthu­si­asts from around the globe, this week-long event will include guided excur­sions to Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, a hot spot for water birds and war­blers; birding-by-ear work­shops; and pre­sen­ta­tions by bird­ing guru, Kenn Kaufman.

The orga­niz­ers of the Revolution3 triathlon rac­ing series have cho­sen Lake Erie Shores & Islands and Cedar Point as home for their newest event, the 2010 REV3 Cedar Point Triathlon. An Ironman-length race, the com­pe­ti­tion includes swim­ming, bik­ing and run­ning courses and will offer pro ath­letes a $100,000 prize purse. The Sunday, Sept. 12 race will begin and end at Cedar Point and fan out through­out the sur­round­ing Shores & Islands region.

Cities, Culture & Cuisine

Through July 2010, Columbus art gal­leries and insti­tu­tions are col­lab­o­rat­ing to cel­e­brate glass-inspired art with the GlassArt365 ini­tia­tive. Exhibits include Chihuly Illuminated at the Columbus Museum of Art and ongo­ing glass art work­shops at Glass Axis. Additionally, Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus is the only botan­i­cal gar­den in the world to own a per­ma­nent sig­na­ture col­lec­tion from inter­na­tion­ally acclaimed glass artist Dale Chihuly.

The Chicago, Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace, Columbus, Ohio

Ohio became the site of two new “gourmet” hot dog spots in late 2009: Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace in Columbus, serv­ing spe­cial­ties like the Hot Bollywood and the Who Nellie!; and Senate in Cincinnati, serv­ing house-made hot dogs with con­tem­po­rary twists. A Cleveland sta­ple, The Happy Dog Bar, also revamped its menu recently to include “choose your own” hot dog top­pings includ­ing Spanish onions and vodka sauerkraut.

The Cleveland Museum of Art opens the sec­ond of three new wings designed by archi­tect Rafael Vinoly June, a major mile­stone in the museum’s multi-million dol­lar ren­o­va­tion and expan­sion. In 2009, the museum opened the 139-square-foot East Wing, which cre­ated new spaces for the pre­sen­ta­tion and con­ser­va­tion of one of the nation’s lead­ing collections.

Newly opened in 2009, the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Community Garden Campus at Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus is a “liv­ing class­room” in which peo­ple can learn about gar­den­ing, hor­ti­cul­ture, sus­tain­abil­ity, nutri­tion and well­ness. The cam­pus includes an api­ary, culi­nary and herb gar­dens, a berry yard, rentable com­mu­nity gar­den plots, a resource cen­ter, com­put­ers with gar­den design pro­grams and a test kitchen for cook­ing classes and demonstrations.

History & Heritage

The National Museum of the United States Air Force will com­mem­o­rate the 60th anniver­sary of the Korean War with a ren­o­vated exhibit open­ing June 24–26, 2010. The week­end fes­tiv­i­ties will include a “Dinner Under the Wings” recep­tion in the museum’s Modern Flight Gallery; Freedom’s Call Military Tattoo, fea­tur­ing live music, air­craft fly­overs and a fire­works show; and a Korean War Memorial Ceremony in down­town Dayton.

Starting July 7, 2010, the Tall Ships return to Cleveland for a four-day fes­ti­val that includes ship board­ings, a wide vari­ety of exhibits and dis­plays, and even sail aways. These spec­tac­u­lar ves­sels rep­re­sent mar­itime his­tory from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, Great Lakes trad­ing schooners, Baltimore Clippers and more. The ships will enter Cleveland’s har­bor and begin a Parade of Sail in prepa­ra­tion for the open­ing of the festival.

If you want more Ohio travel info, you can fol­low Ohio Tourism on Twitter @DiscoverOhio or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/discoverohio.

Do you know of other cool things to do or places to visit in Ohio? Leave a com­ment below and share!

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2. Cultural and Historical Celebrations Make Ohio a Great February Family Destination
3. Enjoy Fall Festivals and Holiday Happenings this November in Ohio
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