While Mer and I both love travel, we had never before hosted a visitor to the United States. That all changed with the rather wonderful visit of Rafael. Rafael is an English teacher in a school near Sao Paolo in Brazil, and he was one of two chaperons for a group of eleven Brazilian students who were spending thirteen days at CVCA. They had come via a week in Orlando, so they were excited to see “normal” America.

I have to admit I had a few reservations about hosting someone – I am a creature of habit, and I was worried the interruption to my schedule would be irksome. Quite the opposite happened. Rafael was a gracious guest, and was joyous over many things I have taken for granted in Ohio. Rafael gave us many gifts from Brazil, including candies and clothing and small figurines and more, but by far the greatest gift he gave me was wonder:  I got to see the beauty of my area anew with his eyes. That was pretty exciting. Rather than being excited to get back to my routine after Rafael left, I found that the house felt a little empty.

Here, in brief, are the things we tried to share with Rafael to show off America:

– Sunday the 30th – Rafael arrived, and we squeezed in a quick visit to the Ledges park.
– Monday – We hiked the Gorge Trail next to the Cuyahoga River.
– Tuesday – We showed off Brandywine Falls and went over to Mer’s parents’ place to have cake with Carlene, whose birthday it was.
– Wednesday – We went to a swanky bonfire roast hosted by a CVCA parent who wanted to welcome our Brazilian and Norwegian guests.
– Thursday – We hiked the other side of the Ledges and tried to get to the overlook for sunset, missing it by less than five minutes. We made up for that gaffe by taking Rafael to the Cheesecake Factory for supper and dessert.
– Friday – We got ice cream at Handel’s, and then went to a CVCA alumni Homecoming dinner (hot dogs and such fare), and then watched a little over half of the Homecoming football game.
– Saturday – Rafael had to chaperon some of his students, so Mer and I went to the Howe Meadows farmers’ market to buy maple syrup for waffles for Sunday. In the evening, we all went to the CVCA Homecoming banquet, where Rafael cut loose in trying just about every line dance done that evening.
– Sunday the 7th – Rafael went to church with us, and Pastor Ken was impressed at Rafael’s comprehension of the sermon and asked Rafael to pray for New Baltimore Community Church. Back home, I made chocolate chip waffles for brunch.
– Monday – We had a mellow evening.
– Tuesday – We had supper at Friday’s (the restaurant).
– Wednesday – Mer and I went to a former colleague’s calling hours, but then went home and took Rafael to supper at Hudson’s Restaurant (in Hudson), and then we had dessert at Cold Stone Creamery.
– Thursday – Mer went to the choir concert at CVCA; I think Rafael went to a Brazilian dinner for the whole group of visiting Brazilians. I was preaching in church on Sunday, so I worked on my sermon.
– Friday – Mer and I had CVCA’s Community Open House event, but we got out in time to swoop Rafael to the Hartville Kitchen for some excellent Mennonite cooking.
– Saturday – We took a brief walk in the neighborhood, and then took Rafael to the airport.

We had a busy couple of weeks, and it was grand. I’m already hoping that Rafael will come back next year, and maybe we can figure out how to get down to Brazil.

Last Saturday was Mer’s day, and she had us drive south again, this time to the home of Kenyon College. We got to the very pretty campus a little before noon, and we found a very pleasant bench to sit on to await the arrival of Sarah, one of Mer’s former students. Mer and Sarah had stayed in touch, and we were having lunch together and touring the campus with Sarah as our tour guide.

Sarah was a few minutes late, so we got to sit in the shade on a perfect day, and people watch. Mer and I are now at an age where all college kids look really young, and it was fun to see young people being young – tromping around campus and biking and hanging out.

Sarah met us and we headed toward south campus, which is also where the one street of small businesses are. We decided to get lunch at a local deli, but it was mobbed, so I suggested we come back after 1:00, and Mer and Sarah agreed. Sarah showed us around the southern, mostly residential, area of Kenyon. There are lots of trees, and the trend is toward smaller and more apartment-like dorm living (although the do have a seven-story dorm there as well). It is a lovely spot.

We got back to the deli after 1:00 and ordered lunch. We tried to sit outside since it was so pretty out, but we had to move from our table because bees found us. Then they found us at our new table. Then they found us on a bench. And again on a second bench. We finally lost them on a third bench and were able to finish our food in relative peace.

After lunch, Sarah took us on the tour of the northern, mostly academic, part of campus. The buildings are all older looking and feeling, and the campus has a classic feel to it. We were able to go into several buildings, and it looks like Kenyon has quality facilities. It was a great visit. The only disappointment for us is that Sarah is having a hard time finding any Christians on campus to hang out with. I don’t expect a secular college to be dominated by Christians, but I usually assume there will be some, especially when Kenyon was founded by Methodists. Sarah is a quality young woman, so I hope she can get connected soon.

