If life is just a bowl of cherries, then bowling is a life of launching 12-pound cherry-flavored gumballs. Experience life's sweetest pastime with today's Groupon: for $30, you and up to five friends get two hours of bowling and shoe rental at Rule 3 in Pickerington. The clean, hip hobby hub was named the Best New Center by Bowlers Journal International in 2009.

Part bowling alley, part bar, and part restaurant, Rule 3 takes pride in providing fun for the entire family. Lace up a pair of bowling loafers ($3 per pair) and take to the lanes (up to a $30 value per hour per lane on Friday nights and weekends) with up to five of your favorite comrades, where you'll be able to practice your armswing arm-in-arm. Each of Rule 3's 14 luxurious lanes is equipped with an automatic scoring system and a loyal ball return, so if you strike, it will be noted, and if you gutterball, it will also be noted, but the nonjudgmental ball will roll back into your waiting arms. Although food and drink purchases are not included in today's Groupon, take advantage of Rule 3's modern, lounge-like eatery to recharge by knocking down some burgers and cold ones after a midmorning of knocking down pins. Open bowling is available all day, every day (click here for hours of operation), giving avid orb-hurlers a chance to scratch the nocturnal sporting itch that refuses to be sated by paper football alone.

Reviews

Rule 3 won Best New Center from Bowlers Journal International and has been featured in the Columbus Dispatch and Alive!:

• The center itself is designed to appeal to families, with food and fun for all age groups. – Bill Chronister, Columbus Dispatch
• In short, if you could shrink this complex down and stash it in a time capsule…you'd have an accurate snapshot of early 21st-century American popular culture. – G.A. Benton, Alive!