June 27, 2016
You could feel the excitement in the air as the kids got on the bus this morning. We were spending the day at an amusement park! Emma was so excited she could barely sit still as we went through our morning routine. The rest of us were also excited because Micha Tsoi joined us this morning for the rest of our tour! He is joining us late because he was competing in The International Young Artist Piano Competition, held in Washington, D.C. Young artists must audition and then be invited to compete. Other competitors were from China and Korea. Micah won third pace and a cash award. Congratulations Micah!
The “Bag of Fire” chose Claire Dobrzanski and Tobias Schuett as our official morning Greeters. Great huggers. Then it was time for fork stories. There were quite a few today since everyone stayed in host homes last night. There are always fun stories when we spend the night in host homes. Dee and Emma told a story about some creepy pictures hanging on the wall in their bedroom. Bryce held up a home run baseball that he caught when it came sailing over a fence. Matt was behind a student driver who drove up on the curb. Rose, Marin & Jessie were taken to a college house at the University of Michigan and had to sleep on couches in an old carriage house, decorated hippie style (College Life 101!) But the winner of the fork was Celia Hembrough. She told a story about her bed breaking in the middle of the night while she and Torie Brooks were sleeping in it. It was very funny.
Next came breakfast reports. Jon Con and Evan Kamuf got to eat breakfast in the college coffee house and were given a short tour of the University of Michigan. Julia Bratburd was introduced to a “fragel,” which is basically a fried bagel. Others had reports on eating granola, fruit, Hot Pockets and breakfast sandwiches. We also decided that our official tour food this year is the lunch meat sandwich. We have been fed sandwiches almost every single day. It is our new “Ham” (those of you who know stories of our previous tours will understand this reference.)
Tom held a moment of silence as we crossed the state line from Michigan into Ohio. Good-bye Michigan. We will miss you.
At last we arrived at Cedar Point. It is a 365 acre amusement park located on Lake Erie in Sandusky, Ohio. It opened in 1870 and is the second oldest amusement park in the U.S. It holds a world record 71 rides, including 17 roller coasters. Several of its buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The kids were broken up into small groups and given meal ticket vouchers and entrance tickets. They quickly dispersed to their favorite ride destination.
We were scheduled to sing on the performance stage in the park at 1:30. Everyone met back at the appointed time, wearing their matching tour t-shirts, and we had a short half hour performance. They sounded great, in spite of the fact that the temperature was sweltering, rising to a high of 96 degrees! Then everyone dispersed again for the rest of the day. We had periodic check-ins with their adult section check leaders and Wendy Hembrough was nearby with the medical bag in case there was an emergency. All went well. We met back at the bus at 8:00 p.m and headed to our next destination. Our evening Greeters were Madison Bowe and Micah Tsoi. We also had bonus Greeters tonight: Bryce Taylor and Scott Hembrough. Tobias taught us our German word for the day: “Achterbahn,” which means roller coaster.
We decided to give out fork awards for the best story from our day in the park. Dee Robertson proudly told us that she went on her first roller coaster ride ever. We all applauded for her. Kae told a story of how Amanda kept accidentally kicking over a cluster of water bottles with her foot while Kae tried to repeatedly pick them up and a police officer came over and asked Kae if she needed “back-up.” The winners of the fork were Matthew Baldridge, who told a story of a sea gull that swooped over him and dropped a “present”on his head, and Annie Elliott who had her cell phone taken away on top of a roller coaster (because it is apparently illegal to have a cell phone out on top of a roller coaster in Ohio. Who knew?)
As we headed to our new destination with new host homes tonight, everyone snuggled down in the seats and dozed off. Tom read “Good Night Moon” over the microphone and Polly sang them a lullaby. We are never too old to enjoy those comforting childhood rituals. Good Night everyone.
Click here for photos from Day 6
Click here for photos from Day 6
No comments:
Post a Comment