After we said goodbye to Sarah, Mer had me drive down the hill and across the street to a paved waling trail that ran next to a stream. We walked that path for about twenty minutes before turning around and heading back to the car. It was a great path, and I was surprised that we only saw four or five groups of people while we were on it. We headed back home having had a rather grand day on campus.

Last Friday was a day long in coming – I finally got to see the play Noises Off. Mer and I drove the two hours or so down to Otterbein Collge with our friend Brandon, who is a driving force behind CVCA’s theater program. Brandon and Mer had seen Noises Off before, but I never had, and I had been trying to see it for several years.

Noises Off is largely considered one of the finest farces in theater. It tells the story of a small acting troupe trying to put on a play when nothing is going well. We, the audience, see the last rehearsal of the fictional play, which is very funny and sets up the astonishing second act where the set spins around and we get to see what is going on behind the scenes while the play is going on. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen, with split-second timing and physical comedy galore. There is a good third act as well, but the gem is the second act.

I had never heard of Otterbein College, and I did not get to see too much of it since we were there just to see the play. The campus is pretty, with lots of brick buildings. The theater was spacious and professional-looking, with a large stage and good sight-lines and good lighting. The student actors did a magnificent job to the point where I forgot that a couple of the older characters in the play were actually only in their twenties. It came as a bit of a shock to see the actors break character for the curtain call and to realize they were young.

The play was amazing and well worth the three-plus-hour round-trip. It was great to get to visit with Brandon as well, since he is a busy man and we do not get to chat too often. It was a good evening to laugh through.

Last Friday (the 21st), Mer and I braved a rainy evening to head over to Kent again to hear some music. This time it was a free outdoor concert to hear Bethesda, the band of which our friends Eric and Shanna are lead members. The rain let up just as we got to Acorn Alley, a newer-building area in Kent across from the Kent Stage, and the venue for the evening. Bethesda was scrambling to get set back up under the cover of an alcove. They had been set up outside and ready to go when the rain moved through, and so they had to relocate at the last second. Happily, from my perspective, the new venue was right next to the Arctic Squirrel ice cream shop, so I got sundaes for me and Mer while we waited. (For those wondering, the ice cream was decent, but not so good as Handel’s, in my opinion).

Bethesda finally got underway, and they rocked in all of the meanings of the word. I think it had been well over a year since we had gotten to see them in concert, and so the experience was fresh for us. Also, we were getting to see them in a venue that was not a bar, so we did not have to strain to hear them over the shouted conversation of semi-drunk people. There were still some people talking around us (why do people come to concerts to talk?), but it was more sporadic than the usual bar noise.

Bethesda sounded great this night, and they played for over two hours. They even had to go back to the start of their playlist at the end of the show because they played out the songs that their two newest members know. The crowd was okay with that since most had not been there form the start. Poor Shanna, who REALLY gets into singing, skinned her knees during one song when she dropped to them onto the brick floor. She finished several more songs while gently bleeding, poor thing.

On Saturday, Mer and I slept late, and then I took her to hike the southern part of the Furnace Run Trail, which we had not done before. The hike was pretty, with the requisite trees and stream, but the walk was made more exciting by hearing a thunderstorm rolling in while we were still an unknown-to-us distance from the car. We made it back to the car while the rain was still in the gentle stage, but withing a minute or two of our regaining the car, it poured. It was still a good hike.

On Sunday, we headed over to the Churchills’ house. Zach knows I am a Buffalo Bills fan, and the Browns were playing the Bills, and so would be on TV. Zach kindly invited me and Mer over to watch the game. I feel bad about this, but I am not a great guest when football is on – I can’t keep track of the game and of conversations, so I usually give up on conversation, which I have trouble hearing over the TV. Mer filled in for me nicely. We ate a good lunch, and Londa made her wonderful chocolate chip cookies, which she served warm. I think I had about ten. The Bills won the game, but did not embarrass the Browns, so I think it was a successful visit.

In another shocking school-night outing, Mer and I got together with our colleague Liz Wides and went out to supper on Thursday. We went to the Olive Garden, where we ate too much and had a great time visiting and talking and laughing. Liz is a funny person with an understated sense of humor, and is a great dining companion. We also saw a CVCA student, and so we verified student suspicions that teachers have no lives apart from school. That is important to reinforce.

After supper, we headed back over to Kent, to the Kent Stage again, this time to see John Gorka and Tracy Grammer. We were there to see John Gorka, of whom Mer and I are big fans, and Liz had been to a concert or two with us to see him in the past as well. None of us knew anything about Tracy Grammer.

