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We went to Q2 Bistro an Asian restaurant at Polaris for the first time last Friday. We wondered if Q2 Bistro had just been open a couple of months… business was not booming Friday night but it was about 8:00. Maybe Q2 Bistro had an early dinner crowd.

No grand opening signs… so we guessed Q2 Bistro had been open three months or more… I guess not according to the Columbus Dispatch,  Q2 had their first Anniversary in January 2008.  I read that in the Columbus Dispatch “Cantonese cuisine an old-school treat” after eating at Q2.

Q1 is not all Cantonese. I like Cantonese although I started out eating just Hunan and Szechuan food, when I fell in love with Chinese food.   At Q2 Bistro I had Szechuan Shrimp.  It was tasty.  I wish I had paid more attention to the ingredients (vegtables) I might have gone with the Hunan version instead.  My dish was spicy.

The food was gorgeous, if I was a food blogger there’d be images here.  I think my plate was mostly clean before I remembered I could take a photo with my phone.  Duh.  Or maybe I was hungry.  The restaurant is gorgeous.  Very simple and contemporary.

How could I not know the restaurant was there almost two years now?  I don’t eat “Chinese” food much… and the stretch of Polaris Parkway east of Cleveland Avenue is a stretch I seldom travel. Q2 Asian Bistro is at 472 Polaris Parkway, Westerville, Ohio. Phone is 614-898-1988… in case you want to call ahead for a table… or for carry-out.  People came in for carry-out while we were there.

I was there last night… it is south of Polaris Parkway, east of Sancus Blvd, north of Lazelle and of course west of 71.

Kroger, Barnes and Noble, Old Navy, Best Buy, a Hallmark shop…

This morning I was mapping the two Indian restaurants in the Polaris area (there is a third there somewhere…) neither is in Polaris Town Center… When I was looking at it on Google it showed Polaris Fashion Place (THE MALL.) When I transplanted the map to Discover Columbus, THE MALL was gone and Polaris Town Center was on the map, west of Sancus… where the big Bank One… I mean the Chase facility is???

I watched LOST last night (after returning from Polaris Town Center) and the island disappeared… maybe strip malls can move overnight.

I am posting the map here. I swear today 5-30-2008 it is showing Polaris Town Center west of Sancus, east of Old Stateline… here’s the map:


View Larger Map

Not LSU Tigers.. Real tigers, Siberian Tigers… It’s difficult to search the Columbus Dispatch for tiger news because of the sports stories.

Jack Hanna was on ‘Good Morning America’ this morning from Montana. His connection to the Columbus Zoo is still Hanna’s authority to speak for American Zoos, I believe.

Hanna was interviewed along with Adam Roberts of Born Free, about “Should animals be caged? “

In his first response Roberts angered Hanna, Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo by lumping zoos in with circuses. Roberts intimated that zoos are not educational.

I think I learned something this fall at the Columbus Zoo about what a small world it is. At an exhibit at the Columbus Zoo… all about conservation …a Zoo employee talked to me… me personally about animal skins that someone was trying to smuggle in through Port Columbus… I can’t remember which animals but I am sure there was a large cat skin… there was a story on the internet Sunday about a Siberian Tiger being beheaded and skinned inside a Chinese Zoo…

Columbus Dispatch from the AP:

“Did fatal tiger escape have human help? Jack Hanna doubts tiger jumped out on its own; San Francisco police open criminal investigation”

I have to admit I did not like zoos as a kid… my favorite part was the train ride… actually until quite recently the zoo was not a place I wanted to spend time. If the Columbus Zoo is an indication zoos are becoming more educational.

Photo courtesy of GeekPhilosopher.com

I went on two nature hikes in the Metro Parks this weekend. Columbus Metro Park Hikes The first Friday I forgot to take a camera… it was a moonlight hike…in Sharon Woods Metro Park… how much picture taking could there have been? There were great shots of the full moon at Sharon Woods Metro Park on Friday evening. We saw a great horned owl too thanks to volunteers who knew what we were looking for. I saw it fly away… what a wing span. Would have made a great photo… oh well we did not bring a camera.

We took the camera to a moonlight walk at Battelle Darby Park on Saturday evening… we were ready. In the ranger station prior to the hike we talked about what animals we could see, deer, flying squirrels, owls, coyotes. We looked at the taxidermied (stuffed… spell check is unsure about the spelling of the word I am grasping for animals who have had taxidermy done to ‘em) animals at the ranger station.

The natuaralist said there is at least one badger living in the Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park now… and beavers, coyotes, river otters, muskrats, foxes, flying squirrels, owls, etc.

Saturday November 24, 2007 was the full moon and the Metro Parks called it the full Beaver Moon, the early settlers and the Native Americans needed to set their traps for beaver. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we never saw the full moon… Or any animals… the naturalist, Gary did owl calls, to no avail. Some thought they saw a deer as we crossed one of the roads in the park, but it was a sign… It was dark.

It was a four mile hike. Very hilly but no moon, no animals.

Returning to the ranger station we took pictures of some of the Ohio wildlife including a beaver, a badger, a river otter, ducks, a fox, a coyote and a skunk… other stuffed animals in the Ranger Station included minks, a muskrat, and owls, including the great horned owl.

I could not identify the muskrat I guessed ground hog… but I guessed the badger… The stuffed skunk at the ranger station is brownish red so I guessed it was a badger too… I think skunks are black not brown. When in doubt guess badger…

A Link to the Slideshow of stuffed “wild life”

One more try to embed… then I give up..

Or are they Central Ohio Metro Parks? Or just plain old Metro Parks?  I find them pretty easily with just Metro Parks.  We have a full moon this week. Last month must have been the Harvest Moon….

Program Schedule Metro Parks

This week Saturday is the “full Beaver Moon” so the Metro Parks in Central Ohio have a number of moonlight walks this weekend including a Howl at the Moon walk at High Banks Metro Park on Friday at 5:00. I wish my dog, Buddy was getting around better… Blendon Woods has a Friday night hike for people only, call it the “Almost Full Moon Hike.”

Sharon Woods has both Friday and Saturday evening hikes.. Friday is leisurely, Saturday they pick up the pace… no mention of the full Beaver Moon…

Battelle Darby in Southwest Columbus and Blacklick Woods in the Reynoldsburg area (Southeast Franklin County) are the two Central Ohio Metro Parks that use the “Beaver Moon” name proudly…

From the Old Farmers Almanac why the November full moon is called the full Beaver Moon:

“The November full Moon was named the full Beaver Moon, because for both the colonists and the Algonquin tribes, this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. “

Locations - maps:

Battelle Darby Park - 1775 Darby Creek Drive, Galloway, OH 43119

Blacklick Woods - 6975 E. Livingston Ave., Reynoldsburg, OH 43068

Blendon Woods - 4265 E. Dublin-Granville Road, Westerville, OH 43081

Highbanks - 9466 Columbus Pike (US Rt 23 N), Lewis Center, OH 43035

Sharon Woods - 6911 Cleveland Avenue, Westerville, OH 43081

I believe the next full moon is the Winter Solstice… December 22, 2007 at 6:08 I believe.. or that’s the moment of the Winter Solstice.. I looked it up earlier today.

Photo credit- GeekPhilosopher.com