day one: everything's bigger in Ohio

Today, two bored students home from college for the summer decided to begin an epic adventure. The goal? To find and document all of the "world's largest" things in the good state of Ohio.

We decided to start, for today, with four "world's largest" things.

With only two hours left of sunlight, we departed.

We ventured into downtown Columbus, a convenient 15 minutes away from our suburb (for non-Ohioans, that's about 3-5 miles, which I guess is what normal Americans measure distance in, and we had to ask my mom how many miles 15 minutes was) of Hilliard.

First on our list: The world's largest gavel, along Front Street. Apparently this is supposed to honor the Ohio Supreme Court, so that's cool.

As you can see from these nifty perspective pictures, it is really big. Hence the title of "world's largest". However, if you own a gavel equal to or larger than this one, our apologies. Please take a nifty perspective picture and get back to us.

During this excursion, we discovered a part of Columbus that apparently sprung up while we were away; the most delightful apartments next to the ex-Lazarus building.

How nice. I also made a new friend wearing nothing but overalls. He was very friendly. Possibly too friendly.

Next, we went in search of the world's biggest mortarboard graduation cap. It was situated on the campus of Franklin University, which, as we all know, makes it possible.

We found it suspended over Rich Street. We had no choice but to take tacky tourists pictures, even though I don't think you can be a tourist in a place where you live. These pictures are akin to the pictures that other Americans take of themselves "pushing over the Leaning Tower of Pisa" and such.

Classy.

On our way out of downtown, we passed the world's weakest attempt at emulating Times Square:

Keep on keepin' on, Columbus.

Columbus also seems to be under the delusion that it is France:

Can you tell which is which? It's difficult, I know.

(We know this was actually part of an old train station.)

For our third "world's largest" of the day, we visited a truly unique landmark.

THE WORLD'S LARGEST FIELD OF CONCRETE CORN.

Yes, friends: A field of 109 concrete corns off of Rings Road. This is supposedly a tribute to the great Sam Frantz (of the adjoining Frantz Road, perhaps?), an inventor of hybrid corns.

I never understand how it remains un-vandalized.

And finally, as the sun sets, we rounded out our series of Ohio's "world's largest" for today.

THE BALLANTRAE TRASH BUNNIES.

Yes, they are made of real life trash.

More nifty perspective pictures:

We are assuming that these are the world's largest bunny statues because Google told us so. If they are not, they are almost certainly the world's largest bunny statues made of trash. I challenge you to make a bigger one.

To finish the day, we headed to the Ohio legend of ice cream, Graeter's. Although I found coconut shreds and a whole almond in my black raspberry chip ice cream, and Christen found a hair in her blueberry pie ice cream, we remained satisfied and loyal customers.

That's quality.

Stay tuned for more exciting Ohio "world's largest" adventures. They will be undoubtably quirky.

P.S. To see the rest of our pictures from today, take a look at our Photobucket account here!