We had excellent seats up front, and the concert went over two hours (including intermission). We had a good time. Gorka put on his usual excellent concert, with his quirky, absent-minded-professor persona and his amazing baritone voice. Gorka’s songs are often deep, and always playful with language use and plays on words. Tracy Grammer was solid – she had a pretty voice and could play the guitar quite well, but she did not quite click for me for some reason. I’m not sure what it was, since she was a fine musician, but I found that my mind wandered some during her songs. It was still an entertaining evening, and we got back home after 11:00, and on a school night. Wild us!

Last Tuesday, Mer took me up to Cleveland, to Playhouse Square, for an Educators’ Evening. The Playhouse puts on these evenings for teachers, at which they give a presentation on the play, feed us, and let us see the play, and all for free. It is an amazing program, and I am thrilled that they go out of their way to treat teachers so well.

I was excited this evening because the play was Lombardi, a semi-fictional play about the famous Green Bay Packers head coach. I was looking forward to the talk about the show to see what the Playhouse drew out of the script or found challenging about the material. I was a bit surprised, and a little disappointed, when the presentation for the evening focused on grant applications and writing grants. It was a well-done presentation and was probably very helpful to many of the teachers there, but from my selfish perspective, I had been hoping for a more theater-specific focus. Still, they fed us, and the evening was all free, so all was well.

We did get to go to the public pre-show talk about Coach Lombardi and the show itself. The lecture was good, but was given by a very soft-spoken college student who had to put up with some flak from those in the back rows who could not hear her. She was a fun person who threw out small footballs when people answered her questions, and she gave us some background on Lombardi’s life and how he rose up through coaching ranks. He was also a family man, although he seems to have had quite a temper. The play explored those aspects of Lombardi through a fictional situation in which the playwright had a reporter live with the Lombardis for two weeks.

The play itself was excellent. Coach Lombardi was played by the same intense actor who had been the lead in the play Red that we saw last spring. It is a credit to the actor that he was able to play two very different roles, and that after just a few minutes I forgot all about the artist of Red and only saw Vince Lombardi. Lombardi’s wife was played by a tough but lovable actress who was fully believable as the woman who supported Lombardi from home. The cast was small – just the Lombardis, the young actor who played the reporter, and three actors playing football players.

The script did a nice job of weaving human interest throughout a play that also featured football. The players and the reporter had back-stories that slowly came out throughout the play. It was pretty fantastic for me – I love both theater and football, so this was a great evening of entertainment. Add in that it was a Tuesday and it felt as if we were “getting away” with something by going out on a school night, and it was a good time indeed.

Last Saturday was Mer’s day, and we headed back to Holden Arboretum. Our year-long membership ends in October, and Mer wanted to make sure we’d hiked all the trails there. This time we headed to the western and northern trails, which are the most rugged, involving quite a few stairs and some rough spots on the trail. The longest main trail we hiked along more or less followed a stream, and was very isolated and pretty. We only ran into people twice on all the remote trails that we were on over the couple of hours we were hiking.

We did also hike in a field section of the arboretum as well. Mer likes to be complete in her hiking, and the maps showed a trail through the meadow, so we did our best to follow it. I think we stayed on it, but it got a bit hard to follow in places in the field. In all, we hiked about four miles, and we are pretty sure we have covered all of the major trails at Holden. We’ll have to go back in the spring to see the new rhododendron garden addition, but for now, we’ve gotten our money’s worth out of our membership.

In the evening, Mer took me out to eat, and she chose an Indian restaurant called Raj Mahal. I had not had Indian food in several years, and now I remember why – it is too spicy for me. I got the mild version of my chicken-and-rice dish, and the spices still made me slightly ill. Mer loved her food; I expect it is because she is naturally hot.

On Friday, Mer and I headed over to Kent, to the Kent Stage, to see a concert by the Canadian duo Dala. We are both big fans of Dala – they have a great sound featuring tight harmonies, and they play guitars, ukelele, and piano during their concerts. They are funny and engaging performers, and they really do like each others as best friends, which adds to their on-stage energy and chemistry. They ad lib a lot of conversation between songs, and they seem just to be themselves. The sang for almost two hours, and then encouraged people to come see them in the lobby. Mer and I waited in line to say hi and to thank them, and they seemed very real. They are a great group, and I look forward to the next time they come to town.

Last Saturday was a treat for Mer and me. One of our students kindly gave us free admission tickets to go to the Ohio Renaissance Festival, which is located a little over two hours south of us, south of Columbus. I had not been to a renaissance fair in over fifteen years, and Mer had never been to one before, so we were both pretty excited.

