Creative Arts Workshop at Cap

 The original purpose of our trip to Ohio was for Caeden to attend the Creative Arts Workshop at Capital today. It turned out to be mostly for current Capital students in the Music Technology program, but it was definitely good for Caeden to attend and learn and get a little bit of feel for things.

It was snowing when we left Chillicothe this morning.

The workshop took place in the Convergent Media Center at Cap. This building didn't even exist when Jeremy and I were students there, and an old gym was torn down in order to build it. 

We heard the MIDI band play this morning and attended the opening session with Caeden.

In just a little over 20 years, campus looks a lot different. We found ourselves looking at a campus map kiosk trying to find the bookstore. Turns out that's in the same place, but it wasn't open.

What used to be Mound Street going through the middle of campus was bricked in several years ago, which is so nice! 

Jeremy and I weren't really interested in attending the Music Technology workshops all day, so we had a lot of time to kill. Because we didn't really know what the schedule of the day would be like, we hadn't contacted any friends in Columbus about getting together. So it was just time for ourselves.

We always loved going to W.G. Grinders when we were in college, but the one in Bexley near Capital closed years ago. So we drove up to Upper Arlington and had an early lunch of our favorites.

We also went to see a movie--Lost City. It was pretty funny, and very nice to sit and relax and laugh in a movie theater.

We went back to Cap for the Keynote session at the end of the workshops. Capital alumnus Brian Fullen spoke about his time at Capital and how he developed his career. 

Caeden said he did enjoy the day and learned some things, even though he was one of only a couple high school students in attendance and things were definitely geared towards the current Cap students. He was glad he attended.

Jeremy and I couldn't visit Cap without visiting Graeter's, so we hopped across the street...

Caeden didn't want ice cream, but also didn't want to leave Columbus without visiting his favorite local eatery--Wendy's. He is a happy and tired boy.

It was a lot of driving for Jeremy in just over 48 hours, and we really appreciate him taking us on this trek!

What a beautiful and unique sunset! Jeremy pointed out that there was one big red beam, but when I took the photo, the clouds made it look like a cross! Hi Jesus! Thank you for being with us!

Back in Saybrook, gas prices are still ridiculously high. They were a little lower in Indiana and Ohio, but we took the Prius on this trip because of this ridiculousness! 

It's always nice to travel, but always nice to come home--even when the batteries have died in your thermostat and the house is 47 degrees inside!  Hahaha. We replaced them and got the furnace cranking, turned on the foot warmer on our bed and went to sleep. 

It was a nice spring break. We didn't go to the beach, but we did get to do a lot of other wonderful things!

Visiting with Josh and Cora

As soon as I scheduled Caeden's tour of TheRecW, I texted my friend Cora to let her know we were going to be in her neck of the woods. She and Josh were some of our very best friends in college, and even though we've only seen them a few times since moving to Illinois, I knew we had to try to get together! They were so kind to give up their entire afternoon and evening for us, and we had the best time seeing them. 

We met Josh in the early afternoon at their movie theater in Chillicothe--Danbarry Cinema. They've just gotten into this business over the past couple years, and it was awesome to get to see a tiny bit of what those adventures look like!

Josh took us into one of the 10 theaters inside and talked about the renovations they've done here, including all the technology and sound equipment. In this particular theater, he explained to Caeden how there were 10 speakers, and now there 18 for the best possible surround sound experience. It was pretty awesome to watch the beginning few minutes of Lost City and hear that surround!

In this photo, Josh is starting the movie from his laptop. He showed us how he can start a movie in any of the theaters at their 3 cinemas (They also have Tri-City Theatre in Jackson, and Silver Screen VII in Gallipolis.) from his laptop.

Josh took us upstairs to the projection hallway. 

It had never occurred to me that all the projection windows in a movie theater are in one hallway, basically right next to each other! It was very cool to see!

Looking down into a theater from the projection window

We all loved seeing and hearing about some of the behind-the-scenes things at the theater!

Caeden, going into my purse in search of a quarter for the money pusher machine

We were planning to buy a bucket of the delicious smelling popcorn as they were opening concessions for the afternoon as we were getting ready to leave, but Josh just gave Caeden all the popcorn left after last night's movies! That's a lot of popcorn, and it is tasty!!

From the Danbarry, we headed over to see Cora at work at Total Media--Jackson County Broadcasting Inc.  Here she is showing us a machine her grandfather invented!

We got to see the TV studio, and Caeden sat down and did an improvised report on an apparent robbery in which the robbers were wearing panda suits. 

We also saw the recording studio and live studio of the radio station, and met with people working in these areas who took quite a bit of their day to show Caeden around some of the things they do there! It was so cool for him to see some of the other opportunities that are out there in music, recording, production, broadcasting, and media that he may not have really thought about before.

We followed Josh and Cora back to their house and visited with them and the girls for a while. When I asked, Josh explained about his career change after 20 years of being a band director to operating 3 movie theaters, doing regular interviews on the radio and tv station, and all the other things he does. Caeden and Ella and Lea got along really well once they discovered they all have similar interests and activities. 

We went to Stockroom601 to eat and hang out for the rest of the evening.

Love these friends!!!!!!!!!

We checked out the Events side of the building after we ate. Such a beautiful space!

The girls sang a Pentatonix song with body percussion. They are, of course, talented like their parents. 

Lea and Ella got Jeremy to try some Tic-Tok challenge and he proved it wrong very quickly.

Such dear friends, and we are so grateful to them for spending their day with us and showing us around a little bit of their lives today!!!

Being silly teenagers when we asked for another photo of them together

It was raining as we drove from Jackson back to the BnB in Chillicothe, and Caeden requested I Love a Rainy Night on repeat--a family tradition. 

What a wonderful day! How blessed we are!!!

Checking out Chillicothe

While the weather on our trip wasn't very springy (We actually saw snow each day, and it was quite cold and gray most of the 3 days.), we did notice that southern Ohio looks a lot different than central Illinois. 

 There are trees there!  And hills--even mountains, some would say! It is really part of Appalachia. So, although it was gray and drab, it really is a beautiful part of our country.

While winding our way from downtown Chillicothe to TheRecW, we discovered the Pixelle paper mill.  While the smell was awful (like cooking cabbage), it was very interesting to see. (We're told the locals say it "smells like money" of course.)

After our tour at TheRecW, we went back to downtown Chillicothe and had a fantastic lunch at Fire & Stone Pizzeria. There were lots of really neat looking shops downtown, but we didn't make time to check any of them out. We'll just have to go back!

Could this kid's grin get any bigger? He is SO excited about TheRecW, and LOVED the tour!!!