Butler County – Things to do

Do as the locals do when visiting Butler County Ohio and check out what we did during our visit!

This is the second post documenting our weekend adventure to Butler County, Ohio. The first post was focused on what to eat and today I’ sharing what we did beyond just eating our faces off!

JUNGLE JIM’S

Where do I begin?? I love Jungle Jim’s! I’ve been making pits stops to stroll through their endless aisles of goodies anytime I am passing through the area for years. But this was my first time getting an official tour and the inside scoop thanks to Jared Bowers.

Jim started his business selling fresh produce in parking lots and to this day is still their bread and butter taking up one acre of the store which is set up to look like a Farmer’s Market. New produce is delivered 6 days a week including standard and International produce selections. The other 5 acres of this food lovers’ paradise includes everything you could ever dream of. And even some things your never thought of.

There’s an olive’s of the world bar, salsa bar, International sections such as Asian, Indian, African, Hispanic, and European covering food from over 70 countries, bacon section, hot sauce section with 1400 different kinds and even a pepperologist on site to give recommendations, 15000 wine labels, 4000 beers, world class cigar humidor, daily scratch-made breads, candy section, gluten-free section, and a cheese section with about 1500 kinds of cheese including their own homemade burrata, mozzarella, and ricotta, but most notable is the big cheese weighing in at 822 lbs! Basically any genre of food or food type and there is a section for it.

One of my favorite sections is the entire aisle dedicated to root beer. Sure enough, despite having over 200 bottles in my collection I always manage to find at least one new one every time I visit Jungle Jim’s. No joke, check this post about another time I visited Jungle Jim’s.

As for all the weird and unique stuff found around the store like a port-o-potty entrance to the real bathroom, an animatronic singing Elvis, and the real boat used for the seafood department manager’s office, most of it was built themselves. And right now the holidays are in full swing at Jungle Jim’s, with holiday stuff from all over the world including a jumbo gingerbread house. Who would’ve thought a grocery store would be a cool place to go at the holidays?

In addition to the holiday displays, there are also a lot of events hosted by Jungle Jim’s. We actually went to the Big Cheese Festival earlier this year but there’s also a Whiskey Fest, Bacon and Cheese Festival, International Craft Beer Festival, BBQ and Grilling Festival, Fiery Food Festival, and International Wine Festival.

Today there are 2 Jungle Jim’s locations in the Cincinatti area, both of which are still independently owned and operated by the family. Despite the mammoth size of these stores, they love supporting small local businesses and have developed partnerships with many to give them space in the store to sell their goods.

As for waste? Anything that would otherwise get trashed goes to La Soupe, who rescues otherwise wasted produce to create delicious and highly-nutritious meals for customers, non-profits and food-insecure families. They also work with One Way Farm Inc, a non-profit that cares for the abused, abandoned, neglected, troubled youth, and children with disabilities and developmental disabilities, by providing them with fruit, vegetables, and bread before it gets tossed and thus reduces waste.

PYRAMID HILL SCULPTURE PARK

Imagine a 300+ acre park with over 60 monumental outdoor sculptures displayed in a landscape of rolling hills, meadows, lakes, and hiking trails, and that would accurately describe Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park. The park also features an Ancient Sculpture Museum that displays Greek, Roman, Etruscan, Syrian and Egyptian sculptures dating to 1550 B.C. which I didn’t know about during my visit so we missed that part.

Pyramid Hill is also the only museum you can experience in an Art Cart! Bob thoroughly enjoyed speeding us around the park in the Art Cart and being that we arrived only an hour or 2 before they closed allowed us to travel around the entire park and see everything in a short period of time than we could have on foot. If it had been warmer out and had more time it would’ve been fun to take them up on their suggestion to bring a picnic!

There are even a historic structure on the park in the form of an early pioneer house that was built in the 1820s. It’s an unusual stone house that was built next to a spring on the South side of the park.

The park is open 365 days a year (weather permitting) and has numerous special events throughout the year. They are most known for their popular Holiday Lights on the Hill annual drive-through light display.

TOP GOLF

As I said in my first post about where to eat, our last adventure was for brunch mixed with hitting some balls at Top Golf. As a golf lover, Bob was super excited about this while I was more concerned with what I was going to eat. But the way Top Golf is designed actually makes it fun for everyone, regardless of whether you golf as a hobby or not.

I’m more of a putt-putt person but after a few pointers from Bob (and whiffs) I got the hang of it. While I had no sense of aim I at least was consistent in where my ball would go. Thankfully we were playing a game where you got point if your ball went into any of the huge holes on the field so I just hit it and hoped it landed in one.

So how does it work? The balls have microchips inside in order to track accuracy and distance while awarding points for hitting targets on the outfield. There are several different point-scoring golf games that anyone can play. And the bays are climate controlled allowing for play in all seasons. You can also feel all fancy as you can order food right in your bay and sneak in bites of their delicious food between turns, which I shared in my other post.

Looking for more? Check out there posts from my Columbus blogger friends who also ventured to Butler County:

• Exploring Butler County: Middletown, OH – A City Explored
• Exploring Butler County: Top Golf – A City Explored
• Exploring Butler County: Jungle Jim’s Market – A City Explored
• Exploring Butler County: Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park – A City Explored
• Exploring Butler County: Butler County Donut Trail – A City Explored
• Butler County (the mecca of posts) – Breakfast with Nick
• Butler County – What to eat – The Spiffy Cookie
• Road Trip to Butler County: The Food – Cbus Local Love
• Road Trip to Butler County: Part II – Cbus Local Love
• Two Days In Butler County // Day One – Cook Eat Explore
• Two Days In Butler County // Day Two – Cook Eat Explore
• Butler County Donut Trail – Eat Play Cbus
• Pyramid Park – Eat Play Cbus
• Wake Nation – Eat Play Cbus
• Butler County Staycation – Fervent Foodie
• Weekend in Butler County: What to Eat! – Fervent Foodie
• A Sprinkle Filled Adventure on the Butler County Donut Trail – NeighborFood
• Butler County Adventure – Part 1 – Sweetly Cbus
• Butler County Adventure – Part 2 – Sweetly Cbus
• Butler County Donut Trail – Sweetly Cbus
• Eating in Butler County Ohio – Wander & Whine

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post by the Inspire PR Group. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Three years ago: Homemade Dark Hot Chocolate Mix

Four years ago: Baked Mozzarella Chicken Rolls

Five years ago: Buttermilk Biscuits

Seven years ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip