Yakima Hops and Card Sharks Makes For A Magical Weekend In Ohio

I wish the experiences I had this past weekend for everyone.

I just got back from a three-day event called Magifest in Columbus, Ohio.

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How Cool To Be Among The Best At What You Love Most

It was the 90th year magicians from all over the country converged on the mid-western city for lectures, performances, merchandise, friendship, and elbow-rubbing with the best in the world.

I'm not suggesting that I wish everyone to attend a magic convention but what I wish for everyone is a comparable experience in your hobby or passionate activity of choice.

What Is You Personal Passion

If you play golf, imagine a seminar on tee-shots from Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, or John Rahm.

If you hunt, how about a session on stalking with Jim Shockey, Weatherby Award winner and arguably the world’s greatest living big-game hunter.

Maybe you love to cook and Thomas Keller or Mario Francesco Batali are in-house to show you how to improve the recipe for your favorite dish.

Sounds fantastic, doesn't it?

Getting Lost In The Magic

All sense of time is lost. The conversation starts, the fine points are explained in detail and demonstration. You are drawn in to the degree that hours pass like mere moments.  Your head spins with information overload, with the realization that you are really there with the likes of them!  And maybe your head spins a little because of the expensive scotch your heroes like to drink and you are more than willing to buy to thank them for including you -if only for a little while- in their inner circle of cool.

German Card Engineering!

One of the reasons people came from all over the country and the world was to see the talent of Denis Behr, a German card expert....here's a quick clip that shows why!

All-American Excellence - Do NOT Play Cards With Jason

American Jason Ladanye plays a character with an oversized ego but he has the skill, the acting, the wit, and the psychology to pull it off and he is amazing.  Spend 48 seconds and see why a young man flew all the way from Guatemala to attend Magifest in order to learn how to do this!

 Call It A Yakima Hops Beer Run

The time spent on magic this past weekend will pay dividends new material and inspiration for years to come BUT there was a little more to the trip than tricks.

Columbus Brewing Company makes beer, lots of great beers and they are a customer of hops grown in the Yakima Valley.  Former Yakima Mayor Micah Cawley works for the John I Haas company and he sells hops to manager Tony Cordero and the crew at Columbus Brewing.  I stopped by as an ambassador of goodwill from Yakima, got a tour, and tried some fantastic beer made with a taste of home. Good times.

So I wish you the same, a chance to wallow in and soak up the very best of that which you love most, whatever it is, so you might return home exhausted, satisfied, and optimistic for whatever comes your way!  Cheers...oh and pick a card!

You can check out a short review of a Columbus beer operation at the end of this article ...but first, the best beers by state in the USA.