It was a very pretty day, sunny and not too hot, although it had rained as we’d driven down, so the grounds were a bit muddy. We got to the festival too late to see the opening ceremony, but we were still early enough on the grounds to have the place largely to ourselves. The fair sits on about thirty-five acres, and is organized roughly in a circle. We decided to walk the circuit to get our bearings, and that was when we hit our first surprise – the vendors in the shops along the road are very aggressive in pitching their wares. They call you out and try to embarrass you into buying flowers or clothing or jewelry “for the pretty lady.” The vendors stayed in character, and they were pressuring without being obnoxious,  but it took me aback a bit, since I am a shy boy and have a hard time blowing people off. I succeeded in not buying anything during the day, though, so I managed (we also had free vouchers for lunch, so we did not even have to pay for food).

The fair’s main attractions are the shows. There are five or six stages around the grounds, and they have various acts throughout the day. We could not make every show, since they overlapped, but we did a good job of being efficient in our viewing. The actors make their living based on tips from the audience, so we did tip each act, although looking back on it, we probably should have tipped more than the $2 per act we did. We can make it right next year.

We started the day’s shows by catching the end of a sword dueling show. The swordsmen were funny and skilled, and it reminded me that after my brother had seen real swordsmen go at it, he decided these movies where a novice hold his own against a master are pure lies. These guys really were good, even in goofing off.

We proceeded over to the “Muditorium,” a theater that featured a mud pit. Three actors did a very cut-down version of Beowulf, where the story had almost no resemblance to the real tale, but existed in large part to make three full-grown men wallow around in the mud. It was much fun. We had been tipped off to sit back in the audience, and with good reason – the first five rows were in the splash zone of mud, and people sitting in the front row were freely and deliberately splashed with mud. The show lasted about thirty minutes, and was very funny (and muddy).

We proceeded from there to the next theater over to see a juggling act. It was a man and a woman, and we were curious as to how they met – he looked to be over forty, and she was in her early twenties. They were excellent – they juggled fire and large objects, and the woman did some contortion. They had a couple of skits that involved audience members, which is always a good time.

We then headed back to the Muditorium to see their production of Dante’s Inferno. Again, it largely existed to get the men muddy, but they also hauled a woman up on stage to be the beloved one whom Dante was trying to reach. Happily, she remained dry and clean, but they used her as a foil for much humor. By this time, the day (and the mud) was warming up, so that even in the twelfth row (where we were sitting), we got splashed with mud once. Impressive.

We caught other shows throughout the day. We saw a retelling of the Robin Hood/Maid Marian tale that used audience children, and that show may have been my favorite, since they set the kids up to kiss often, which has inherent humor value when watching eight-year-olds. We saw a human chess match, and saw real jousting twice (very impressive and looks as if it hurts a ton), and we saw two washerwomen try to catch men picked from the audience. It was a pretty great day.

There were a ton of people “in garb” – that is, in costume. We saw a lot of people wearing elf-ear extensions, and lots of cloaks and impressive leather boots. We saw one woman dressed as Spock, which was a delightful nod to the show The Big Bang Theory, in which one of the characters goes to a renaissance fair dressed as Spock in order to study all the anachronisms that bother him.

We had a wonderful time, and on the way out, a woman from the wall who had tried to sell me flowers called me out and asked where my flowers were. When I said I had none, she made me kiss Mer there at the gate. When I did, the women on the wall all cheered. It was fun, and I hope we get back next year.

On Friday, I took Mer out as part of our fourteenth anniversary celebration. As you may remember, on our actual anniversary back on August 8th, I took her to Steak ‘n Shake after a failed attempt to go to a pizza buffet that Mer had wanted to try (the pizza buffet had closed). At the time, I realized it was a lame anniversary celebration, but that was fine, as I was planning on using the generous gifts we received from friends and family to fund multiple dates throughout September. Friday was the first installment.

We drove out to Lorain College, a forty-five-minute trip. We had gotten all dressed up, which was not required, but was fun and celebratory. I had wanted to bring Mer to our second visit to The Big Broadway Singalong, an evening of singing Broadway tunes. We had done the show last year and really enjoyed it. It did not disappoint this time, either. It helped that with one exception of a woman in her late twenties or early thirties, we were by far the youngest people in the room. That does not happen much anymore, and made us feel pretty glamorous, which was also helped in that no one else dressed up. We were pretty happening.

The music was much fun. The singing lasted almost two hours, as we sang thirty-eight songs. It absolutely flew by. Mer and I knew the vast majority of the songs, having to skip only two or three of them because we did not know them. During intermission, the hosts of the evening even commented on our knowing the songs (their notice of us was helped by our being seated in the front row). It surprised them that two younger (youngish?) people would know so many older Broadway tunes. The oldest songs were from 1904, and the latest songs were from the late 1980s (for Phantom). Most of the songs were from the forties through the sixties. It was a grand evening for singing, and I hope it redeemed my lame anniversary date.